the boss of Take 2 Interactive, Rockstar
Games parent company, CEO and chairman
Strauss Zelnik, went on live television
just a few days ago and said some crazy
things about Grand Theft Auto 6. We'll
be going over everything he discussed
and more all in this video today. So,
this typically happens after one of
their earnings calls, which did indeed
happen last week. Not only do you see
Strauss Zelnik making comments on the
call, but he also does interviews for
various websites. And in particular
cases, he'll actually go on live
television. And in this case, he went on
the American news site CNBC, which
covers a lot of things like money in the
market and Wall Street, etc. And it was
about a 5-minute interview, and they
talked a lot about Grand Theft Auto 6.
And he had some very interesting things
to say. And the first thing that the
host of the show wanted to ask Strauss
Zelnik about was the delay of Grand
Theft Auto 6. Because even though we got
all this great news with the second
trailer, the new website, the
screenshots, the information on the
game, we still got that massive delay to
May 26, 2026. And this is what he had to
say about it. K2 Interactive slipping
after the video game maker reported its
fourth quarter results after the bell.
The company issued weaker than expected
guidance for the full year bookings, but
um stock we mentioned, it's up 60%
year-on-year. Uh joining us right now to
break down the numbers and what is going
on. We'll also talk about Grand Theft
Auto as you might imagine. Josh Sunnick
is here. Take two chairman and co. What
is going on? Where are we here? Listen,
we just reported a great year. Uh,
pretty much firing across the entire
range of the company. So, Rockstar
reported a better quarter for Red Dead
Redemption and Grand Theft Auto Online,
but everybody's focused on Grand Theft
Auto 6, right? Like that is the Is that
a butt? That seems like an air. But the
fact that shares can be up 60% with the
release delay of that by another 6
months. Let's talk about the delay
because people just want to understand
what's happening there. Well, it's
pretty short delay. It's it's less than
6 months and generally when we announce
a date certain, we're able to hit that
date. But the key thing is that uh
Rockstar Games is trying to create the
best thing anyone's ever seen in
entertainment, not just interactive
entertainment. That's a tall order. And
I think consumers have huge hopes for
the title. So, he essentially restated
everything he said on the call and on
the interviews and also what he's been
promoting over the last couple of months
is that Rockstar Games seeks perfection
here and they're not going to try and
put out a product that they don't think
is absolutely perfect. And he goes on to
say it was only a delay by about 6
months. And if that's the case, we know
when Grand Theft Auto 6 was originally
supposed to come out, and that was
either late November or December 2025,
which would have been the first time we
had seen a Grand Theft Auto game or even
a Rockstar title be released so late in
the year. And that would have been very
cool and probably great for Rockstar
releasing right around the holiday
season and at a time where usually
people are taking time off from either
work or school and have more time to
play games. It would have been obviously
largely successful for them. But it
would have been a crazy time to have
that game come out right in the middle
of the holiday season. Now we know again
that delay was going to be about 5 or 6
months. And of course now we know it's
coming out May 26, 2026. Now, before we
move on any further, I want to tell you
guys about something that I came across
that I think you'll enjoy as Grand Theft
Auto fans. It's a game called NTE, which
is a supernatural urban openw world RPG.
It's basically like anime Grand Theft
Auto. It features an urban world with a
ton of freedom in terms of exploration.
You've got an immersive driving system
with tons of vehicle choices and
modifications that you can do as well.
So, whether you jack a car or hop on a
rail to your route, just keep it cool in
the chaos cuz remember, the cops can
actually track your ride. And when
you're exploring the city, it feels
alive. There's things like shops,
acquiring properties, stuff like that.
And it's developed in Unreal Engine 5,
so you know you're going to have some of
the best graphics out there, including
global illumination and reflections. And
honestly, the story sounds kind of cool,
too. It's basically a world where
humanity exists with anomalies. And if
you're wondering what those anomalies
are, they're extraordinary creatures
beyond comprehension immersed in an
absurd yet strangely ordinary
atmosphere. So, this game really does
give off Grand Theft Auto meets anime
openw world vibes. If you're interested
in checking it out for yourself, click
the link below and sign up for NTE's
containment test. But anyways, let's get
back to the action at hand. And then
moving on, they asked Strauss about the
trailer as well as the decision to delay
it and whether or not other companies
were looking at it. That's something
we've discussed here on the channel. You
know, would games get out of the way?
Would they move their titles forward or
backwards? And this is what he had to
say. We just launched the second trailer
to 475 million views in 24 hours.
Setting a new record. The last record
incidentally. How much do you think the
whole system was thinking about that in
terms of the ecosystem was was for for
the holidays was was thinking about that
game. Well, let's not overstate the
case. We all look at one another's
release schedule and make sure that we
don't stack up releases. So, that's not
unique to Grand Theft Auto. But the
delay itself is really a reflection of
desire to polish and create the best
possible experience for consumers. And
we as a company have been known not to
have sort of slavish devotion to release
dates, but rather to seek the highest
quality entertainment. And that's
really, you know, supported our success
over many years. So Strauss essentially
says that yes, we all look at each
other's game releases, but it's not that
big of a deal. We know to not all
release our games at the same time as
one another. And he also talks about
again how the trailer went on to break
all these different records. And then
last but not least, he gave a very
interesting response to a question that
was essentially like, "Have you played
the game yet? Have you given any input
on what Rockstar Games should do?" And
he gave what in my opinion is a great
answer. Have you played with it? Have
you seen it? Um, is it done? Is it done?
You don't play a lot. Still rendering.
I'm not a gamer. We were talking about
this earlier. You don't play a lot. So,
not a lot. I don't play video games at
all. No, I do not. I'm not the consumer
chief. Uh I am responsible. They show
you the game, right?
Do you offer notes on the game?
I mean, how does that work? I I share my
opinions pretty pretty openly. I think
uh I think being the consumer chief in
an entertainment business as the CEO is
probably a mistake. I wasn't the
consumer chief in the movie business or
the television business or the music
business. Even though, you know, I
certainly couldn't read a script and I
definitely love music and I was a
musician, uh, that's not my role. My
role is to attract, retain, and motivate
the best talent in the business and then
get out of their way. So, Strauss Zelnik
might be the only person in the world
that probably has had the opportunity to
play Grand Theft Auto 6 and has turned
it down. It seems like he wants nothing
to do with playing games and he's just
there to support Rockstar as best as
they can and get out of the way, which
at the end of the day is a great answer.
There's probably about 20 million people
that would easily trade places with him
for an hour right now so that we could
get our hands on Grand Theft Auto 6 and
just be able to play it for like an hour
or so. And he's straight up saying,
"Nah, I don't want to." So, it's just
really neat to hear him talk about
Rockstar, like when he says they're
trying to create the best thing anyone's
ever seen in entertainment. I truly do
believe Grand Theft Auto 6 is going to
be bigger than any video game, of
course, any movie, any TV show. I think
it's going to be the biggest thing of
all time, and I absolutely cannot wait
for it to arrive again on May 26, 2026.
I will leave a link to the entire
interview though in the description. He
goes on to talk about a handful of
things, even some stuff outside of Grand
Theft Auto and Rockstar, just things
happening in the world right now. He's a
very interesting listen and does great
interview. So again, I'll leave a link
to that in the description, but let me
know what you think about everything we
discussed in those comments down below
and those comments from Strauss Zelnik
on Grand Theft Auto 6. Again, he is the
Take2 Interactive chairman and CEO,
parent company of Rockstar Games. If you
guys did go to enjoy this video though,
a like rating would of course be
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guys, thank you all so much for
watching. Take care and I'll see you
guys in the next video.