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Rockstar has claimed that it could have “easily” turned Grand Theft Auto into an annual franchise by ‘churning out’ a new GTA every year, but decided against doing so over fears that fans would “lose interest” in the series.
Discussing the history of the series with IGN, Rockstar North boss Leslie Benzies said that the team had “no idea” how the first 3D GTA would be received.
“When we were working on GTA 3 we were a much smaller team doing something new and experimental,” he said. “We had no idea how the game would be received, just a belief that what we were working on was really special.
“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.”
Instead, Rockstar wants “every one of [its] games to meet and exceed the players’ expectations so they always want more.
“As such GTA 5 feels like our most ambitious project yet,” Benzies adds.
Benzies’ comments follow the launch of the latest Call of Duty title yesterday, a series which has been criticised by some for its annual iterations.
Information on GTA 5 has been pouring out since Game Informer’s huge info blowout last week.
A second trailer is expected to be released at 4pm GMT this afternoon.
In the same interview, Benzies also revealed that GTA 5 is being developed on a “new game engine” created by Rockstar.
Source: IGN
