The specter of a GTA 6 delay haunts the games industry: 'Some companies are going to tank' if they guess wrong, says analyst
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Judging by all the shark card crap they jammed into the last GTA, I fully expect them to shovel a bunch of crap in to make more money: $70 base games, deluxe editions, DLC, micro transactions, social club integration, required internet connections, all of it.
I miss the old GTAs before they got greedy.
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big games get delayed, a lot
And yet so many of them still suck at launch.
That's cause the business side keeps pushing for increasingly unrealistic deadlines and will only accept delaying so much before forcing it out.
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the console install base isn't what it was when GTA V came out at the end of a generation.
At had a look to check the figures.
From the PlayStation perspective February 2025 estimates put the PS5 at 74.9m, while January 2013 estimates put the PS3 at 77m.
However Xbox is really letting their numbers lag with 28.3m Series consoles sold by September 2024 vs 77.2m 360 consoles by April 2013.
If we were just talking PlayStation I would say 97% is near enough to make no difference but if we compare both platforms together its only 67% and that is enough to influence strategy. A console only release in 2025 is unlikely to eclipse GTA5's position as "fastest-selling entertainment product in history".
But also don't forget that the amount of gamers is larger today than in 2013. Gaming is much more mainstream, and so even 97% of the install base is still disappointing considering steam grew by, what, 3x or something in terms of average monthly users?
Another source I found is that the amount of total gamers grew by roughly 50% from 2013 to 2025. But yeah, I just did a quick skin numbers are not precise
But still, 97% is disappointing considering the general demographic was supposed to grow. And then, in reality, it's just 67% too
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This is so strange. Wasn't it not long ago that studios were crowding into very specific release windows ( usually november iirc ) so they could maximize initial sales? Maybe the digital release era has changed things. I mean, I get it if your game was in the same niche or smth, but "companies might tank" seems a little much.
Either way, if this is true, eoy 2025 is in for a dry spell when it comes to new games.
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This is so strange. Wasn't it not long ago that studios were crowding into very specific release windows ( usually november iirc ) so they could maximize initial sales? Maybe the digital release era has changed things. I mean, I get it if your game was in the same niche or smth, but "companies might tank" seems a little much.
Either way, if this is true, eoy 2025 is in for a dry spell when it comes to new games.
Sure is a great way to stir the pot, that's for sure. This article raised my eyebrow so much I just had to share it.
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I'm not quite sure why they're so concerned. I suspect they're actually not and this is just things "analysts" say.
I suspect that the release of GTA VI is going to be lukewarm compared to the release of GTA V, because everyone remembered what Rockstar did to GTA V. People are going to wait around and see how they handle GTA online because they need to do better than last time because last time was ridiculous.
I'm certainly not all that interested in getting it day one and I know a lot of other people aren't either.
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Huh? For £70 I'm getting -
- Huge open world
- Very fun and emergent gameplay
- Likely a world with multiple competing systems and subsystems to play with
- Incredibly detailed world to get lost and immersed in
- Given the RDR2 writing, likely a really well written story
But you've decided to latch onto one aspect of the previous game (the Online mode) to try to be as contrarian as possible?
I sure as heck will pay £70 for the above. And so will many millions of others. Sorry if that does a poo on your hate-train.
You hope you'll get those things. It's Rockstar though so who really knows. I mean we do know we're going to get a single player that's been confirmed by Rockstar but everything else is just a guess. The map leak people seem to suggest that the map will include NASA and Disneyland which will be cool I guess, but we don't know that that's just a prediction and I don't quite understand how they can predict that.
I just don't trust Rockstar not to screw it up with GTA online 2, now with more irritating flying bikes
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They lost Lazlow... There goes the greatest radio DJ to ever grace the gta airwaves.
When they added purchasable clubs into online and you could get Lazlow to come to your club, I made it my entire goal to make him happy, I spent so much cash keeping him dancing, always made me sad seeing him sitting there alone as the reality of it all hit him.
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...and they followed it with Cyberpunk 2077's disastrous launch but ultimate success. So I wouldn't hold CDPR as a high standard.
I’d argue that is just another example of why delaying games isn’t a bad thing. 2077 clearly wasn’t ready at launch, and would have benefitted from a delayed launch.
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I’d argue that is just another example of why delaying games isn’t a bad thing. 2077 clearly wasn’t ready at launch, and would have benefitted from a delayed launch.
I feel like that one was also due to awful development practices, they had the whole scrapping the entire first 2 years of work thing due to a control freak lead dev who was ultimately releaved of his position (though not until after release iirc)
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I'm not quite sure why they're so concerned. I suspect they're actually not and this is just things "analysts" say.
I suspect that the release of GTA VI is going to be lukewarm compared to the release of GTA V, because everyone remembered what Rockstar did to GTA V. People are going to wait around and see how they handle GTA online because they need to do better than last time because last time was ridiculous.
I'm certainly not all that interested in getting it day one and I know a lot of other people aren't either.
I don't know. Gamers have very short memory and are drived by FOMO and social media coverage.
Just look at the whole Cyberpunk situation. Or, more recently, the Sparking Zero drama. Everyone pre-ordered the 120$ edition to play earlier, just because of shiny graphics
️. Then, when the honey moon phase was over, the subreddit turned into a shithole full of frustration and complaints. All you can see now is reports of bugs, glitches and so on. But still, most of these folks are already considering the purchase of SZ2, cause they are sure devs will definitely fix the issues.Just watch GTA 6 pre-orders skyrocket as soon as Rockstar drops the 2nd trailer, next year.
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I don't know. Gamers have very short memory and are drived by FOMO and social media coverage.
Just look at the whole Cyberpunk situation. Or, more recently, the Sparking Zero drama. Everyone pre-ordered the 120$ edition to play earlier, just because of shiny graphics
️. Then, when the honey moon phase was over, the subreddit turned into a shithole full of frustration and complaints. All you can see now is reports of bugs, glitches and so on. But still, most of these folks are already considering the purchase of SZ2, cause they are sure devs will definitely fix the issues.Just watch GTA 6 pre-orders skyrocket as soon as Rockstar drops the 2nd trailer, next year.
There's absolutely zero reason to pre-order the bonuses you get are never worth it and it's not like they're going to run out. Hell I didn't pre-order GTA V and I got it day one on both PS3 and Xbox 360 but just walking into a store on lunch time. And that was a physical media now everything's gone digital is even less reason to pre-order.
So I'll not be pre-ordering regardless, but I wouldn't be pre-ordering anyway because I think it's stupid. I'm not saying that the game will be bad I'm just saying I don't trust Rockstar fully anymore. I also don't trust CDPR anymore because of cyberpunk. Yeah they fixed it but so what, I don't want to be encouraging that kind of release strategy.
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There's absolutely zero reason to pre-order the bonuses you get are never worth it and it's not like they're going to run out. Hell I didn't pre-order GTA V and I got it day one on both PS3 and Xbox 360 but just walking into a store on lunch time. And that was a physical media now everything's gone digital is even less reason to pre-order.
So I'll not be pre-ordering regardless, but I wouldn't be pre-ordering anyway because I think it's stupid. I'm not saying that the game will be bad I'm just saying I don't trust Rockstar fully anymore. I also don't trust CDPR anymore because of cyberpunk. Yeah they fixed it but so what, I don't want to be encouraging that kind of release strategy.
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It's been the same for... ~25 years, since at least GTA3.
You can still play them on both console and PC and not only PC.
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This is so strange. Wasn't it not long ago that studios were crowding into very specific release windows ( usually november iirc ) so they could maximize initial sales? Maybe the digital release era has changed things. I mean, I get it if your game was in the same niche or smth, but "companies might tank" seems a little much.
Either way, if this is true, eoy 2025 is in for a dry spell when it comes to new games.
Over time they realised that, while holiday windows or whatever have high sales, if there's a better or more popular game coming out then, yours will just be forgotten.
That said, most "industry specialists" are just glorified influencers, so take it with a grain of salt
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I'm not quite sure why they're so concerned. I suspect they're actually not and this is just things "analysts" say.
I suspect that the release of GTA VI is going to be lukewarm compared to the release of GTA V, because everyone remembered what Rockstar did to GTA V. People are going to wait around and see how they handle GTA online because they need to do better than last time because last time was ridiculous.
I'm certainly not all that interested in getting it day one and I know a lot of other people aren't either.
GTA5 is more than a decade ago,.
The older gemers may remember but there is a whole generation that has spung up since.
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Huh? For £70 I'm getting -
- Huge open world
- Very fun and emergent gameplay
- Likely a world with multiple competing systems and subsystems to play with
- Incredibly detailed world to get lost and immersed in
- Given the RDR2 writing, likely a really well written story
But you've decided to latch onto one aspect of the previous game (the Online mode) to try to be as contrarian as possible?
I sure as heck will pay £70 for the above. And so will many millions of others. Sorry if that does a poo on your hate-train.
Dude thats crazy. I havent paod full price for a game in years, have a little patience and you can get a bunch more games for that much.
Games are always on sale.
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GTA5 is more than a decade ago,.
The older gemers may remember but there is a whole generation that has spung up since.
Nice of you to assume there are no underage players of GTA V
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Yeah, the Witcher 3 release should have taught the game publishers this. CDPR delayed the launch by several months because the game wasn’t ready to ship yet. And the game was phenomenal, and received rave reviews pretty much across the board. Gamers were disappointed about the launch, but basically went “this game will be worth the wait.”
You realize that rockstar basically invented this strategy right? Almost every release since vice city or San Andreas has been delayed by 6 months to a year to be the best game possible.
