We could potentially be just 6 or so months away from the release of GTA 6 however Rockstar Games are yet to share a release date. This situation has most game publishers a headache with what to do for their upcoming games. Several executives at gaming’s largest publishers have shared their worries with Chris Dring of The Game Business.
During The Game Business’ latest newsletter and podcast, TGA founder Dring was able to share some valuable and interesting insights into the GTA 6 conundrum.
Last month, EA said their next Battlefield game will come out at the end of this year or early next year. They gave a large window due to GTA 6 just without naming the reason why though it is obvious. Dring asked his contacts at other publishers in the industry for their thoughts and they are all in the same boat as EA with Battlefield. It was just last week we reported about an analyst who has said similar things and suggests companies could be sunk by GTA 6. and suggests companies could be sunk by GTA 6.
What Publishers Are Saying
A source at one of the world’s largest game publishers said “Rockstar games always suck a lot of money and more importantly time out of the market. We don’t want to be anywhere near that. We’re working up multiple different plans for our titles.” One executive at another company told Dring “Even without GTA, it’s immensely difficult to find free time for new games to shine. Time is the real scarcity for us not money. It’s tough out there.”
Thirdly, someone at a AAA publisher based in Europe explained “We don’t want to launch just before or just after the game. If it arrives in late October, that means you have to launch early which a lot of people seem to be doing with the recent glut of summer release dates or go later putting you up against Black Friday sales or alternatively just get out of the year (2025) entirely.”
Now that is just one part of the problem. Stress is being caused by Rockstar still not giving a release date but also if they decide to delay GTA VI until 2026. That is not all. It also is worrying on-going multiplayer games. Once GTA VI comes out, the player base for those games will drop. Two sources at games in the top 10 most popular live service games say “GTA 6 is a huge meteor and we will nudge our updates back or forward 3 weeks to avoid it. The problem is everyone will do the same.” So… it will get busy regardless.
Crossover With…Roblox?
During the same podcast, Dring shared really interesting stats from Ampere Analysis. The data says that GTA Online and Roblox has an average of 22% player crossover. EA Sports FC and GTA Online has around 13% of shared players whilst Call of Duty and GTAO is 12.3%. And that is during launch months.
Meanwhile single player games are played a lot less by the GTA Online audience. 2024 hit Space Marine 3 only had 3.1% crossover with GTA Online. Star Wars Outlaws was 5.3% in comparison.
Another fun stat is that GTA Online players play the game 4-5 times a month. This could be attributed a bit to the weekly Event Weeks. Meanwhile Call of Duty players tend to play 6-7 times a month and Fortnite is 7-8.
You can check out the full report from The Game Business here. I’d highly recommend reading or watching the news reports from The Games Business. You can expect to find some well-sourced content about the video game industry. With GTA 6 on the horizon, Rockstar’s behemoth will be in a recurring role.
What do you think will happen to other games and their studios when GTA VI releases? Let us know down in the comments below. To keep up to date with every GTA 6 news update, make sure to check back to RockstarINTEL and sign up to our newsletter for a weekly round-up of all things Rockstar Games.
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