Grand Theft Auto V

Rockstar has revealed that it could have easily churned out a new Grand Theft Auto title every year, but decided against doing so over fears that fans would lose interest in the series.

“When we were working on GTA III we were a much smaller team doing something new and experimental. We had no idea how the game would be received, just a belief that what we were working on was really special,” Rockstar North boss Leslie Benzies told IGN (Via Videogamer). ”Since then we have grown in to a much larger team and our games have much higher expectations. It’s not just our own faith in each project we’ve had to repay, but our fans’ too.”

“We could easily have churned out a new version year after year without really progressing as a franchise but if we did that eventually the fans would lose interest.”

I think this was a really smart move on Rockstar’s part, the fact that we have to wait years for a new title builds hype and excitement that an annual release simply couldn’t generate. Plus with how the open-world gameplay is set-up if there was no innovation between entries the series would quickly become a boring grind.

Benzies added that Rockstar wants “every one of [its] games to meet and exceed the players’ expectations so they always want more.”

Are you happy that there isn’t an annual GTA release? Would you prefer it to be that way? Share your thoughts below.