‘GTA 6’ release date: Two factors that should worry fans about the franchise’s sixth installment

The development of “GTA 6” remains unconfirmed and it appears it’s going to stay that way for a while. While there’s no doubt that work on the sixth entry has already begun, it’s difficult to pinpoint where the developers currently are since Rockstar and Take-Two are keeping everything under wraps.

But speculations can still be made by looking at the other activities of both enterprises, as well as the previous statements of the companies’ big wigs. And judging by these developments, there are two concerns that that has been brought up concerning “GTA 6.”

First is the recent success that “GTA Online” received. According to HR, the title recently achieved another milestone by having it's player count reach unprecedented numbers on a daily and weekly basis following the release of the new Casino update. While some may be seeing this as a great stepping stone for “GTA 6,” it could also signal that Rockstar may be looking to keep working on the online version rather than proceed with the sixth entry.

After all, why fix something that is clearly making a lot of cash, right? Making “GTA 6” would only split the franchise’s player base rather than keep them on a single hub, not to mention transferring to another game is always an uncertainty.

Another concern by the fan base is the previous statement that Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said regarding future content. Zelnick sat down with Gameindustry.biz and basically said that they might be looking to cut down the content of future games, which may include “GTA 6.”

“It's possible that games may be a bit shorter than they were in certain instances. It's possible that the ability to deliver content on an ongoing basis for a long time after an initial release of a hit would mean that perhaps that initial release wouldn't be as long in terms of number of hours of gameplay as previously had been demanded in a world where that was all you were getting,” Zelnick explained. Put simply, Zelnick may be looking to employ a GAAS model for “GTA 6,” a worrying possibility given that game studios have been exploring this sort of practice for a while now.

This certainly warrants a deeper discussion, but that’s a topic for another day. With regards to the speculation surrounding the release date of “GTA 6,” most are in agreement that it could come out in 2021 at the earliest.