GTA 5 Leaked Release Date Likely Fake

For games as big as Grand Theft Auto 5, it's normal for people to speculate or to fabricate the game's release date. I'm not really sure why some people would, but it happens…and now, it's happened again.

Over on the International Digital Times, they've posted an apparent "leak" of Grand Theft Auto 5's release date with the culprit being Microsoft no less.

According to commenter Nick Ritenour, he received a message from Microsoft telling him that the ship date for GTA 5 is on March 24, 2013. While I don't blame the site for posting this or even the commenter for being led on, here's a few reasons why this can't be Grand Theft Auto 5's release date.

Firstly, Take-Two Interactive, who's the parent company of Rockstar Games, is also the parent company of 2K Games who has Irrational Games' BioShock Infinite dated on March 26. Unless the game (Infinite) is getting a delay we don't know about, there's no way Take-Two will cannibalize sales of Infinite by having it in the same month as Grand Theft Auto 5. It just won't make any business sense whatsoever, am I right?

The next reason and what might be the most obvious one is March 24 is a Sunday. In the U.S., games are typically released on Tuesdays and seeing as GTA 5 is Take-Two's biggest game of the year, I doubt they'll release it on a Sunday of all days.

Again, the commenter might really have received an email from Microsoft, but if I had to hazard a guess, that was a placeholder date more than anything. 

So long story short, don't believe any rumors or news that Grand Theft Auto 5 will be out on March 24. Who knows, though? Maybe Rockstar will throw fans a bone and reveal the real release date before the month's out. 

When do you think GTA 5 will be out in Spring of this year? Do you think there's a chance this March 24 date is the real deal?

For real Grand Theft Auto 5 news, Microsoft is offering a 1600 Microsoft Point rebate for GTA 5 on the Microsoft Store. You can read up on that here.