GTA 5 publisher Take-Two Interactive reportedly gives $72 million to its execs thanks to microtransactions

Take-Two (the parent company of Rockstar Games, which makes GTA 5 and Online) has reportedly received $72 million for its president and CEO. A public SEC filing reveals this information, totaling $72,350,718. This number comes from adding the Annual Management Fee, Performance-Based RSUs (Restricted Stock Units), and Time-Based RSUs. Microtransactions' popularity would contribute to Performance-Based RSUs.

By comparison, Strauss Zelnick and Karl Slatoff were reportedly paid $30,040,000 the previous year. Take-Two largely depended on NBA 2K and the Grand Theft Auto series, praising GTA 5 for selling over 180 million units. Grand Theft Auto Online and GTA+ were also part of the business highlights.

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GTA 5's parent company's top executives get $72 million due to microtransactions and other successes

From the official SEC filing (Image via SEC)

The above numbers are compensation to ZMC in Fiscal 2023 due to the 2017 and 2022 Management Agreements. Strauss Zelnick cannot get more than 60% of the payment to ZMC, while Karl Slatoff cannot get more than 40%. They could get paid less, but the aforementioned caps are mentioned in the SEC filing.

Anybody interested in the full SEC Filing can find it this link.

• SEC filing

Here is what the business highlights say about GTA 5 and its related products:

"Grand Theft Auto V continues to expand its audience. To date, the title has sold-in more than 180 million units worldwide. At the same time, Grand Theft Auto Online remains one of our largest contributors to RCS. During the year, Rockstar Games launched its Holiday content update, which introduced a phased approach to delivering high-value content, creating a longer tail of sustained engagement and Net Bookings."

GTA+ (a popular microtransaction) also got a mention:

"Through the GTA+ premium membership program, which launched in March 2022, enrolled members benefit from a rotation of numerous exclusive in-game benefits."

Let's look more at the recurrent consumer spending.

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Recurrent consumer spending and how it ties to microtransactions

Shark Cards have been a huge hit, despite their controversial nature (Image via Rockstar Games)

Take-Two stated that recurrent consumer spending contributed significantly to their total net revenue and total net bookings. Note that recurrent consumer spending is fancy jargon for content like microtransactions. The company stated that the GAAP net revenue was $5.35 billion and that recurrent consumer spending contributed to 78.1% of that.

That means microtransactions played a role in the company earning a little over $4.1 billion. The net bookings estimate involving microtransactions is barely under $4.1 billion based on the figures provided by Take-Two following a similar process ($5.28 billion multiplied by 77.6%).

This kind of money is much better than what gamers could make even when doing GTA Online money glitches.

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Microtransactions in GTA 5

GTA+ has been successful thus far (Image via Rockstar Games)

The bulk of GTA 5's microtransactions comes from Grand Theft Auto Online's Shark Card system. Players spend real-life money to get in-game currency. Much of Online's items are overpriced in recent updates, encouraging players to get Shark Cards. That's not the only way to spend real-life cash.

GTA+ is available on the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, giving players various monthly rewards. The success of these "recurrent consumer spending" tactics likely means that Grand Theft Auto 6 would get something similar once it's released.