GTA 5 will be Released After April, Report Suggests

As we reported yesterday, Grand Theft Auto 5 has been confirmed for a Spring 2013 release on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The release date has since been narrowed down as its publisher Take Two Games lowered its financial estimates for the current fiscal year.

The latest earnings results published by Take Two Games implies that the game may see release at some time after April 2013. The publisher lowered its revenue predictions by $0.5 billion (from $1.7 to $1.8 billion down to $1.1 to $1.2 billion) for the current financial year, which ends on March 31, 2013.

The huge drop in their forecast would imply—at least to investors—that the game isn’t going to be released at any time during the current financial year. Given the size of the property and the anticipation everyone has for GTA 5, there’s little doubt that the game is going to sell well enough to be Take Two’s biggest release yet.

Weighing in on the initial GTA 5 release date announcement, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter shared his prediction that the game’s release would be sometime around June rather than March. "Spring is March 20 – June 20, so I would say that the 'Spring 2013' launch means the June quarter and not the March quarter. If it was coming out March 20 – 31, they would have said March. That means that Take-Two has to lower its earnings guidance,” said Pachter in an interview with GI.biz.

Given that Take Two has lowered its financial estimates for the current year, Pachter’s analysis is very likely correct.

In what appears to be a trend, Rockstar Games released its past three games in May, so there’s a good chance that they’re going to do the same with Grand Theft Auto 5.