Take-Two retains Housers, coy on GTA V

By Tom Bramwell Published 18 December, 2008

Also thinking about M-rated Wii content.

Take-Two has announced "a new incentive compensation programme" based on profit sharing for the Rockstar Games label, and "long-term employment agreements" for key team-members including Sam and Dan Houser and GTA producer Leslie Benzies.

Although Rockstar is wholly owned by Take-Two, the creative personnel are hardly slaves, and could, in theory, have wandered off at some point. Now they can't. "The new employment agreements have an initial term ending on January 31, 2012," Take-Two said yesterday during the usual financial report circus.

Q4 profits for the year that included the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV dived and missed estimates according to people who understand what the hell any of this means, but Take-Two CEO Ben Feder declined to sate investors with news of any plans for a full sequel to its blockbuster third-person action game.

"We're not saying no, it's just way too early to be talking 2010, especially GTA in 2010," MTV reported him saying in the earnings call following the financial announcements.

However, the company did talk about a "newly formed company controlled by key Rockstar Games team members", currently working on "certain new intellectual property" that would be "published exclusively by Take-Two". GameSpot speculated that it might be related to a previously announced, but unidentified PS3-exclusive, but there's no real word yet.

Finally, with GTA Chinatown Wars preparing for release on 17th March for DS, CEO Ben Feder also addressed the issue of adult-orientated content from labels like Rockstar for Nintendo formats. "You just have to because you can't ignore the installed base. You just can't," he pointed out, adding that the company would "do a lot of learning" with GTA on DS.

"Our partnership with Nintendo is as strong as it's ever been...They provide great feedback for us. We're highly focused on it," he added.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • BBIAJ #1 3 years ago

    Like there wont be a GTa V!

    Not that I'm in need of it, roll on the Lost and Damned expansion!

  • MoGamer2006 #2 3 years ago

    I'm really not trying to fan the flames here, but can someone tell me... does GTA4 *genuinely* get more interesting and varied the further it goes. I got about 10 or so hours in (about halfway thru the second island, I reckon) and found it dull - oh, it's beautifully made for sure and initially I thought it was amazing, but now I just seem to be doing the same thing over and over. And this is someone who *loved* Vice City (missed out San Andreas).

    With Xmas coming up, I want to know if it's worth investing my time in it some more.

  • penhalion #3 3 years ago

    I've been disappointed in GTA since 3 so I am not buying 5 no matter the bollocks hype it's going to get. The back wheels have well and truly come off this particular hype machine.

    I look at my friends list and very few people ever played it long enough to finish it let alone get over 100 achievement points. There isn't even any outcry about the add on content because a lot of us secretly don't give a toss. Heck, I haven't bothered with the content that was already there!

  • Kazzahdrane #4 3 years ago

    I really enjoyed playing through GTA IV and plan to buy the Lost and the Damned expansion. I guess that makes me uncool :(

    I hated San Andreas, for what it's worth (loved Vice City though).

  • oreillymj #5 3 years ago

    Once the sandbox wonder has faded, the GTA games all seem to be the same. Even violence-for-fun gets old eventually.
    The car handling is also so poor, that driving around isn't as much fun as something like Motorstorm, or Burnout.

    So what am I left with? A city where I can waste time doing nothing really. Or I could just watch a repeat of Top Gear on Dave.

  • Les #6 3 years ago

    "And this is someone who *loved* Vice City (missed out San Andreas)."

    You didn't miss out on much with SA. Liked Vice City as well, was my first 3D GTA. Didn't like it for the gameplay (which was dull and poorly executed) but the setting was great and it felt fresh at the time. I played about halfway through San Andreas but with a worse setting and the same stale, broken gameplay, it became more and more of a chore until I decided to stop wasting my time with it.

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #7 3 years ago

    The key, imo, to enjoying GTA4 is to not feel obliged to do all the stuff it tells you to (dates, bowling etc). Just do the main story missions and you might find the game much more fun. You can do all the other stuff after if you want.

    Some of the perks you get for doing the other stuff are useful but not game stoppers. The only one I used plenty of was the Jacobs weapons.

  • space_ace #8 3 years ago

    better mission replay starting points please... otherwise it's all good

  • wobbly_Bob #9 3 years ago

    I too didn't like GTA4 and won't be buying 5. I'll admit that I got caught up in the whole hype machine thing and pre-ordered. Beyond the graphics ( which are amazing ) It's simply a very boring and shallow game. I'm liking Saints Row 2 far better with 66 hours into it and still going! Sure, SR2 isn't the best looking game in the world with graphical glitches abound and also some game glitches in there too but it's FUN!

    I know quite a few did like GTA4, but there are an awful lot of people like me that got caught up in the hype only to be very disappointed. I wonder if, being the case, GTA5 will sell as well as 4? I supose only hype and time will tell :-)
    Edited by 1 at 18/12/08 @ 12:16

  • miiiguel #10 3 years ago

    What this guy said: Kazzahdrane..., in a nutshell...

  • makeamazing #11 3 years ago

    People who say they wont buy 5 before its even been released/seen etc are to me not very sensible. Yes you may not have liked 4, but seriously is that how you make your decisions... dont like this one, so "no more ever"... hmmm Never say Never again ;)

  • GamesConnoisseur #12 3 years ago

    "People who say they wont buy 5 before its even been released/seen etc are to me not very sensible. Yes you may not have liked 4, but seriously is that how you make your decisions... dont like this one, so "no more ever"... hmmm Never say Never again ;)"

    Second that...its just like people saying they will never buy MSG5 just cos MSG4 was oh too 'disappointing' or 'too heavily reliance on filmic moments' or similar!

    Okay you didnt like it, it bore you or whatever. IMO thought GTA4 was well done, to get back to Liberty City that started it all but reinvent it and closer to the source (NY), having immigrant is also new. The rest are mostly just enhanced of previous iteration. People saying GTA3 or Vice City is better, ok why is it? Because it was new, fresh? To replay GTA3 today will see lots of glaring faults but rose spec on for these?

    Still I do not disagree that SR2 can be more fun to play or that its a bit inferior in visual department. To criticise game as having been hyped, is to criticise ourselves for talking it up whenever we can in the run up to the launch!

  • Rich72 #13 3 years ago

    i just loved vice city but them i old and the setting was just perfect for me. i just used to drive around listening to the radio while stoned..... sad but true.

    my friend on the other hand just spent hours tracking down certain ladies, getting "regenerated" and then hacking off their heads with a catana to get his money back.... rinsed and repeated. worryingly true.

  • wobbly_Bob #14 3 years ago

    I wouldn't agree that it's silly to say you will never buy number 5. For example, if you went to see a musical and found you hated the genre would you go and watch another musical? I didn't like 5 or any of the other GTA games so it's highly unlikely that I won't like 5. I think 4 is worse than the others, IMHO :-) I think the problem is that the creators of GTA just don't make fun games and no matter what bells and whistles will be in the next one I just am not going to like it. I think bearing that in mind and the fact that I haven't liked a GTA game yet it's pretty resonable to say that I won't get another one.

    I'll say that I was a sucker buying into the hype though and normally I am pretty resistant to that sort of thing.

  • ronuds #15 3 years ago

    Shouldn't only the next generation of consoles get a GTA V?

  • metalangel #16 3 years ago

    I felt the same way about GTA3 at first that you guys feel about GTA4. Then I came to love it. 4's problem is that there isn't enough side quest stuff to keep you amused once the story is over like there was in Vice City and San Andreas. Think of it this way: the GTA3 based games were Pierce Brosnan whereas 4 is Daniel Craig. Mad OTT action vs "gritty" realism.

  • smelly #17 3 years ago

    "I'm really not trying to fan the flames here, but can someone tell me... does GTA4 *genuinely* get more interesting and varied the further it goes."


    Nope.. All the humour and fun of the previous games were lost in trying to make it more "realistic" (and in doing so they've turned it into a dull game with crap car physics and a camera where you cant see far enough ahead of you to actually drive properly.. but hey.. at least it looks nice!)


    " I got about 10 or so hours in (about halfway thru the second island, I reckon) and found it dull"


    me too

    wont be buy a sequel or downloading any content... Since Vice city - series gone down hill faster than the cast of last of the summer wine in a bath tub

  • smelly #18 3 years ago

    Another vote for saints row 2 here too.. much better game!

  • Ryze #19 3 years ago

    ...and the moral of the story is:

    If you don't like MGS games, then don't expect to like MGS4, as it's still MGS.

    Go figure.

  • sifujames #20 3 years ago

    I'm playing GTA4 on the PC, and I'm enjoying it. Can't say that it's really any better or worse then any of the GTA games, as it's pretty much the exact same game but with some tarted up graphics. I ignore everyone's requests to go play pool or whatever, and just do the missions. Only real gripes are the same ones that I've always had - Niko/CJ/Tommy walks far too slowly, the cars still handle like boats, and restarting after a failed mission is still a pain in the arse. And is it just me, or have the motorbikes become worse to control? But it's a solid 7-8 out of 10 game, good fun but nothing special


  • smernicki #21 3 years ago

    gta4 is teh aidz