By Sagar V. Mankar Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series has been one of the most popular and best-selling video game franchises for over two decades.
With the massive success of GTA 5, which has sold over 190 million copies worldwide, anticipation for the next numbered entry in the series, GTA 6, is incredibly high.
But when will GTA 6 actually be released? Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot gave an interesting answer.
Ubisoft CEO Expects GTA 6 After April 2025
In a recent Q3 earnings call, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot predicted that GTA 6 will likely launch after April 2025.
While Rockstar itself has only provided a broad 2025 release window so far, Guillemot believes it will come “closer to our financial year ‘26 than our financial year ‘25.”
It means GTA 6 will likely occur sometime in Take-Two’s 2025-2026 fiscal year, which runs from April 2025 to March 2026.
Why the Long Wait?
With development on GTA 6 starting shortly after GTA 5’s release in 2013, some fans have wondered why it’s taking so long for the next entry.
According to Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick, the extended development timeline is due to Rockstar “seeking perfection” with the game and won’t rush its release.
As we see with Valve’s Counter-strike 2 which rush release caused many lags/bugs that angered the fans and the company had to go through many updates to overcome it.
Rockstar doesn’t want to make that mistake.
However, it means fans may have to wait another full year or more before getting their hands on the highly anticipated sequel.
How Will GTA 6 Impact the Gaming Industry?
According to Guillemot, the launch of GTA 6 will be “positive for the market.”
He notes that major GTA releases tend to bring more people into gaming overall, which lifts engagement and sales across the industry.
We saw this effect with the launches of GTA 5 and GTA Online, which drove massive revenues not just for Rockstar but for other developers as well.
So while publishers may avoid dropping games near GTA 6 to prevent sales cannibalization, the rising tide of interest should ultimately lift all boats.
This goes against the recent trend of studios delaying releases to avoid crowded launch windows.
But when a behemoth franchise like Grand Theft Auto returns, it brings such monumental hype that the spillover engagement outweighs any launch competition.
Lessons from the GTA 6 Leak
While Rockstar was disappointed by the major leak of GTA 6 footage last year, Take-Two boss Zelnick believes it ultimately didn’t hurt them.
In fact, the leak generated even more buzz and anticipation for GTA 6’s eventual reveal.
The Wait Continues
While the long-awaited next entry in the groundbreaking Grand Theft Auto series likely won’t arrive until late 2025 at the earliest, its eventual release is destined to be an industry-defining event.