(Bloomberg) — Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. released Grand Theft Auto V on Tuesday, upgrading and expanding the title for the newest gaming consoles with better performance and enhanced graphics options such as 4K resolution and ray-tracing.
The re-release of a nine-year-old game, published by Take-Two subsidiary Rockstar Games for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, wouldn’t normally be newsworthy. Except when it’s one of the most lucrative products in entertainment history.
Grand Theft Auto V, which originally came out in 2013 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, has sold 160 million copies, making it one of the best-selling games of all time. For comparison, the entirety of Ubisoft Entertainment SA’s Assassin’s Creed series has sold 155 million copies.
GTA V regularly tops sales charts and has generated more than $6 billion in revenue, largely due to its popular multiplayer component, Grand Theft Auto Online, making it one of the most profitable single entertainment properties of all time.
Amine Bensaid, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, said GTA V remained a hit despite its age and that this release could “help alleviate near-term bookings volatility due to lack of new titles” for Take-Two. The release also “could help in offsetting the disappointing launch” last fall of the GTA Trilogy, a compilation of older games in the series that was panned for its technical flaws.
The New York-based company’s stock has slumped 17% in the past month, much of that coming on Monday, after the company gave an earnings outlook for the next three years that projected a decline in profit for fiscal 2023.
Bloomberg tested an early copy of Grand Theft Auto V on PlayStation 5 and found the performance to be solid. The fast load times were particularly impressive. The controls still feel a little clunky, as they did when the game came out, but this version of the game appears to live up to its promises.
Rockstar said last month that the next entry in the series, GTA VI is in development.
(Updates with background on profit forecast in sixth paragraph.)
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