While it’s no secret that Grand Theft Auto 6‘s release later this year will likely be a major event for the entire gaming industry, it looks like some developers and publishers might be vary about releasing their own games in the same time frame. Speaking to Christopher Dring of The Game Business, developers have said that they won’t only have to compete with GTA 6 for money, but for time as well.
This comes from the fact that GTA 6 is going to be a major open-world release with plenty of things for players to do. Considering the popularity of GTA 5 even 12 years after its original release, it is likely that players will be spending quite a bit of time with the newest game in the franchise.
“Rockstar games always suck a lot of money and, more importantly, time out of the market,” said the head of one game publishing company to Dring. “We don’t want to be anywhere near that. We are working up multiple different plans for our titles.”
An exec followed this up by pointing out that free time from players is the main resource that they would be competing with against Rockstar’s next outing. “Even without GTA it’s immensely difficult to find free time for new games to shine,” said the exec. “Time is the real scarcity for us, not money. It’s tough out there.”
A fair bit of uncertainty for developers and publishers comes from the fact that GTA 6 still doesn’t have a solid release date yet aside from a Fall 2025 release window. EA CEO Andrew Wilson, for instance, is considering pushing back the release of the next Battlefield game in order to not have to compete with GTA 6. This is to ensure that the company has the “appropriate time, energy, and player acquisition opportunity for this Battlefield to be all that it needed to be.”
Another head of a publishing company, this time from Europe, also spoke about the uncertainty regarding GTA 6‘s release date. Speaking to Dring, the publisher talks about wanting to avoid releasing its games right before or after the release of GTA 6. This also puts the company into unenviable positions of having to compete with other Summer releases, or having to compete against games that would be going on sale during Black Friday.
“We don’t want to launch just before or just after the game,” they said. “If it arrives in late October, that means you either have to launch early – which a lot of people seem to be doing with the recent glut of summer release dates. Or go later, putting you up against the Black Friday sales.”
“If we move out to 2025, what if Rockstar do, too?” they continued. “Will we have time to push our game up? Or will we have to delay further? It’s stressful.”
The head of one development studio compared GTA 6 to a meteor that is on a crash course with the industry. The studio hopes to avoid being in the blast zone, but is also worried about other companies doing the same thing to ensure that their releases don’t suffer under GTA 6‘s big shadow.
“GTA 6 is basically a huge meteor and we will just stay clear of the blast zone,” said the studio head. “We will nudge our releases back or forward three weeks to avoid it. Of course, the problem is everyone is going to do the same. So three to four weeks before or after GTA 6, you’re going to get a load of games dropping content in what they believe will be the safe zone.”
“There’s no point swimming against the current,” said another developer. “We just need to prepare to win players back once the excitement has started to die down.”
Others have a more optimistic outlook surrounding the release of GTA 6. Day of the Devs head curator Greg Rice spoke about the release of the game being a net positive for the industry in an interview during GDC. His opinion came down to the idea that GTA 6 will introduce new audiences to gaming, and these new players will ultimately start seeking out other games to play on their gaming systems.
Grand Theft Auto 6 is currently under development for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. There is no word yet on a PC release.
