Rockstar's arguably "been putting out a new GTA release a couple of times a year," says Take-Two CEO who reckons GTA Online updates could count as "standalone" games

Rockstar Games isn't pumping out new games nearly as often as it used to, but parent company Take-Two's CEO reckons some of the developer's online updates are so "robust," they would've been considered "standalone" titles a few console generations ago.

Once upon a time, we lived in an era where Rockstar Games would release a new, big game almost annually. Bully, Manhunt 2, GTA 4, GTA Chinatown Wars, Red Dead Redemption, LA Noire, Max Payne 3, and GTA 5 all came out in back-to-back years, in between other expansions and re-releases, no less, as wild as that would be these days. But it's now been eight years since Rockstar released Red Dead Redemption 2 and 12 years in between GTA 5 and GTA 6.

When asked about today's drawn out development cycles in an interview with The Game Business, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said the developers under his umbrella are just adjusting to a changing business where players "engage on an ongoing basis with our hits."

Essentially, Zelnick reckons updates for Red Dead Online and GTA Online rival some of the company's older standalone games in terms of content.

"In the case of Grand Theft Auto, we have Grand Theft Auto Online, and Rockstar has been supplying content to Grand Theft Auto Online, some of which is so robust that if you go back 15 years, it would have counted as a standalone title," he says.

"One could really argue that Rockstar has been putting out a new Grand Theft Auto release a couple of times a year," he continues. "Same thing holds true for Red Dead Online, which has been ongoing."

Elsewhere, Zelnick said GTA 5 is the "standard-bearer for our industry," but even he found the GTA 6 hype "pretty astonishing"