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Sequels may take their sweet time in the world of Take-Two, but gamers can certainly expect more from both Red Dead and BioShock in the future.
GameSpot reports that Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told the Cowen and Company conference that it will take its time in revealing a successor to the 13m+ selling Red Dead Redemption in order to protect the IP.
"The risk of just [releasing more games] is that you end up just bulking up your release schedule and that isn’t really what consumers want," he said. "Consumers want better, not more. So our selective approach, which we’ve taken since 2007 I think has paid off.
We have gotten more by taking that approach; we’ve launched one new successful franchise every year and I would like to keep doing that particularly because I talk about permanent franchises.
"It’s obvious that GTA is a permanent franchise as long as we keep delivering this incredible quality; it seems quite obvious that Red Dead is a permanent franchise, again with the same caveat, or Borderlands, for example, and NBA and others.
"But not everything is going to be a permanent franchise. We can do very well even if it’s not. I would like to see us grow with a couple more great franchises in the next couple years and we’re launching Evolve; we have very high hopes for that."
Zelnick also stressed the importance of the BioShock franchise, although specifics were thin on the ground regarding what direction it might take since the disbandment of Irrational Games.
"We haven’t given any colour on how you should think about [BioShock] yet except we do believe it’s beloved,” he assured. We think it’s important [and] certainly something that we’re focused on; something 2K Marin will be responsible for shepherding going forward.
I don’t want to say much else except to agree with you. I think there’s a lot of upside in that franchise. It hasn’t necessarily been realised yet. Certainly it’s been a great piece of business for us; it’s been a profitable piece of business."
