Rockstar Games has announced that GTA 6 is in development, putting an end to years of rumor and suspense among fans. The announcement came in February 2022, with Rockstar declaring that development on the next Grand Theft Auto game is not just beginning, but “well underway.”
For a game as anticipated as GTA 6, Rockstar’s announcement on their blog was rather muted. However, it was merely a formal affirmation of something that everyone already knew was going on. After all, GTA 6 has been reported for years, with a story from Kotaku in April 2020 suggesting that a “new chapter in the Grand Theft Auto franchise” was in the works.
GTA 6 is in “active development,” according to Rockstar Games, and this “new entry in the Grand Theft Auto franchise” was in early development as of April 2020, according to a Kotaku article. According to Kotaku, this new edition will be a “moderately sized release” (thus, still quite large) that will be “extended with frequent updates throughout time.” As a result, the game may be further along than we anticipated.
While the Kotaku post did not reveal a release date for GTA 6, Take-Two Interactive’s marketing budget may have provided the most reliable GTA 6 release date suggestion. Take-10-K Two’s SEC filing from 2020 (which lays out financial plans for the next five years) shows that the company expects to spend $89 million on marketing between April 2023 and the end of March 2024 – a huge increase and, as the report points out, more than half the marketing budget expected for any other fiscal year over the next decade.
Furthermore, a section on “Strategic Rationale and Stockholder Value Creation” in a press release announcing Take-Two Interactive’s acquisition of Zynga contained a note stating: “Looking ahead, the combined company is expected to deliver a 14 percent compound annual growth rate… over the three-year period from Take-Fiscal Two’s Years 2021 through 2024.”
“There are just a handful of titles that can…provide management with the confidence to put out such a high outlook,” stated an analyst from investment banking firm Jefferies, as reported by Stephen Totilo of Axios. “We believe there is at least one Rockstar IP due to be released by FY24.”
Now that Rockstar Games has acknowledged that it is working on a new Grand Theft Auto, it appears that the increase is due to the new game, which might be released between April 2023 and March 2024.
When will GTA 6 be released?
Before we get into prospective release dates, a little backstory is necessary. While GTA 5 was launched in 2013, Rockstar was unable to devote its full attention to the development of a sequel right away. GTA 6 was reportedly started in 2014, but the studio was preoccupied with Red Dead Redemption 2, not to mention the PC, PS4, and Xbox One versions of GTA 5, as well as the PC and Google Stadia versions of Red Dead Redemption 2.
All of these things take time, but they’re now done, and Rockstar has officially revealed that it is working on GTA 6, and that while it doesn’t have anything to offer just yet, more information will be forthcoming.
Platforms in GTA 6
The platforms on which GTA 6 is anticipated to debut was probably the second important element revealed in that initial large leak. GTA 5 was published at the end of a console generation, on the PS3 and Xbox 360, before being re-released on the next set of systems with improved performance and graphics.
However, it appears that this pattern will not be replicated in GTA 6. According to the leak, the game will be limited to the Playstation 5 and the Xbox Series X and S from Microsoft.
GTA 6 gameplay
When waiting for specifics on a new GTA game, one significant area of conjecture is always present: where will it be set? While interesting nuances abound in the characters and plots, there’s something about GTA’s environment that feels like the most important decision Rockstar has to make. The playground in which gamers will run amok, whether it’s Liberty City, Los Santos, or another metropolis, is a large question mark hovering over the game.
GTA 6’s plot
The basic plot of each GTA game has so far revolved around criminality, but the particular flavor is always subject to change. Dan Houser, Rockstar’s co-founder, quit the firm in March 2020, which is vital information for the story of GTA 6.
That means one of the studio’s primary tastemakers and writers has left, someone who has set the franchise’s tone from the beginning with his brother Sam.
