Take-Two CEO Affirms Support for Legacy Titles Amid GTA Online's Future Uncertainty Post-GTA 6

What happens to *GTA Online* when *Grand Theft Auto 6* finally launches? It’s a question that has lingered in the minds of many *GTA Online* players since the official announcement of *GTA 6*. With its anticipated fall 2025 release date drawing closer, fans are still searching for clarity.

*GTA Online* remains Rockstar Games’ highly successful and profitable live service, continuing to attract players more than a decade after its initial release. Its ongoing success has even influenced Rockstar’s strategic decisions, favoring continuous content updates over traditional story-based DLC for *Grand Theft Auto V*—a move that divided some segments of the fanbase. However, an even bigger concern looms ahead.

With *GTA 6* on the horizon, expectations are high for a next-generation evolution of *GTA Online*, possibly dubbed *GTA Online 2* or simply integrated as the new version under the same name. Either way, current players worry about what will happen to their existing progress—characters, vehicles, properties, and in-game currency—and whether all that investment will be left behind in favor of a complete reset.

So why keep investing time and money into *GTA Online* now in early 2025, especially with a potential clean slate just months away? This is exactly the question IGN posed to Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two Interactive, during a recent interview tied to the company’s third-quarter financial report. His response offers a glimpse into how Take-Two might approach this transition.

Will You Continue to Play GTA Online When GTA 6 Comes Out?

Yes! I'm happy with the original GTA OnlineNo! Time to move on to whatever's nextIt depends (tell us why in the comments!)

Although Zelnick avoided commenting directly on any future iteration of *GTA Online* due to no official announcements yet, he referenced Take-Two’s past handling of *NBA 2K Online*, a free-to-play online-focused title tailored for the Asian market.

The original *NBA 2K Online* launched in 2012, followed by *NBA 2K Online 2* in 2017. Both versions continued to operate simultaneously, allowing players to stick with the original if they preferred, without losing access to their progress or investments.

“I'm going to speak theoretically only because I'm not going to talk about a particular project when an announcement hasn't been made,” Zelnick explained. “But generally speaking, we support our properties when consumers are involved with those titles. As an example, we launched NBA 2K Online in China, I think originally in 2012 if I'm not mistaken. And then we launched NBA 2K Online 2 in China in 2017. If I'm not mistaken, we did not sunset Online 1. They both are still in the market and they serve consumers and they're alive and we have this massive audience.

So we've shown a willingness to support legacy titles when a community wants to be engaged with them.”

This statement implies that if *GTA Online 2* does arrive, it may not come at the expense of the current *GTA Online*. The message seems clear: as long as there’s a dedicated player base, Rockstar and Take-Two may choose to maintain both versions in parallel, giving players the freedom to stay with what they know or migrate to the new experience at their own pace.

Of course, much about *GTA 6* remains unknown. So far, we’ve only seen the first trailer and a general release window. Considering *GTA 6* is expected to launch in late 2025—potentially after the September 2025 release of *Borderlands 4*—it’s likely Rockstar will need to share more details sooner rather than later. Until then, you can read more about Zelnick’s thoughts on whether skipping PC for *GTA 6*'s launch could be a misstep.