The release of Red Dead Redemption 2 won’t hurt the engagement and performance of GTA V and its online mode, GTA Online, according to Take-Two.

　　That’s what the publisher’s CEO, Strauss Zelnick, said during the company’s most recent earnings call with investors. Zelnick believes that only on rare occasions, titles directly compete against each other, and based on observations, people remain enthusiastic about GTA and GTA Online whenever new content drops. Down below you’ll find the CEO’s full statement on the matter:

　　I think four years after its initial release, we're immensely gratified that Grand Theft Auto V continues to sell – sold in more than 80 million units. And that it looks like Grand Theft Auto Online will have another record year. Beyond that, we're not making any projections. However, we have observed that when Rockstar Games drops additional robust content, people are enthusiastic about playing the game and monetization follows appropriately. And that's kind of how we look at the world.

　　In terms of the competitive landscape going forward, look, our view is that all entertainment titles compete against every other possible use of your time. And they don't compete specifically against our games or anyone else's games. They compete against everything, against text messaging, going to the movies, reading a book, doing your work, whatever else can occupy your time. Entertainment is a nice to have, not a must have. However, when there is more than one title in the marketplace that compels people, the market also expands to take advantage of it.

　　So, the marketplace can be competitive, but it's rarely directly competitive title-to-title, whether that's a title that comes out under the Take-Two umbrella or any of our competitors or anything else for that matter. That's sort of a roundabout way of saying we're really looking forward to the release of Red Dead Redemption 2. We're really excited and enthusiastic, of course. We don't think that has anything to do at all with how Grand Theft Auto and Grand Theft Auto Online will perform.

　　Do you agree with Zelnick on this? Do you think the release of Red Dead Redemption will influence the performance of GTA and GTA Online? Hit the comments below.

　　As covered last month, Take Two has high expectations for the Red Dead Redemption 2 sequel but has stated that it's not on the same level as GTA is.