Take-Two Bets 235 Million Copies of History on GTA VI Launch

Grand Theft Auto VI arrives on Nov. 19, and Take-Two Interactive is staking its next chapter on a franchise whose last edition sold nearly 235 million copies. CEO Strauss Zelnick calls it the most valuable property in entertainment, full stop.

"We believe that the Grand Theft Auto franchise as a whole is probably the most valuable intellectual property in the entertainment business of any type because of its enormous reach to consumers worldwide," Zelnick said in an interview for Bloomberg's The David Rubenstein Show: Peer to Peer Conversations. "I'm very optimistic."

What does the stock record say?

The numbers back the confidence, at least on paper. Since an investor group led by Zelnick took control of Take-Two in March 2007, the shares have soared 12-fold. The rally rests on franchises including BioShock, Red Dead Redemption and Borderlands — plus steady earners such as NBA 2K and Civilization, which Zelnick prioritized early in his tenure while cutting costs.

The company also spent heavily on scale, acquiring mobile-game maker Zynga in a $12.7 billion deal. In-house development and acquisitions now split the pipeline.

Why does Zelnick think GTA works?

The appeal, in his telling, is structural: the games are easy to start and hard to master.

"Almost anyone can jump right in and enjoy it, because it's this big world where you can do many things, and very few people can actually master the title because when you really dive into its competitive framework, it's a really challenging game," Zelnick said.

That design claim is his own, not an independent finding — and the interview offers no engagement data to support it.

What about the violence criticism?

Zelnick dismissed the long-running argument that Grand Theft Auto, which features criminals shooting each other and the police, encourages real-world violence.

"I've been in every entertainment business there is, and with popularity comes the question of whether entertainment content has anything to do with actual behavior," he said. "It's been tested by scientists over and over and over again, including people who really were anxious to prove causation between the two. There's neither correlation nor causation, no evidence whatsoever."

He cites no specific studies, and the claim of zero evidence is his characterization rather than a consensus statement.

Can Take-Two stay independent?

The industry context has shifted around him. Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PlayStation have cut jobs and closed studios. Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard were both acquired, leaving Take-Two as the largest pure-play publisher (a company whose business is only video games). Zelnick ruled out a similar fate.

"We are a public company and we serve at the pleasure of our shareholders," he said. "I think we've proven that we can do very well as an independent company."

That commitment rests on GTA VI delivering — the interview gives no contingency if the launch underperforms.

How did Zelnick get here?

His path was unconventional. A Harvard business and law school graduate, he became president of 20th Century Fox in his early 30s, then left for games.

"I left Fox voluntarily, which no one ever does, to move to Silicon Valley, take a 95% pay cut and become the pre-revenue CEO of a little tiny video-game company called Crystal Dynamics in 1993," Zelnick said.

His own sons proved a harder audience. When they were in high school, he built a video-game room in the family apartment with consoles, a couch and snacks. "Literally, they both went in the room for 45 minutes. They're like, 'Why do we need this?'" he recalled.

The full interview airs Nov. 11 at 9 p.m. in New York. The verdict that matters arrives eight days later, when GTA VI's first-week sales test whether entertainment's self-declared most valuable IP still commands its price.