Rockstar Games recently found out how quickly fans can turn on you when you can’t deliver a quality product. Gamers reported encountering several issues with Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy right from the start. But, despite all the bugs and problems, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick still thinks that the game did great. Zelnick also referred to the problems as a “glitch” that the game’s development team, Grove Street Games, has resolved.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy was one of the most surprising releases of 2021, for more reasons than one. After several leaks and much speculation, Rockstar officially confirmed the game in October and gave it a November 11 release date. Unfortunately, the anticipation went from hype to hate in one fell swoop after the game was plagued by issues right from the start.
Things got so bad that players were demanding refunds just a week into its launch and things haven’t improved much since despite a commitment from the developers to turn things around.
Apparently, for Zelnick, this is all water under the bridge. In a CNBC interview, Zelnick explained that GTA Trilogy “was a remaster of preexisting titles”. He added that while the game did “have a glitch in the beginning, that glitch was resolved.” Naturally, Zelnick’s comments drew the ire of angry fans, especially when he said that the compilation did “just great for the company.”
Hearing the rest of Zelnick’s interview makes you wonder if the Take-Two CEO was just talking about how financially successful the buggy game was or if he has no clue that GTA Trilogy remains just as buggy as ever.
In a way, Zelnick’s statement didn’t come entirely out of the left field for the CEO of a company that had made headlines last year for all the wrong reasons. Case in point, back in December, Take-Two filed a trademark claim against It Takes Two, which later won Game of the Year at TGA 2021. Fans have also expressed worries about Take-Two’s acquisition of Zynga, which might signal the release of more GTA games going forward on mobile platforms.
In other GTA news, fans are still waiting on Rockstar to confirm the sixth mainline GTA title. The latest leak about GTA VI confirmed previous rumors that the game won’t be available until at least 2023 although we’re inclined to believe that it might not be available until 2025. Meanwhile, word has it that Rockstar intends to release a remake of GTA IV and the original Red Dead Redemption to tide fans over until GTA VI arrives.
