The question in the title was answered by Take-Two‘s CEO, and his answer is a clear yes.

„We deliver the highest quality experiences in the business, and we charge much less for them than we believe they are worth to consumers, and then we deliver, typically, an ongoing component that is free. And that is already a great deal of value. Any monetization is, of course, optional,” said Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick during a financial call (and yes, Take-Two, like all the other publishers, are reaping a ton of cash with no stopping in sight). However, we still remember how NBA 2K20’s MyTeam game mode’s trailer was effectively nothing more than gambling all over the place. Also, Zelnick’s comments underline why NBA 2K21’s next-gen version costs ten dollars/euro more than the PlayStation 4/Xbox One ports.

Zelnick was responding to a question about big free-to-play moves by competitors (such as Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty: Warzone), and whether Take-Two would follow suit with an idea like a free-to-play version of Grand Theft Auto Online. For him, GTA Online, or Red Dead Redemption 2‘s Red Dead Online are free, as you pay for the single-player component, but get a constantly updated multiplayer component, too. Zelnick’s term for this would be „tethered free-to-play.”

„So, as you can see, we’re open-minded about our business model, and I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that, at some point, certain experiences can become free as a matter of the entry point,” Zelnick added. They are possibly considering the PlayStation 5 as a testing ground: here, GTA Online will be a standalone version, and it will be available for free for „about three months.” And if it is successful on the PS5, we might see a split on other platforms as well.

They might do it solely for the microtransactions.

Source: PCGamer

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