Zelnick: Take-Two still believes its online shooter Project Ethos can be a "massive hit" despite high-profile failures

Take-Two is still backing Project Ethos as a big commercial bet, even after the shooter’s open beta landed poorly and the game was rebooted with a new look. Strauss Zelnick said the changes were driven by player response, not a broader collapse in the shooter market, and that the goal is to ship an “A-plus experience” rather than push ahead unchanged.

That matters because it’s a reminder that large publishers will sometimes absorb a public reset if they think the core opportunity is still there. For teams working on online games, the practical takeaway is that beta feedback can trigger major scope, presentation, or design changes very late in the cycle, especially when the publisher believes the brand can still be salvaged.

Zelnick also pointed to Take-Two’s strong year as the reason it can keep taking swings: net bookings were up 19%, helped by NBA 2K, Zynga mobile, and stronger-than-expected GTA Online performance. Red Dead Redemption reached 85M total units sold, its best annual sales since launch year, which gives the company more room to keep funding long-tail bets like Project Ethos.

He avoided specifics on GTA 6 pricing and any online business model, saying marketing starts this summer and that it’s premature to discuss monetization for a game that hasn’t been announced in that form. For developers, the broader signal is that Take-Two is still prioritizing hit-driven portfolio management: ship quality first, then let the revenue model follow if the game lands.