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GTA 5's online mode is the "gift that keeps on giving," Take-Two says about its monetary opportunity

In the past, Take-Two would ship a product and the collect its money, but now the company can create platforms that allow for recurrent consumer spending, CEO Strauss Zelnick says.

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From a financial standpoint, Grand Theft Auto V's multiplayer component Grand Theft Auto Online is "the gift that keeps on giving," according to Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Rockstar Games parent company Take-Two Interactive.

Speaking today on FOX Business' Risk & Reward program, Zelnick said GTA Online is an example of Take-Two adapting its business practices to create platforms that generate sustained revenue instead of a one-off jolt.

"Just a few years ago when we put out a product no matter how big, we put out a hit, we collected our money, we went on to the next [game]," Zelnick said. "Now [what] we're finding is we're creating recurrent consumer spending and we have the gift that keeps on giving."

"I talked about that when we took over Take-Two six years ago...It's nice to see it coming true," he added.

GTA V has shipped 32.5 million copies and some 70 percent of all users have played Grand Theft Auto Online. Take-Two is keeping the all-important ARPU (average revenue per user) figure a secret, but from the enthusiastic way in which Zelnick talks about GTA Online, it wouldn't be surprising to learn that the online mode is performing quite well monetarily.

For Take-Two's quarter ended December 31, the company reported that net revenue from digitally delivered content grew 42 percent year-over-year to $132.8 million. This was led by GTA Online, Zelnick said at the time.

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