Rockstar North's Leslie Benzies explains fans would "lose interest" if series were annualized; says GTAV will redefine open-world multiplayer.

The Grand Theft Auto series could join the likes of Call of Duty, FIFA, and Assassin's Creed in releasing a new title every year, but Rockstar Games will not do this. Explaining to IGN, Rockstar North's Leslie Benzies said the company has the capacity to make a new game every year, but doing so would ultimately hurt the franchise and its appeal.

"When we were working on GTAIII we were a much smaller team doing something new and experimental," Benzies said. "We had no idea how the game would be received, just a belief that what we were working on was really special. Since then we have grown into a much larger team and our games have much higher expectations. It's not just our own faith in each project we've had to repay, but our fans' too. We could easily have churned out a new version year after year without really progressing as a franchise, but if we did that, eventually the fans would lose interest. We want every one of our games to meet and exceed the players' expectations so they always want more, and as such GTAV feels like our most ambitious project yet."

"We could easily have churned out a new version year after year without really progressing as a franchise, but if we did that, eventually the fans would lose interest."

Elsewhere in the interview, Benzies spoke about how Grand Theft Auto V is pushing the series forward, saying that the game's three protagonists and multiplayer will redefine what the series has been known for.

"The ability to switch between different characters allows the player to do things that wouldn't have been possible in any other GTA game," Benzies said. "And on the multiplayer side, we hope that GTAV will do for multiplayer open-world games what GTAIII did for open-world single-player games."

GTAV is due out worldwide during spring 2013 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. A second trailer for the game will launch today at 8 a.m. PDT / 11 a.m. EDT. Check back with GameSpot for additional coverage throughout the day.

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