I bet thisll go one of three ways
1. Massive runaway success like the others, Take Two rolls in massive cash flow from consumerist trust in their brand and studios and setting a new standard for videogame development and pricing practicies
2. They make a lot but not as much as they promised the investors. The media and Take Two will say the game did amazing and beyond expectations but because of the enshittification of the game due to the current game development scene, GTA 6 will slowly peter out and theyll lay off a chunk of the studio to make up for costs
3. The game does good at first but quickly sinks as only the upper escalation of consumers want it or can get it (people like extreme diehard fans and streamers) because of the pricing and reluctance of buying new games. Take Two falters and it starts sending ripples through the industry
My guess is #2.
It’s Grand Theft Auto, there’s absolutely zero chance it’s going to do poorly, but I dunno… I’ve just got a gut feeling that there’s no way this game is worth the wait. And I say that as someone who feels like Rockstar has a pretty good track record; the classic GTAs are kinda dated now, but still good fun, GTA IV is one of my all-time favorites, both RDRs and Max Payne 3 are pretty good.
However, I really didn’t care for GTAV. The writing/setting/characters were bland as fuck despite obviously having a ton of time and money put into them. Really, the whole game just feels overblown yet half-baked at the same time. Piles of weapons and cars, three different playable characters, yet sitting here right now, I could not begin to tell you what happens over the course of the game. Niko, John, Arthur, and Max all have clear motivations and arcs as characters, and their situation and circumstances change as their respective stories progress. Michael, Franklin and Trevor are forced to do heists by corrupt feds, until they say “Fuck that” after an arbitrary amount of time, then kill them. Aside from the part where Michael lives with Trevor and the ending, basically nothing happens throughout the entire story. GTAO is just a milking machine for kids with daddy’s credit card and the kind of retards who play microtransaction-laden sports games.
It’s strange though, RDR2 has some issues with hand-holding and the occasional bit of weak writing (mainly Arthur being unusually progressive for the time period), but by and large seemed like it was made by people who had a vision and gave a shit about what they were making. It had good themes about life and death, the passage of time in both people and places, how life can be both wonderful and terrible when people band together, all interwoven and placed in a visually beautiful representation of the Old West. GTAV just felt like keys being jingled in my face made of swearing and
cuhrraazzy hijinks for a couple dozen hours. And RDR2 came
after.
I just don’t know, it really could go either way. What I can say though, is that the success or relative failure of this game will determine the fate of Rockstar going forward. If this game is sucks, but is a financial success because of shark cards (or whatever) then Take Two and the industry as a whole will take all the wrong lessons from this. If that happens, mark my words: If this game isn’t a crash-causing failure, the next one will be.
