Take-Two Boss Strauss Zelnick on GTA 6 Expectations, GTA Online, and the Decade to Come

10 days out from the release of GTA 6, Strauss Zelnick tells me he’s feeling “optimistic.” It might be the understatement of the century. Reporting its second quarter fiscal year 2027 results tonight, Take-Two said preorders for Rockstar’s next game are tracking “far in excess” of the company’s initial expectations. “We know that the numbers will speak for themselves soon enough,” the Rockstar parent company added.

Or, as Zelnick put it to me during a phone interview, “I'm looking forward to the launch.”

GTA 6 is expected to be the biggest entertainment launch of all time, surpassing any movie or video game before it in terms of sales and money made. There are concerns it might not just crash the PlayStation Store, but jam up the internet, given so many millions across the world are expected to download the whopping 212GB that make up Rockstar’s surefire hit.

Still, GTA 6, like all video games these days, is beset by threats from all sides. The recent explosion in AI-fueled game clones and PS5 jailbreaks has raised the chances of GTA 6 turning up on PC before Rockstar has had a chance to release it officially. But what can Take-Two do about it?

Meanwhile, all eyes are on Rockstar to see what happens after GTA 6 comes out, after its developers recently insisted its next game won’t take another eight years to make. Yes, it really has been eight years since Red Dead Redemption 2 came out.

In the interview below, we touch on all these topics and more, joke about yet another potential GTA 6 delay, and learn that GTA 6 is so popular it might have even caused sales of Take-Two’s own NBA 2K27 to miss expectations.

IGN: Finally, after a decade of development, delays, ups and downs, GTA 6 is coming out. I'm just wondering, Strauss, how does it feel right now?

Strauss Zelnick: Optimistic. I'm looking forward to the launch.

IGN: Normally I'd ask you if you if there was a risk of GTA 6 being delayed. I've had conversations with you in the past that I'm guessing you can be pretty confident this time it's not going to be delayed again.

Strauss Zelnick: It’s not going to be delayed again.

IGN: There's a line in the financials about Rockstar continuing to support GTA Online with new content and ongoing events for its vast community. I'm just curious what impact you forecast GTA 6 having on GTA Online when the game comes out? What are your expectations about GTA Online from next week onwards?

Strauss Zelnick: We intend to keep supporting GTA Online and it has been very successful. It's been very resilient. It has continued to grow over the years, so we feel very good about it.

IGN: There's another line about preorders for GTA 6 tracking far in excess of your expectations, and you say the numbers will speak for themselves soon enough. Do you make any preparations to try and ensure a smooth launch for your customers? Is GTA 6 so big you might actually crash the internet? Do you do anything around that to try and prevent any problems there?

Strauss Zelnick: We are very focused on that and we intend to do the very best we can to have a smooth delivery experience for all of our customers.

Hannah Sage (EVP, Finance and Chief Accounting Officer): And the preload starts tomorrow in an effort to minimize that impact.

IGN: There was a very interesting recent interview of senior Rockstar developers in Bloomberg. They said the foundation was laid for faster development following GTA 6. I was wondering what your expectation is now with Rockstar? Do you believe Rockstar will be able to release more games faster than before? Will you continue to treat Rockstar as you have done with GTA 6, with the budget and giving them the time needed to create the game like this? What's your take?

Strauss Zelnick: I certainly will continue to support all of our labels in their quest to make the best entertainment experiences on earth. And each of our three labels has its own bespoke strategy and approach and I'm supportive of that.

We do think that the nature and velocity of the content we'll see from our iconic franchises, including GTA, will look dramatically different over the next decade. And that's really being driven by our industry leading commitment to releasing the highest quality entertainment, to reaching our players in new ways and in new places and trying to maintain engagement with our consumers post-launch.

IGN: We've seen hackers using AI to clone games much faster than ever before, even try to jailbreak consoles. And there is some concern about this leading to potentially GTA 6 being made available on PC unofficially or places that you aren't releasing it. I was just wondering how much of a threat this is to your business? And, is there anything meaningful you can do about it?

Strauss Zelnick: I don't think it’s a financial matter, in terms of a threat to our business. I do think it’s a creative matter. It's important to everyone, our developers and our consumers alike, to deliver the experience Rockstar envisions. And at the same time, of course, we protect our intellectual property vigilantly. So we are focused on these concerns. We're not in the least cavalier about them. Technology is advancing quickly. And at the same time, I do think that pretty much everyone wants the Rockstar experience as Rockstar intended.

IGN: Related, last week Anthropic confirmed they took steps to block Claude from reverse engineering video games. I would assume you would welcome that. And would you like to see other AI companies like OpenAI do the same thing to prevent people from using these powerful AI models to clone your games?

Strauss Zelnick: I think all companies should be protecting intellectual property, their own and everyone else's. And if you're in the intellectual property business, which Anthropic is and OpenAI is, then it seems ironic on the one hand to stomp on someone else's IP and hope that yours is protected.

IGN: Your financials mention that NBA 2K27 came in below your forecast. What do you put that down to and how do you improve upon matters?

Strauss Zelnick: I think the key point is that while below our forecast, NBA 2K27 is our second best release of NBA 2K in history. It's an immensely successful title. It sold 4 million units. And in launching more content than ever before for the rest of the year, we have expectations that the title will do even better than it already has done.

I do think that this timing may have affected performance so far. It has been a crowded period, and we do think that GTA 6 coming has had an influence on the consumer. That said, we're thrilled with how NBA 2K27 is performing.

IGN: There's also a line there about Borderlands 4. It's now sold over 100 million units as a franchise. Congratulations for that. But there's a line about what lies ahead for this series. Is it your belief that Borderlands can meaningfully grow its audience and improve commercially? And if so, from your point of view, how can it achieve that?

Strauss Zelnick: The answer is yes. It is a big hit franchise already and I think there's plenty more to come. I think if you ask the team at Gearbox, they are highly optimistic that there's a lot yet to be done and I do believe that there is a lot yet to be done. I'm very excited going forward about all things Borderlands.

Photo by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images.