GTA 6 set to drop next year as publisher finally gives release date update

Featured Image Credit: Rockstar Games

Take-Two just had an earnings report out, and there is one particular section that appears to be quite attention-grabbing. Looking ahead to the future, Take-Two says that Fiscal 2025 is a “highly anticipated” year for the company. I think we know what that means, but see if you can figure it out:

“In Fiscal 2025, we expect to enter this new era by launching several groundbreaking titles that we believe will set new standards in our industry and enable us to achieve over $8 billion in Net Bookings and over $1 billion in Adjusted Unrestricted Operating Cash Flow. We expect to sustain this momentum by delivering even higher levels of operating results in Fiscal 2026 and beyond.”

$8 billion in Net Bookings? It’s Grand Theft Auto. It’s Grand Theft Auto 6.

Rockstar hasn't said much about GTA 6, with little teasers, big leaks, and a ridiculously early production phase where they shot footage that revealed a huge, detailed, and ambitious plan.

But what this new report means is that GTA 6 should in fact have a release year, which will fall in the Fiscal Year of 2025, the dates of that being between April 1, 2024 and March 31, 2025.

During this period, the 2024 holiday seems like the most likely option as all major games are scheduled for at least this period and this period generally sees the busiest surge. However, with lots of major game delays, many of which have been pushed back to next spring or summer, we're currently on Redfall, Jedi Survivor, and Tears of the Kingdom living in a time where Diablo 4 and Final Fantasy XVI are all coming in less than two days and months side by side out.

For context, GTA 5 did in fact release in the pre-holiday period in September of 2013. Holiday 2024 would mean it has been 11 years in between GTA releases, the long wait due to A) the massive Red Dead Redemption 2 release and B) GTA 5 becoming the best-selling game of all time by a huge margin, releasing on three console generations and generating billions through GTA Online. Mostly that.

It is likely that with the continued expansion of the video game industry over the past decade, GTA 6, barring any disasters, will probably be the fastest selling game in history, beating GTA 5’s $1 billion in three days, and depending on its long-term prospects, in theory could go on to outsell GTA 5 over the long, long term. But even within the GTA franchise, GTA 5 is a huge outlier. Still, given that GTA 6 is probably going to end up being one of the most anticipated games of all time, I would not bet against it.

Of course there is also the possibility of a delay. Most AAA game are delayed at least a few times these days, and whatever date you hear first, it might be 3-18 months before the game is actually released. But with 11 years since the last game, I think Rockstar may be in a better position than other studios to pick a date and stick with it, particularly when they’re making these enormous revenue forecasts for that specific time periods. A delay out of that would likely produce major downturns for their stock. However, a GTA 6 release that isn’t ready would be even worse, a-la-Cyberpunk (sorry Cyberpunk but you will never not be brought up in conversations like this).

GTA 6 will be massive, and now, it appears like it may be just over two years away. Stay tuned.