Grand Theft Auto V parent publisher Take-Two Interactive recently held its quarterly financial call, where it revealed that the fifth game in the GTA series has cemented its position as one the best-selling video games of all time by passing the 60 million copies shipped mark.
Many are wondering why a game as hugely successful as GTA V still hasn't had any single-player DLC released. The reason is probably because the online element continues to make Take-Two so much money. Company CEO Strauss Zelnick said that players are still "highly engaged" with GTA online and, more than two years after its release, has recently had its best week ever in terms of both revenue and active players.
Zelnick never gave specific numbers, but, before it hit a peak during the holiday season, GTA online had around 8 million players per week. The CEO said that this "sustained engagement" is partly due to GTA online's constant flow of add-on content and in-game events.
The company doesn't think that GTA online has plateaued; in fact, Zelnick believes it will make even more money over the coming year.
Take-Two's net revenue for the third fiscal quarter was $486 million, down from $954 million from the same period a year earlier. The drop was due to the reduced number of Take-Two games released.
Despite the fall, the result beat expectations of $400 million - $450 million, primarily because of the stronger than expected revenues from GTA V and GTA Online. The company added that NBA 2K16 also exceeded expectations.
With GTA Online continuing to be so successful, Take-Two knows it is in its best interests, financially, to keep focusing on it rather than the single-player part of the game - which is a shame for those (like me) still waiting for some story-based DLC. But when microtransactions are generating so much revenue, you can understand why the company sees the future of GTA V to be its multiplayer mode.