GTA 6 Is Handcrafted, Take-Two CEO Says, Rejecting Doubts About the Company's Hits

Strauss Zelnick said Grand Theft Auto is "handcrafted" and that Take-Two "has been in the AI business and machine learning business since the beginning of time", speaking to the Wall Street Journal at its WSJ Tech: California conference in Napa Valley on November 4. Fifteen days before GTA 6 launches, he was asked about both the tools behind the game and the company's reliance on it.

He did not say which tools Rockstar Games used, and Rockstar has published nothing about its own use of machine learning on GTA 6.

What Zelnick said about AI in GTA 6

"AI is sort of a mixed term in the video game business, because consumers are taking the position that (they) don't want to have anything that's called AI involved with (their) video games," Zelnick said, in quotes published by Insider Gaming. His answer separated the label from the practice: games are made on computers, Take-Two has used machine learning for years, and Grand Theft Auto is handcrafted.

The position is not new. In February he said generative AI had no part in GTA 6's development, and described Vice City as being built "building by building, street by street", in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz that Notebookcheck reported. In the same interview he said no creativity "can exist by definition in any AI model, because it is data-driven", while Take-Two runs machine learning pilots across its studios for workflow rather than for content.

"Examine the facts": the answer on Take-Two's hits

The Wall Street Journal's Jessica Toonkel put it to Zelnick that Take-Two does not have enough big hits beyond Grand Theft Auto, iXBT.games reported. "We have 15 franchises that have each sold at least 5 million," he answered, calling it "the best collection of owned intellectual property in the video game business" and closing with "examine the facts".

He named Red Dead Redemption, which he said has "sold over 65 million", NBA 2K as the "second biggest sports title worldwide" and the biggest in North America, and WWE 2K, BioShock, Borderlands, Civilization and the mobile games Words With Friends and Empires & Puzzles, according to GTA BOOM's account of the session. "It's a pretty good story," he said.

What is still unknown

Zelnick has not given a figure for GTA 6's budget, a pre-order count or a sales forecast, and the Wall Street Journal session produced none of those. Take-Two reports its second-quarter results on November 9, ten days before GTA 6 launches on November 19.