Netflix is not buying GTA 6's owner: Zelnick says Take-Two stays independent

The Netflix question around Grand Theft Auto VI moved this week from why the next trailer is going there to whether Netflix wants the company behind it. Strauss Zelnick answered that one on CNBC on Monday, August 10: Take-Two is not for sale, to Netflix or anyone else.

Asked whether Netflix would have to buy Take-Two to make its games ambitions real, Zelnick first questioned the premise, saying Netflix has grown its own way rather than by making big acquisitions, and then closed the door on his own side. "I think we're very proud of the way we built this company independently," he said, describing a publisher that expects more than $8 billion in revenue this year and generates profits year in and year out, and calling Take-Two "the largest pure play that's public in the space worldwide". His conclusion: "I think if anyone deserves to be an independent company, we do."

The premise about Netflix deserves a check, though. In games it holds up: the company bought small studios, Night School, Next Games, Boss Fight and Spry Fox, and never a major publisher. Outside games it looks different. On December 4, 2025 Netflix signed an agreement to acquire Warner Bros. at a total enterprise value of $82.7 billion, and only lost it on February 27, 2026, when Warner Bros. Discovery's board took a superior offer from Paramount Skydance. Netflix walked away with a $2.8 billion termination fee, paid on WBD's behalf and disclosed in WBD's own quarterly filing. "No big acquisitions" describes the outcome, not the appetite.

What the two companies actually have is a distribution and marketing relationship, and right now it has one headline item. "Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look" premieres on Netflix on August 27 at 3 p.m. ET, six hours before it reaches Rockstar's YouTube channel and the official site at 9 p.m. ET. Zelnick has been selling that window hard, telling IGN that if you are not a Netflix subscriber you definitely should be one, and that everyone is going to watch it anyway.

The games side of the partnership is thinner than the word partnership suggests. No Grand Theft Auto title is on Netflix Games today: GTA III and Vice City left in late 2024, San Andreas followed on December 12, 2025. What remains is the Red Dead Redemption mobile port, added on December 2, 2025.

For players, none of this touches the calendar. November 19, 2026 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S stands, the Netflix deal is a six-hour marketing window rather than a change of owner, and Zelnick was describing where his company stands today, not signing anything in perpetuity.