Take-Two CEO  Strauss Zelnick, during a recent earnings call, commented on the recent battle royale games trend citing that that Take-Two, comprising of Rockstar Games and 2K Games, in general ‘wants to blaze its own trail instead of being “derivative” bending to and doing what everyone else is doing.

“I would just observe that someone else’s success is really interesting and we are obviously informed by what our competitors do. But our goal is to be as innovative as possible,” Zelnick said. “And titles, even really good titles that are derivative, never seem to do as well as innovations that are unexpected.” he added.

Using the first Red Dead game as an example, Zelnick stated that they took a risk with the game – a move that paid off immensely.

“When we came out with the first Red Dead Redemption, the conventional wisdom was was that Westerns don’t work,” Zelnick said. “It had been an awfully long time since a Western-themed video game had come out. Rockstar took a massive creative risk and the result was extraordinary.”

But he does acknowledge that companies such as his should open their ears to the market’s needs and concurred “Of course we play in the world and we’re informed by what’s going on. It is our job to bring consumers what they want,”.

A prequel to the 2010 title Red Dead Redemption, Red Dead Redemption II is set to hit the PC, PS4 and Xbox One on October 26 2018.