Take-Two’s CEO claims the GTA Trilogy ‘has done great’ following release ‘glitch’

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition has performed “great” since its release in November, the CEO of Rockstar’s parent company has claimed.

During a CNBC interview, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick also appeared to downplay the major issues the remaster collection suffered from at launch.

The highly anticipated title released with a significant number of technical issues, as well as “unintended” documents within its game files such as unlicensed music and developer notes, resulting in the PC version being pulled temporarily.

Rockstar subsequently apologised to fans for the state of the game and promised a series of updates to improve the title.

Zelnick touched on the collection’s release while discussing the market’s negative reaction to Take-Two’s plans to acquire mobile games giant Zynga in a deal worth $12.7 billion.

When it was put to Zelnick that there were “some defects in the new Grand Theft Auto” and that the game might have been released before it was ready, the executive seemingly sought to diminish the issues and the impact they have had on the product’s commercial performance.

“With regards to the GTA trilogy, that was actually not a new title. That was a remaster of pre-existing titles,” he said. “We did have a glitch in the beginning, that glitch was resolved. And the title of [sic] has done just great for the company.”

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Zelnick’s comments were likely an attempt to placate shareholders who had reacted poorly to news of Take-Two’s Zynga deal – the biggest ever in the games industry until today’s announcement that Microsoft plans to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion.

Rockstar published its first major update for GTA Trilogy: Definitive Edition the week after the title’s release, when it admitted that the much-criticised remasters “did not launch in a state that meets our own standards of quality”.