by · February 10, 2011
“It seems rational to us that Take-Two management would have entered into the three-year contract only if there was some required delivery of GTA,” Pachter suggested. “Equally, it makes sense that the three key employees would be motivated to deliver a GTA title before the expiration of their contract, in order to gain negotiating leverage for the next contract.” -1up
This April will mark three years since the last numbered release in the Grand Theft Auto series. That’s an unusually long time for the franchise, but Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter believes the wait for the next GTA game is almost over – according to him, there’s a very good chance we’ll see it this year.
During a presentation of its third quarter fiscal results yesterday, Take-Two declined to offer up any release window for the inevitable follow-up to Grand Theft Auto IV. However, Pachter speculates that a release sometime prior to January 2012 makes a lot of sense. Why January? That’s when the contracts for several key individuals at Rockstar expire — namely, the Houser brothers Sam and Dan, as well as Leslie Benzies. The Housers have been an intricate part of the GTA series for years and the duo was even named to the 2009 Time 100 list.
“It seems rational to us that Take-Two management would have entered into the three-year contract only if there was some required delivery of GTA,” Pachter suggested. “Equally, it makes sense that the three key employees would be motivated to deliver a GTA title before the expiration of their contract, in order to gain negotiating leverage for the next contract.” -1up
