A known GTA leaker has narrowed down the release date of Grand Theft Auto 6, revealing that Rockstar is currently aiming to launch its much-anticipated title during the holiday 2024 season. Their report also revealed some new insight into the game's development, including the claim that GTA 6 could hold back parts of the game for DLC.
Game industry insiders have been debating the GTA 6 release date for years now, and while none of their more optimistic predictions came to pass, it's plausible the game's development suffered a major setback at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Not least because that is precisely what happened with countless other AAA projects with large in-office teams the world over.
In a new report posted on a GTA fan forum, known Rockstar insider Tez2 claimed that while Grand Theft Auto 6 is currently targeting a tentative launch window set for the 2024 holiday season following numerous internal delays, further postponements aren't out of the question. This uncertainty is said to be largely rooted in the fact that the developer, like most major tech companies, recently started exploring a mandatory return-to-office policy which is proving to be highly unpopular among its employees. Forcing all developers back to office might result in an earlier GTA 6 announcement as it would allow the management to have a better grasp of the project's status, but doing so amplifies the risk of losing top engineering talent, which could easily cause further delays, as per the same source.
Given this state of affairs, it is plausible that GTA 6 ends up releasing in early 2025, the insider concluded. Their claim that Rockstar is planning to attach a late 2024 release date to the next GTA game passes the eye test in the sense that the holiday season is traditionally the most lucrative period of the year for game publishing, as evidenced by the fact that all 3D GTA titles debuted in the final quarter of their respective release years, most often in October. A two-year wait also dovetails with the legitimate Grand Theft Auto 6 leak from late 2022 that suggested the game is still nowhere near releasing.
Even if GTA 6 doesn't hit the market in the next two years, that's not to say the fandom will have to wait that long for the game's official announcement, seeing how Rockstar revealed the last two installments two years ahead of their market debuts. That said, both GTA 4 and GTA 5 suffered major delays following their unveilings, which could explain the developer's reluctance to announce its next title too early. But given how even 50 Cent is fueling GTA 6 rumors these days, some kind of official news might be on the cards for 2023.
Grand Theft Auto 6 is currently in development.
Source: Tez2 / GTAForums