Profits over Good Games — The Slow Destruction of Creativity in Gaming
Grand Theft Auto 5 is the most profitable and lucrative piece of entertainment in human history. Just in the last year, the game netted Take Two Interactive (its parent company) over a billion in revenue generated, bringing the total revenue generated to somewhere around $6 billion since 2013. The game has had a long and sustainable life-cycle mainly because of a devoted fanbase, healthy number of players on GTA Online, and mods. So why exactly is the gaming community unanimously up in arms after Rockstar’s most recent announcement?
Rockstar Games announced GTA 5 being ported over to new gen consoles — the PS5 and Xbox Series X, only to be met with an overwhelming wave of outrage from the gaming community and the internet in general. Gamers seem to be extremely put off and dissatisfied by Rockstar’s business practices, which has seen them milk their 2013 game for almost 9 years now.
Grand Theft Auto 5 — The Biggest Cash Cow in Existence
There has been no other piece of media that has been so consistently profitable for any company, than GTA 5. On release, the game managed to gather $800 million purely in sales, within the first 24 hours. These initial sales were on the PS3 and Xbox 360 — hardware which was by no means the best way to play the game. Regardless, the game sold well, and laid the foundation for GTA Online, which is the biggest cause for the game’s longevity.
After the PS3 and Xbox 360 releases, which were monumental successes by all metrics, the game was re-released on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC with massive performance improvements, some new single player mode features, and a heavy focus on online play. Since 2015, the game has been going strong, with substantial periodic updates to GTA Online, keeping the online part of the game fresh, and engaging for new and existing players.
Under every single stretch of imagination, Rockstar Games has more than made up the costs for the game (around $270 million in 2013), and then some, through its life cycle since 2013.
But apparently that’s still not enough.
You Either Die A Hero, Or You Live Long Enough To See Yourself Become The Villain
Skeptics may be wondering why exactly the gaming community is pushing back against Rockstar in this instance. Aren’t developers and studios entitled to treat their property however they want? Are they not allowed to squeeze the most value out of their game, which is and has been undoubtedly excellent?
What seems to be the problem, is not the re-release of the game on current gen consoles per se, but the lazy way in which it has been done. While the game has had almost a decade to improve, and come up with new content to be enjoyed in single player and multiplayer modes, Rockstar Games has focused entirely on the biggest revenue stream they possess at this point — microtransactions. Every single strategic move made by the studio seems to be geared towards bringing more eyes and ears to GTA Online, and to increase the amount of revenue they generate through microtransactions. Rockstar’s hostile attitude towards modders and enthusiasts of the game also needs to be mentioned here. Graphics mods, map mods, and even gameplay mods like the ultra popular FiveM mod are looked down upon by Rockstar, and are sometimes the subject of lawsuits filed by Take Two Interactive.
Other smaller game developers may have gotten away with such practices in the past. If you think about it, it is the job of a studio to maximize revenue out of a single piece of media, right? Sure, but this goes against all of the goodwill Rockstar has built in the industry since 2000. Every single one of Rockstar’s major releases in the HD era of gaming has been followed up with support on all platforms, and additional missions and storylines. ‘The Lost and The Damned’ and ‘The Ballad of Gay Tony’ were amazing, deep and well thought-out story DLCs for GTA 4, and kept the game fresh for so much longer, not to mention that it actually warranted the game’s purchase a few years down the line. Red Dead Redemption — Undead Nightmare — The Zombies mode/storyline for RDR was a complete revamp of the game, with new storylines, missions and mechanics. The fact of the matter is, no other Rockstar game, let alone no other game has been exploited to the extent of GTA 5, and this has seemed to enrage gamers all over the world.
The gap between the releases of GTA 4 and 5 was around 5 years. This seemed to be bold and unnatural, in an industry which re-appropriates existing IPs and games every year for the cheapest buck. Rockstar Games used to be the bastion of good game development, and an example for other studios to follow. The success of GTA 5 doesn’t only give good developers a blueprint to follow, but it also shows the gaming industry that innovation, freshness and hard work doesn’t really matter, as long as you can drip-feed your consumers with the bare minimum of content.
It is clear that Take Two Interactive has found the best and most profitable business model to follow into the new decade. Odds are that we’ll see GTA 6 sometime in the next 3 years, which will be milked, squeezed and exploited by Rockstar Games at least until 2030. The only way to prevent something like this, is to demand better quality of services from the game publishers themselves, and vote with our wallets.
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