The 'Grand Theft Auto 6' of Grand Theft Auto 6-likes, aka Grand Theft Auto VI, is coming next “fall"
Take-Two narrow release window in latest earnings report
Open world crime-a-thon GTA 6 will release next “fall”, according to publisher Take-Two Interactive’s latest earning report, via Eurogamer. This narrows the previously announced release window of “2025” down by, uh, infinity I suppose? A year is an effectively endless stretch in terms of release calenders. But “Fall”, despite not being a real season, is something I can work with.
This means the coveted sequel to the 200m selling GTA 5 will arrive roughly twelve years after. Coveted not least by Take-Two themselves, unsurprisingly. "Our expectations for the commercial impact of the title continue to increase" they said, expecting “tremendous growth.” Elsewhere, they said they’re “highly confident that Rockstar Games will deliver an unparalleled entertainment experience". Love a good unparalleled entertainment experience, me.
All this is contrary to the rumblings that GTA 6 might end up shipping as late as 2026 under a "fallback plan" at Rockstar. An anonymous source told Kotaku that studio heads were “worried” the game could drive-by 2025 completely, and not see release until the following year. Kotaku’s source also mentioned that Rockstar were aiming for a Spring 2025 release date at the time. It’s this worry that’s also blamed for Rockstar’s earlier decision to mandate that remote and hybrid staff return to office. As Edwin points out in that piece, it’s hard to not view such a mandate as deeply selfish, or just plain wrongheaded at best. Especially since, even putting employee comfort aside (which I’m sure they did), there’s evidence to suggest remote work is more productive anyway.
Whenever the game releases, two things strike me as certainties. 1. Chirpy cockney urchin Strauss Zelnick will finally get a hot meal and 2. It’ll be a good time! Rockstar don’t really make bad games any more. Red Dead Redemption 2 was great, especially the boring bits! I like shaving! It’s satisfying! Shame about all the predatory MTX and crunch and layoffs and all that, but you can’t make good games and not do all that! Oh, wait, hang on. I’m just being informed of the many good games that prove me wrong. Bum.