It looks as though Grand Theft Auto 6 is still pretty far off thanks to new details from Rockstar Games’ parent company, Take-Two Interactive.
In a recent 10-K SEC filing, it’s been revealed Take-Two is expecting to spend an eye-watering $89 million USD on marketing alone for the 12 month period which ends on March 31, 2024. Such a huge budget has fuelled the fires of speculation: is this when the launch of GTA 6 is expected?
According to analyst Jeff Cohen it’s looking likely that the game is aiming for a release window between April 2023 and March 2024.
The Stephens analyst said [via VentureBeat]: “We are not sure how much we should be reading into this shift, but we would note that this disclosure accurately predicted the launch of Red Dead Redemption 2 prior to that game’s announcement,
“[Take-Two management] has spoken very confidently about the pipeline over the next five years and existing live services execution has been excellent. However, the timing of the next Grand Theft Auto remains top-of-mind for investors, particularly with the stock near all-time-highs.”
The news aligns with previous rumours from Kotaku, who last month claimed GTA 6 was only in the earlier stages of development. As always with rumours and leaks, it’s best to have the salt shakers ready.
If a 2024 release is on the cards for GTA 6, it means the next generation of console gaming will be very solidly established by the time it launches. It used to be that game developers would wait until a console was post-launch so they could get a good idea of the sorts of sales numbers they could expect. In broad terms, a poorly-selling console usually means a poorly-selling game. It seems unlikely this is the case for GTA 6. With the bank-breaking cash GTA 5 continues to bring in, GTA 6 is pretty much guaranteed to be a big seller.
In the case of GTA 6, it looks like the Xbox Series X and PS5 will be well into their twilight years if this 2023-2024 rumour is correct.
Featured Image Credit: Rockstar Games