14 DAY TRIAL // The Online mode for Grand Theft Auto V has only been launched for a little over six months, but it seems that the experience has already become very important for publisher Take Two because it has created a very solid revenue stream via the microtransaction element.
CVG quotes the Chief Executive Officer of the company, Strauss Zelnick, as saying that the new feature is a gift that keeps on giving and the biggest change that the franchise has seen since it moved to full three dimensional gameplay.
According to Strauss Zelnick, 70 percent of those who have bought Grand Theft Auto V are also playing the Online mode, although it is not clear whether they are actively engaged with it in the long term or have simply tried it out once.
Zelnick adds, “Just a few years ago when we put out a product, no matter how big, when we put out a hit we collected our money, we went onto the next. Now what we're finding is we're creating recurrent consumer spending and we have the gift that keeps on giving.”
The executive says that he has been interested in recurrent spending and organic player experiences since he took over the leadership of Take Two in 2007.
Since GTA V was launched in September of last year, it has managed to generate more than 1 billion dollars (760 million Euro) in sales and the experience is still relevant to gamers today.
More than 32 million copies have been shipped out, according to info from February of this year.
Fans are expecting the development team at Rockstar to make an official announcement about at least one single-player expansion, perhaps using a new main character, during summer and then launch it before the end of the year.
There are also rumors that a version of the game is being planned for the PlayStation 4 from Sony, the Xbox One from Microsoft and the PC, but Take Two has refused to confirm or deny its existence until now.
Rockstar has already announced that it will add Heist events to GTA Online at some point before the end of spring and that it will offer gamers more tools with which to create their own content.
At the same time, the company is working on evaluating more missions in order to give them the stamp of Rockstar approval and make them available to the entire community.