Grand Theft Auto VI is expected to arrive in 2025, based on statements made by a Take-Two executive during its latest earnings call. The long-awaited next installment will have a lot of expectations hanging on it following the unprecedented success of Grand Theft Auto V which was released ten years ago. That game has gone on to set, or break, just about every sales record there are for home video games. Meanwhile, fans of the franchise have anxiously been awaiting the release of its follow-up.
From Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two Interactive CEO and Chairman:
“We remain confident that we are positioning our business for a significant inflection point in fiscal 2025, which we believe will include new record levels of operating performance. We would like to thank all of our stakeholders for their continued support, and we look forward to delivering on this exciting next chapter.”
There has been much speculation about when Grand Theft Auto VI could be released and the logic behind a March 2025 date stems from that Take-Two Interactive’s fiscal years begin in March. The publisher has managed to hold onto its revenue predictions, even at the higher end of them, so far for its Q1 FY24 with net bookings coming in at $1.2 billion. It expects those net bookings to top at around $5.55 billion by the end of this fiscal year. According to VGC the timing of the above statement, and similar ones that have previously been said, only add fuel to the belief that Grand Theft Auto VI will release in March 2025.
Per VGC:
“If accurate, this would mean Grand Theft Auto 6 would be released no later than March 2025.”
Leaks and more work to do
It’s been nearly a year since Rockstar Games acknowledged that its network had been compromised following roughly 90 videos of the next game having been released online. Shortly before that, it was also revealed in another report that the next protagonist will be a female character. At this point it’s highly probable that a significant amount of progress has been made with the next game but given how the modding community has continually pushed the GTA V engine to its, and modern GPUs, limits, the developers know they have much to live up to for the next game. Other factors likely adding to the increased needed time for a release would be ensuring sufficient network support for the game’s online components, merchandising, and planning for the probable next generation of consoles and GPUs which are also expected to arrive around 2025.