Ahead of the eagerly awaited GTA V release date, developer Take-Two Interactive has revealed that the Grand Theft Auto franchise has recorded a staggering 125 million title sales to date.
Speaking at the Credit Suisse 2012 Technology Conference yesterday, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed the latest milestone sales figures, marking an 11 million unit increase over figures revealed by the company back in September 2011.
Although the developer has failed to offer a detailed breakdown of these figures, it has confirmed that with the spring 2013 GTA V release date on the horizon, 2008 launched GTA IV has shipped a hefty 25 million units so far.
Discussing the franchise’s continuing success, Zelnick has suggested that GTA’s longevity can be pinned on the developer’s refusal to annualise Grand Theft Auto, a move that the Take-Two head has claimed helps keep GTA releases “special.”
Despite publisher Activision capitalising greatly off the annual Call of Duty titles, a move that has seen this year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 release become the UK’s fourth-ever largest release, Gamespot has reported Zelnick as suggesting the risks associated with annualising the GTA franchise are too big.
“IP that is annualized eventually seems to hit the wall and we don’t want our IP to hit the wall,” Zelnick said. “It’s our view that if you want intellectual properties to be permanent, then you run the risk in that circumstance of having consumers fall out of love with that franchise.”
Highlighting the fact that despite lofty sales figures Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 failed to achieve the numbers recorded by last year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 release, he added: “[Activision] obviously views the world differently.”
“That’s never been the case with one of ours. Ours do better each time. Our view is it’s hard to make permanent intellectual properties if you annualize it, with the exception of sports titles. So far that’s proven to be the case.”
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Culled from Trusted Reviews