A sign of how anticipated the next installment in Rockstar’s hit Grand Theft Auto series is comes from the frequency with which it is rumored. # GTA6 is often all the rage on social media, causing a rush of gamers to… disappointment. Gossip regularly turns out to be YouTubers who are simply speculating or supposed leaks from “insiders” who often represent little.
But a close reading of the recently released financial forecast may contain credible clues as to when we might expect Grand Theft Auto 6 to launch. The figures come from a publication by Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar, which outlined the company’s plans following its takeover of Zynga.
Take-Two’s acquisition of Zynga, in a deal that valued the mobile game developer at $ 12.7 billion, is one of the largest in video game history, leaving in the l shadow Microsoft’s $ 7.5 billion takeover of Bethesda’s parent company ZeniMax Media. In the press release that announced the deal, Take-Two also released strong financial guidance related to its future growth.
Take-Two said it expects 14% annual growth over the next three years, and one analyst has calculated that this will translate to some $ 9 billion in gaming transactions. Analyst Doug Creutz read that meant “a likely launch of GTA 6 in fiscal year 24,” as Axios reported.
According to analysis from Wall Street firm Jeffries (via Axios), “There are only a handful of headlines that can … be released by FY24.”
FY24 refers to the fiscal year that would start in April 2023 and end in March 2024. This reading of Take-Two’s advice to investors might be a better indicator than usual of when we might expect GTA 6. Business analysts point out that only a few games could deliver the significant increase in game revenue that Take-Two would need to meet its own growth targets. GTA 6, of course, would be a big enough release to cause such a surge given the anticipation, and especially since GTA 5 appears to have been around for around 68 years.
This would be in line with previous reports that GTA 6 might not launch until 2025, but 2023 was a previous goal for Rockstar. A late 2023 launch would echo GTA 5’s original launch in September 2013. However, other reports have suggested that development on GTA 6 has been difficult and with the pandemic causing delays in many games it would not be surprising. that GTA 6, which is going to be a very big release, ends up arriving in the middle of this current generation, especially as the PS5 and Xbox Series X remain hard to buy.
Of course, that’s still speculation, although more believable than most, and Take-Two might have other titles up its sleeve – like a Red Dead Redemption remaster or a next-gen update to its sequel – But having posted the ambitious growth targets it has, it looks like launching GTA 6 by spring 2024 would deliver them. However, let’s not forget that the GTA 5 remaster for the PS5 and Xbox Series is set to launch in March.
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