Why the GTA 6 release date has other game publishers running scared
Releasing at the same time as GTA 6 would be a death sentence for many titles
📆 Game publishers are monitoring GTA 6’s release date
😱 They want to avoid releasing their titles anywhere near Rockstar’s sequel
🙏 GTA 6 is still on track to release at the end of 2025
📈 It’s tipped to be the biggest launch in video game history
GTA 6 is easily the most anticipated video game of all time, but spare a thought for other publishers. Any title that dares to launch around GTA 6’s release date is bound to be eclipsed by Rockstar’s sequel, which is why many publishers are waiting as long as possible to commit to their release dates for the fall of 2025.
According to a new report by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, publishers are monitoring the GTA 6 release date to see whether it will make its deadline of late 2025, or if it will slip into 2026. Rockstar’s parent company Take-Two said that the GTA 6 release date hasn’t slipped, despite rumors to the contrary.
Either way, Schreier says publishers are determined to keep their own games “far, far away”, which isn’t surprising. Whether they will be successful remains to be seen.
Schreier says that GTA 6 has already missed “multiple deadlines”, which is apparently common practice at Rockstar, but publisher Take-Two said the game is on track. Rockstar began development 10 years ago, but serious development started after the 2018 release of Red Dead Redemption 2.
Rockstar will hope Grand Theft Auto 6 can replicate the phenomenal success of GTA 5, which has generated around $9 billion in revenue. The game continues to top the best-sellers lists every year, with GTA Online – the game’s multiplayer mode – raking in millions of dollars.
That’s a tall order for Rockstar, then, but with the GTA 6 trailer surpassing 225 million views on YouTube and people scouring the Internet for every morsel of information they can find on the game, the demand for Rockstar’s long-awaited sequel is certainly there.
Up next: Valve might be working on a console to rival the PS5 and Xbox Series X – and that's exciting
Adam Vjestica is The Shortcut’s Senior Editor. Formerly TechRadar’s Gaming Hardware Editor, Adam has also worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor, where he helped launch the Nintendo Switch. Follow him on X @ItsMrProducts.