Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two Interactive (Rockstar Games parent), has given his opinion to IGN regarding the future mid-generation consoles ( mid-generation ) that are rumored to be released by Sony and Microsoft as updates to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S respectively.
Speaking to IGN ahead of Take-Two’s first-quarter earnings release, Zelnick has said that the justification for the ninth-gen console upgrade depends on how the products are managed. The manager has declared that, “ in general terms, the mid-generation updates have not changed much. They are not that significant ”.
Far from being words thrown into the air, Zelnick has been able to base them on precedents such as those of PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X, which focused improvements in graphics and storage. This was positive for consumers, but the developers did not see that it contributed anything relevant to the creation of video games.
The possibility of Sony and Microsoft launching mid-generation consoles may be due to the slow adoption of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S , which have been hit hard by the anomalous situation experienced by the COVID-19 pandemic and as of today. today they continue to suffer in commercial terms the effects of the hangover of said context. In fact, the bad commercial situation of the ninth generation of consoles has led Electronic Arts to decide to give the green light to the ports of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One .
On the economic results of Take-Two Interactive, these point to be quite good seeing that GTA V continues to have good sales and that Red Dead Redemption 2 has exceeded 55 million copies sold . The Rockstar Games matrix seems to have been working on autopilot for some time now, which is resulting in GTA 6 starting to target 2025 as the release year.
Returning to consoles, the existence of PlayStation 5 Pro , PlayStation 5 Slim and the preparation of a cheap Xbox Series X have been rumored for a long time . We’ll see what both Sony and Microsoft end up doing in the end, but the release of some mid-gen consoles (ninth update) might not be the solution seeing that PC hardware sales are experiencing a very bad time .