Take-Two CEO Confirms Plans for Beyond Grand Theft Auto 6

Variety's Jenny Maas asked Strauss Zelnick at iicon on April 28, 2026 whether Take-Two Interactive was looking at doing more beyond Grand Theft Auto 6, particularly, with L.A. Noire. His response was a single word that caused an audible reaction in the room.

"Yes."

The Take-Two CEO then did what he always does, which is walk it back just far enough to avoid a commitment while leaving the door wide open.

You never know. Broadly, we're looking at doing something in the future with all of our intellectual property. There's nothing to announce on L.A. Noire specifically, and if there were, it would be Rockstar announcing it, not me. But in any case, with regard to our legacy IP, the teams are always looking at what we have and we're always thinking about it. The question is, at any given time, do we have a team that's passionate about working on that?

We have already covered Zelnick's pricing comments, his "terrified" admission about measuring success, and his confirmation that marketing starts "soon", but this is perhaps the most underrated part of that event because it's arguably the first time this confident CEO talked about anything else other than Grand Theft Auto.

Rockstar Games has been a functionally one-game studio for the better part of seven years. Every subsidiary, every team, every resource has been consumed by GTA 6. Rockstar North leads development. Rockstar San Diego, Rockstar Leeds, Rockstar Lincoln, Rockstar Dundee, Rockstar London, Rockstar Toronto, Rockstar India, and the newly opened Rockstar Madrid all support it. The $3 billion budget reflects a company that consolidated its entire production capacity around a single product.

That consolidation is why Zelnick discussing legacy IP at a public conference is a signal about capacity, not just nostalgia. If the CEO of Take-Two is talking about what Rockstar does after GTA 6, it implies confidence that GTA 6 is nearing completion and that Rockstar's teams can start thinking about what comes next. You do not float the idea of reviving dormant franchises when your flagship product is still consuming every available resource. You float it when the flagship is far enough along that the conversation about "what's next" has already begun internally.

As you can see, Rockstar is sitting on as many as eight dormant or semi-active franchises, made, unfortunately, by developers who no longer exist. Team Bondi, which built L.A. Noire, collapsed after the game's release amid reports of severe crunch and mismanagement, but they're now part of the studio under Rockstar Australia. Rockstar Vancouver, which made Bully and Max Payne 3, was closed in 2012. Any revival of L.A. Noire or Bully would be a Rockstar-internal project built by teams that did not make the originals, which is not the way Rockstar usually goes about things.

The Max Payne situation should tell you how Rockstar is likely to approach legacy IP going forward. Rather than building a Max Payne 4 internally, Rockstar licensed the franchise back to Remedy Entertainment, the studio that created the original Max Payne and Max Payne 2, for a ground-up remake of both games. Rockstar gets revenue from a franchise it was not using, and Remedy gets to revisit its most beloved creation. Neither company has to divert resources from its primary projects.

So, when Zelnick said "yes" to L.A. Noire, many fans heard "Rockstar is making L.A. Noire 2." What Zelnick almost certainly meant is closer to "L.A. Noire is one of several franchises we are evaluating for potential revival, which could mean a sequel, a remaster, a remake, a spin-off, or a licensing deal, at some unspecified future date, contingent on whether a team passionate about the project exists."

The qualification about passion is the detail worth paying attention to. "The question is, at any given time, do we have a team that's passionate about working on that?" This is Zelnick describing Rockstar's internal culture. Rockstar does not assign projects to teams. Teams gravitate toward projects. If nobody inside Rockstar is passionate about building a new L.A. Noire, it will not happen, regardless of how many fans ask for it.

It's a creative philosophy that has produced some of the best games ever made. At the same time, it's also left several beloved franchises in indefinite limbo.

With that said, GTA 6 launches on November 19, 2026. Grand Theft Auto Online and its successor will consume significant ongoing development resources for years afterward. The earliest any new Rockstar game could begin serious production is probably 2027 or 2028, with the earliest possible release somewhere around 2030 to 2032 based on Rockstar's development timelines.

Whatever Zelnick is "looking at doing" with legacy IP is not happening soon. It is a conversation about the 2030s. However, the fact that the conversation is happening at all is a good sign. Whether that future includes L.A. Noire, Bully, Red Dead Redemption 3, or something entirely new depends on which teams inside Rockstar are passionate about which ideas, but the era of Rockstar being a one-game studio is approaching its end, and Zelnick just confirmed it.

The GTA 6 launch will define the decade for Rockstar. What Zelnick said at iicon suggests the company is already thinking about the next one.

What comes after the biggest game ever made is a question Rockstar has not had to answer in seven years. They are starting to answer it now.