All other companies can breath now and start announcing the release dates for their games this year. No one wanted to compete with GTA6.
gitroom · 12h ago
GTA6 taking this long cracks me up, feels like they just keep moving the finish line - you think all the waiting actually makes the game better, or just build up way too much hype to ever match?
jinushaun · 11h ago
There have been so many high profile AAA flops lately. They can’t afford to release something bad. I think it’s crazy that everyone just assumes GTA6 will be a good game (aka, GOTY)
Delaying for a year is either fixing major bugs, or they’re scrambling to overhaul something.
yread · 45m ago
Maybe it was too "woke" and with the changing political winds that was considered too risky. So now they have to remove all the rainbows and meaningful female characters
bastardoperator · 12h ago
So 2028 for the PC version?
byteknight · 12h ago
An optimist I see.
pipes · 10h ago
I finished GTA 3 on the PS2. I tried playing the later ones, but I always gave up, it was just more and more of the same. It also just started to take itself more and more seriously which wasn't much fun.
tetris11 · 10h ago
GTA:SA (PS2) is also a good game, with a decent story, and also allows you to just enjoy the spectacle without having to engage in violent behaviour.
One of my favourite things to do after a long day was to jump in a Rustler and fly it into the sunset whilst listening to the game's country music.
GTA IV also has its quirks, with some of the best car physics to play with, where it took real skill to drive it properly, and pedestrian reactions felt more human and realistic.
GTA5 was pretty, but that was it. Situations would escalate from out nowhere. Car physics was laughable. Pedestrian animations were muted or canned.
pipes · 8h ago
Think this pretty much sums it's up.
platevoltage · 8h ago
Good. Glad they're not taking the "fix it in post" approach that seemingly everyone besides Nintendo and Rockstar do.
sylvainr65 · 7h ago
Still playing GTA IV. Hope they'll take more time for GTA VI.
Madetocomment · 12h ago
June 26 2026 would've made more sense
ysavir · 12h ago
Or February 26th 2028, which would be 26/26/26. People might be upset at the wait, though.
danudey · 12h ago
I hate to admit it took me a second to figure this one out.
haunter · 12h ago
Summer Game Fest is on June 7. I wonder if we will have a lot releases closer to each other in Q3+Q4
abetaha · 12h ago
13 years of development since the last release. Hope the last mile is not excruciating bug fixes.
braebo · 11h ago
Wasn’t it just a couple years ago now where they were in early dev stages which leaked thanks to some kid hacking their systems via slack or something?
gjsman-1000 · 12h ago
Nah; we'll find out they reset development four times or something as scope expanded and hardware became more powerful; and so it's nothing but bugs and still rushed to the deadline. To me this screams scope creep, development hell, and constant redoing of existing work; and good luck not turning into design-by-committee when that happens.
(Edit: As the comment below points out, this happened to Windows Vista. There are plenty more examples though - Metroid Prime 4 was even announced by Nintendo, before being completely scrapped and rebuilt for another 6 years, finally coming out this year.)
jayd16 · 12h ago
Well it's certain like going to be 3 bug fix years after 10 dev years...
But making prototypes and throwing them away is expected. It's not like white knuckling 13 year old designs is a smart idea either.
The reality is almost certainly that GTA Online took a lot of the focus for many years.
rzzzt · 12h ago
Duke Nukem Forever!
SirFatty · 11h ago
Add Fallout 76 to the list..
FirmwareBurner · 12h ago
That was the story of Windows Vista.
Insalgo · 12h ago
And Cyberpunk 2077
nottorp · 12h ago
Will they still try to cram gta online down your throat like with 5?
Will it even have single player?
stronglikedan · 11h ago
Surely they will have PvAI single player by then!
curiousObject · 12h ago
This would have some impact on hardware sales, particularly graphics-related chips
trollied · 12h ago
Why? It’s not being released on PC at launch.
curiousObject · 12h ago
Thanks, I didn’t know that, but it will still affect console sales, and therefore the chip fab manufacturing load and the sales of the chips in the console.
That’s why a console manufacturer pays Rockstar for an exclusive.
lenerdenator · 12h ago
I'm not in game dev, and I don't play games much anymore, so forgive my ignorance, but why?
Aren't they still on the x86/64 ISA?
detaro · 8h ago
Cynical answer: Because they've found with GTA V and other games that this works quite well to get people to buy it multiple times. First for the current console, then for PC, then for next-gen console if you get lucky.
Also while they are technically similar, it's still separate optimizing/QA work, so staggering release makes sense vs waiting until the work is done for all platforms. And maybe it makes the rollout for the online part easier if the easier-to-analyze/-hack PC versions come later.
colpabar · 12h ago
WHAT
trollied · 12h ago
Launch platforms are PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X.
swarnie · 12h ago
The PC version of 5 was over a year later.
GTA 4 was closer to eight months.
bigjohnjacob · 12h ago
PC launch should be about 1 year after console launch.
braebo · 11h ago
I wish consoles would just die already.
justin_oaks · 7h ago
I wish consoles were like the Steam Deck: computers running a common OS that just so happen to be used for gaming.
danudey · 12h ago
Now we're going to see an absolute torrent of release date announcements from all the other game publishers that have been holding back to avoid the blast zone.
jagger27 · 12h ago
That’s gonna be a hard 13 months of crunch.
personalityson · 12h ago
NPC's better be using AI (ran locally)
danudey · 12h ago
NPCs better not be using AI, because every implementation I've ever seen of "AI NPCs" is absolutely terrible and immersion-breaking.
user568439 · 7h ago
Maybe, but if someone has the resources to do it right, that's Rockstar. GTA is a perfect game to use AI and I really think it could be one of the reasons to delay it. I guess they can patch things later but they might want a foundation in the game.
I just hope it can be made local, but I'm afraid they will use this as excuse to force playing online
ashoeafoot · 12h ago
Will they selfcensor?
snkzxbs · 11h ago
You should look at the definitive edition of the trilogy they recently released to know the answer.
lenerdenator · 12h ago
Self-censor what?
pipes · 12h ago
Unfortunately I think it's inevitable.
ivape · 12h ago
This might be the last game they ever make. I'm shocked there's not more of an effort to make an open-source world sim. It's also a shame that given that they will milk this for a decade at minimum, that none of the developers are involved in any kind of profit sharing.
jayd16 · 12h ago
What do you imagine an open source world sim to be in this context beyond a "game engine"?
All the higher level systems and art and story that make GTA what it is would not apply to other games, really. At least not a generic open source way.
Levitating · 11h ago
> This might be the last game they ever make.
why?
> I'm shocked there's not more of an effort to make an open-source world sim.
There's a shit load of open source open world games. But how is this related to GTA 6.
> It's also a shame that given that they will milk this for a decade at minimum
How can you milk something you haven't released yet. They've just been burning money (billions, if you believe the rumors) for a decade now.
mcphage · 9h ago
> This might be the last game they ever make.
Well, I’m still holding out for Space Station Silicon Valley 2
kahrl · 12h ago
k.
hbn · 11h ago
I don't think there's any way this game can live up to the hype. So much time, a rumored $2 billion budget, and a series with the premise of committing offensive actions that pissed off conservative moms in the 90s but now pisses off the liberal activists that run the western gaming industry.
Or maybe it's just too big to fail, even if it's not good.
mcphage · 9h ago
> liberal activists that run the western gaming industry
wut?
lenerdenator · 9h ago
y'know, liberal activists: people who don't make female characters walking uteri and breasts on legs by default.
Delaying for a year is either fixing major bugs, or they’re scrambling to overhaul something.
One of my favourite things to do after a long day was to jump in a Rustler and fly it into the sunset whilst listening to the game's country music.
GTA IV also has its quirks, with some of the best car physics to play with, where it took real skill to drive it properly, and pedestrian reactions felt more human and realistic.
GTA5 was pretty, but that was it. Situations would escalate from out nowhere. Car physics was laughable. Pedestrian animations were muted or canned.
(Edit: As the comment below points out, this happened to Windows Vista. There are plenty more examples though - Metroid Prime 4 was even announced by Nintendo, before being completely scrapped and rebuilt for another 6 years, finally coming out this year.)
But making prototypes and throwing them away is expected. It's not like white knuckling 13 year old designs is a smart idea either.
The reality is almost certainly that GTA Online took a lot of the focus for many years.
Will it even have single player?
That’s why a console manufacturer pays Rockstar for an exclusive.
Aren't they still on the x86/64 ISA?
Also while they are technically similar, it's still separate optimizing/QA work, so staggering release makes sense vs waiting until the work is done for all platforms. And maybe it makes the rollout for the online part easier if the easier-to-analyze/-hack PC versions come later.
GTA 4 was closer to eight months.
I just hope it can be made local, but I'm afraid they will use this as excuse to force playing online
All the higher level systems and art and story that make GTA what it is would not apply to other games, really. At least not a generic open source way.
why?
> I'm shocked there's not more of an effort to make an open-source world sim.
There's a shit load of open source open world games. But how is this related to GTA 6.
> It's also a shame that given that they will milk this for a decade at minimum
How can you milk something you haven't released yet. They've just been burning money (billions, if you believe the rumors) for a decade now.
Well, I’m still holding out for Space Station Silicon Valley 2
Or maybe it's just too big to fail, even if it's not good.
wut?