GTA 6 reviews need be positive for the game to be successful, says publisher Take-Two

Expectations are sky high for Grand Theft Auto 6

(Credit: Rockstar)

• 👍 Despite the hype, for GTA 6 to be successful, it needs to review well

• 🤔 That’s what Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has said in a recent interview

• 🏆 Rockstar’s last two releases have both received scores of 97 on Metacritic

• 😬 The media and cultural landscape has changed a lot since those releases, so GTA 6 needs to be near perfect to keep up

According to GTA 6’s publisher, Take-Two, for the game to be successful, it needs to review well. That’s despite it arguably being the most anticipated game of all time.

An interview with The Game Business podcast, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick stated that the critical reception of GTA 6 was important, and that it matters as much today “as it has in the past”.

Zelnick went on to explain that Rockstar’s scores are “typically in the mid-90s, sometimes high 90s”, which he stated was a “reflection on Rockstar’s commitment to quality.”

For reference, Rockstar’s last two games, 2013’s GTA 5 and 2018’s Red Dead Redemption 2 both managed a score of 97 on Metacritic, meaning GTA 6 needs to be virtually perfect to keep up the brand’s high standards.

However, as content director at Future, Dan Dawkins, pointed out on the podcast, a lot of time has elapsed since the release of both games, with the landscape of media and culture drastically changing since then, potentially making it more difficult to garner such a high score.

With this in mind, a recent study has pointed out that game reviews may not be as important as they once were. The Game Business highlighted that the upcoming ESA 2026 Essential Facts About The US Video Game Industry report notes that only 42% of gamers sometimes read or watch professional reviews when considering a game, and that just 11% always watch or read them.

Other pieces of coverage, such as official trailers, user reviews, posts on social media and forums, family and friends recommendations, gameplay videos and demos are all seen as more important.

Zelnick also recently admitted that the expectations for Grand Theft Auto VI are “terrifying” and said that meeting those expectations is “a pretty daunting challenge”. It probably doesn’t help that a former GTA 6 dev said the game “probably won’t look as good as the trailers”.

In the interview, Zelnick also reiterated that he wasn’t too concerned about the impact of console price rises on game sales. As much as he thinks they will have “some influence”, he argues that “consumers remain highly interested in interactive entertainment, and in the consoles that deliver that entertainment.”

Owing to the ongoing memory crisis, virtually all manufacturers have put hardware prices up, with hefty PS5 price rises from Sony taking place in April, while Nintendo is also putting the Switch 2 up by $50 on September 1. Valve also announced a steep Steam Deck price increase.

Expect there to be a GTA 6: Collector’s Edition announced ahead of the game’s release date of November 19.

Up next: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is coming to Nintendo Switch 2, as Microsoft finally fulfills its promise

Reece Bithrey is a journalist with bylines for Trusted Reviews, Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, TechRadar and more. He also has his own blog, UNTITLED, and graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in International History and Politics in 2023.