Rockstar is currently developing the sequel to one of the world’s most popular games, Grand Theft Auto V. The upcoming game, likely named Grand Theft Auto VI, has been in the works for years already. The rumor mill is churning out new details nearly constantly, and we’ve learned a lot about the game throughout the past few years. However, there’s still a lot to be unveiled about the game.
In fact, one of the more important pieces of information is being kept completely under wraps: the release date. With massive leaks involving source code and an hour of early gameplay footage, we know a lot about the game, what it is going to look like, and what features to expect. However, these leaks haven’t revealed exactly when we can expect to get our own hands on the next Grand Theft Auto. Fortunately, there are some other rumors that might shed some light on Rockstar’s plans.
How Soon Is Soon?
The sooner the better, right? Well, it is more complicated for Rockstar than just getting the game into the hands of the public. The game needs to be solid as nothing ruins the launch like an unfinished game, just ask CD Projekt RED. Although Cyberpunk 2077 managed to come out of it with its head held fairly high, it was not an easy journey.
It is fair to say that this is Rockstar’s most important release since Grand Theft Auto V. While the company has had massively successful games in the meantime, they don’t compare to the hype of GTA. Many of the company’s games, like Red Dead Redemption 2, are masterpieces, but the expectations are not on the same scale. GTA is one of the world’s best-selling game franchises. It needs to claim the spot at the very top and stay there for months to come after the release. In an ever more competitive market, doing that isn’t an easy task.
A badly planned release could ruin it for Rockstar, and the company isn’t going to take any chances with it. Major features, bugs, and security issues are expected to be fixed before releasing the game.
Leaks
The leaks that targeted Rockstar in 2022 were a tremendous blow to the company. With an hour of gameplay footage released, it showed many of the new core elements and even shed light on the characters and story. This is obviously not something that you want as a game developer. However, people learning about Grand Theft Auto VI‘s features is not as big of a deal as other parts of the hack.
Alongside the footage that was released on GTA forums and across the internet, the hackers had acquired something much more valuable. According to them, they also had the source code for an early version of the game. This is probably why law enforcement and even the FBI are investigating this cyber attack.
Source Code
To understand why a leaked source code is so much worse than other leaks, one has to know what the code can be used for. Like the footage, one uses the code to find unreleased information about the game’s content and features. But the source code also reveals exactly how the game functions. This makes it much easier, perhaps even trivial, to find weaknesses in the game.
It could allow the creation of software that surpasses the game’s protections and abuses the inevitable holes in the code. This is certainly one of the issues Rockstar is worried about. Additionally, technologies within source code can be immensely valuable. Source code is the game, which means that competing entities could now access it and clone it at will. Every proprietary technology that makes your game stand out could now be easily ported to competing games.
What does this have to do with the release date, you might ask? Well, Rockstar needs to ensure that the game is not compromised. They probably don’t want people cheating left and right, especially with the online and multiplayer gameplay. That might require re-programming some parts of the game. Rockstar claims these leaks won’t affect the release schedule. However, this is likely not entirely true, although it is hard to confirm as there was no date then and there’s no date now.
Next Year?
Considering all this information, when do we expect the game’s release? There’s a lot of information to take into account, including conflicting details. Initial rumors pointed to a 2024 release, possibly even early in the year. However, we should not expect a launch in the first or probably even the second quarter of the upcoming year.
More commonly recent rumors have been suggesting a fall 2024 release, which seems to fit better the schedule the company is working on announcements. Releasing the game in the summer months is unlikely. So, expect the game not to arrive before August or September. Grand Theft Auto V was released in September, so this might also suggest that perhaps the release is approximately a year away.
Another fact that supports this timeframe is Take-Two Interactive’s earnings call, in which executives said that the upcoming fiscal year will be huge for the company. The fiscal year for Rockstar’s parent company starts in April 2024. Naturally, Take-Two has a lot of important franchises, but it’s hard to argue that this is referencing anything else than Grand Theft Auto VI. There are also leaked internal documents that have corroborated the 2024 release schedule. However, these documents are from early development and don’t include dates or even months, so things might have changed.
Possible Delay and Platforms
This is where the 2022 leaks come in. Much of the information about the 2024 release is before the major leak in late 2022. If it has in fact affected the development and delayed the release of Grand Theft Auto VI, we could still see the game launch in 2025. However, in that case, it is almost certainly going to happen in the first half of the year. Industry insider Chris Marxx, who’s delivered a lot of confirmed information about GTA, suggests that the 2025 release is still possible. One should still consider late 2024 more likely than early 2025.
According to the information we have available so far, Grand Theft Auto VI will also launch concurrently on main platforms, including PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5. This wasn’t the case with Grand Theft Auto V, where PC gamers had to wait the longest. It’s not yet certain, whether previous generation consoles join this main release or if they have to wait a bit longer to access Grand Theft Auto VI. It is also possible that Xbox One and PlayStation 4 will not get the game at all.
When Will We Know?
Delays are always possible for as long as the game is in development and not in the hands of the players. However, very soon we will have the official, initial release date for the game. According to leaks and rumors, including from the aforementioned Chris Marxx, Rockstar is preparing an announcement event on October 26. The company is likely going to give a lot more details about the game’s features and story, but perhaps most importantly, hopefully, also announce the release date for the game.
According to the sources, preview versions of the game are going to be shared with journalists and media after the announcement. This suggests that the game is fairly far in the production. However, there’s no word on how extensive this preview demo is, so it doesn’t give much of an indication of how ready the game is. Fortunately, soon we’ll have concrete information about the stage of development straight from Rockstar.