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Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick has shared a narrative about passing on making a sequel to one of many firm’s legacy franchises as a result of the developer pitching the sport wasn’t all that jazzed about it. Which franchise was it? Frustratingly, Zelnick did not say, however he shared the story as a method to talk to why Take-Two would not make each sport it may and is as an alternative extra selective.
“We had a greenlight assembly years in the past, and it was a couple of sequel to certainly one of our franchises. There was one thing within the room, some vibe within the room I wasn’t snug with,” Zelnick mentioned on the iicon occasion this week, as reported by Variety. “So I mentioned to the producer, ‘Hear, let’s pause. How excited are you about engaged on this title?’ And he mentioned, ‘Effectively, I do know we’re making this sequel and I be ok with making the sequel.’ I mentioned, ‘You are not answering the query. And how excited are you?’ And he mentioned, ‘Effectively, candidly, I am not all that enthusiastic about engaged on it.’ I mentioned, ‘Effectively, let’s finish the assembly proper right here. We’re simply not doing that.'”
He mentioned this amid a wider dialog about making sequels to Take-Two’s legacy franchises, together with L.A. Noire. On the topic of one other L.A. Noire sport, Zelnick mentioned Take-Two is making new installments in all of its franchises, however is not committing to something until the individuals behind these pitches are passionate.
Zelnick mentioned what would make Take-Two return to a “legacy” franchise and make a brand new sport could be if the workforce is “super-juiced about doing it.”
Additionally throughout his presentation, Zelnick mentioned Take-Two would not rush to make sequels, even when followers need them, as a result of that might quantity to a state of affairs the place the corporate is “burning the furnishings to maintain the home heat.”
Along with a sequel to L.A. Noire, followers have been calling for Bully 2. In 2025, Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser, who has since left the corporate, mentioned “bandwidth points” led to Bully 2 by no means coming collectively. Earlier than this, Rockstar mentioned, “We do not all the time rush to make sequels, however that doesn’t imply we cannot get to them ultimately. We’ve got so many video games we need to make and the difficulty is all the time certainly one of bandwidth and timing.”