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, at this point, it feels more like a formal confirmation of something that everyone already knew was going on. After all, GTA 6 has been reported for years, with a report from Kotaku saying that a “new chapter in the Grand Theft Auto series” was in the early stages of development as far back as April 2020.
We don’t know much about GTA 6 right now, save that it’s a real game that we’ll be able to play one day. For example, we still don’t know when the game will be released or where it will be set, but there are plenty of speculations circulating that could hint to what we can expect. GTA 5’s release on PS5 and Xbox Series X, at the very least, will give us an idea of how sharp the game will appear on the latest generation of platforms.
Do you want to learn more? Continue reading to learn everything we know about GTA 6.
Grand Theft Auto VI Release Date
While Rockstar Games has finally confirmed that GTA 6 is in development, no date has been set for when we will be able to play it. However, there have been numerous claims and rumors indicating when Grand Theft Auto 6 will be released.
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 could be further advanced in development than we had 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.
This prompted industry expert Jeff Cohen to speculate that the increase is due to the impending release of GTA 6. (which now looks likely). Cohen noted out in a message to investors contained in VentureBeat’s report that prior marketing budgets had forecast the arrival of other major Take-Two Interactive games, such as Red Dead Redemption 2. If this forecast holds true, we can expect GTA 6 to be released between April 2023 and March 2024. This increase was originally scheduled for fiscal year 2023, however it has been moved back to fiscal year 2024. If GTA 6 is to blame for the increase, it’s likely that a delay has occurred.
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 stated it’s working on a new Grand Theft Auto, it’s likely that the increase is due to the impending release of GTA 6, which might happen between April 2023 and March 2024.
This 2024 surge roughly matches the GTA 6 release date forecast made by leaker Tom Henderson. The well-known leaker, who is most renowned for his (usually) correct Battlefield and Call of Duty leaks, just shared a video with a slew of supposed GTA 6 secrets. Based on his sources, Henderson thinks that GTA 6 will not be released until between 2024 and 2025.
According to Henderson, there are a few explanations for this. The most notable is that Rockstar Games has reportedly placed a strong emphasis on “staff welfare,” with the developer wanting to avoid a “crunch culture.” Henderson also said that Rockstar didn’t want to reveal the game until it was certain that it would be released on time, in order to avoid any delays, but that they didn’t want to do it by forcing staff to work long hours to achieve a deadline.
Furthermore, Henderson states that GTA 6 will only be available on the PS5, Xbox One X/S, and PC. Given the current PS5 and Xbox Series X shortages, Rockstar Games appears to be holding off on releasing these systems until there is a “large enough market” for them, or until the majority of users can actually get their hands on them.
The popularity of GTA 5 is the third significant reason Henderson offered for the 2024/2025 release date, suggesting that Rockstar would likely not want to release GTA 6 while its predecessor is still so popular.
Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier later confirmed Henderson’s prediction, saying that it “matches up with everything I’ve heard.”
The publication date of 2024 appears to be a fair guess, although one leaker believes that this is wishful thinking. Chris’ Klippel, the creator of Rockstar Mag (who has previously accurately leaked Rockstar Game news), claims that while the developer has reached a significant milestone in the development and will most likely reveal GTA 6 before the end of 2022, he does not expect Grand Theft Auto to be released before the end of 2024.
Klippel tweeted, “I believe a (actual) announcement towards the end of the year may be conceivable.” “In any case, I don’t think the game will be released before 2024.”
We’ll have to wait until Rockstar Games officially confirms GTA 6’s release date to know for sure when we’ll be able to play it, but based on current rumors, it doesn’t appear to be anytime soon – certainly not in 2022.
Grand Theft Auto VI Trailer
Unfortunately, no trailer for GTA 6 was released accompanying the announcement, implying that Rockstar Games is taking a different strategy to revealing Grand Theft Auto 6 than it has in the past. Rockstar Games teased an announcement for both GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 a few days before releasing the first trailer for each game.
But this time, instead of teasing an announcement or announcing the game with a teaser, Rockstar just included the news as part of a community post, making it difficult to predict whether or not a trailer will be released soon.
In any case, if a Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer is released, you’ll know about it because the internet will go crazy — and we’ll let you know about it as well.
Grand Theft Auto VI News and Rumors
We’ve compiled all of the most recent leaks and rumors about GTA 6’s release date — as well as what we can expect from the next game – below. Take these data with a grain of salt as always – some are old, some are from now-defunct sources, and some could just be enthusiastic fans getting over away.
An important step reached?
We don’t know much about how GTA 6 is progressing, but a recent report suggests that the Rockstar team has just passed a crucial milestone. “An essential phase in the creation of GTA6 has just been reached,” according to French writer Chris Klippel (via GamingBible), and “Things should speed up (internally at Rockstar).” “I think a (genuine) announcement towards the end of the year would be possible,” Klippel continues. In any event, I don’t think the game will be released before 2024!”
Klippel’s 2024 prediction is consistent with prior claims on a GTA 6 release date, but it’s necessary to take this news with a grain of salt, especially because there aren’t many information provided in terms of what the important step that’s been completed is. With GTA 6 officially confirmed to be in development, a release date by the end of 2022 would undoubtedly please news-hungry fans, but we’ll have to wait and see.
According to Take Two’s CEO, “you’ve got to keep things fresh”
With GTA 5’s enlarged and upgraded version bringing the nearly nine-year-old game to a new console generation, it’s felt like the GTA franchise has been spinning its wheels a little, but that could change with GTA 6. “You always have to be willing to be new,” Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz about the announcement that GTA 6 is in development and not being precious with the past. You must constantly be willing to give customers what they desire. You become irrelevant the moment you strive to preserve the past.”
“I’m pleased Rockstar is working on the next generation of Grand Theft Auto,” Zelnick continued. I have no doubt it will be fantastic, and there’s every reason to hope that the Grand Theft Auto franchise will continue to thrive.”
Rockstar’s only new game this gen?
Rockstar could be throwing everything into getting GTA 6 perfect, according to notorious leaker AccNGT. When asked how many games we should expect from Rockstar this generation in a January 2022 Q&A, they answered, “If we are talking about new games, I believe only GTA 6 will be released.”