Following the recent announcement of GTA V's delay to later this year (Sep 17), several industry analysts are weighing in on the possibility of Rockstar planning on a next-gen release for its upcoming title. Sony's much publicized Feb 20 event is a clear indication of PlayStation 4 being officially announced and Microsoft is soon to follow suit, 2013 is definitely the year where many of us might get a first hand experience of all the next-generation of consoles.
Cowen & Company analyst Doug Creutz said, (via CVG)
In and of itself, the delay of the game from FQ1 to FQ2 would not normally mean any significant change to expected FY14 financial results.
However there is an issue in that we expect the next generation of Xbox and/or PlayStation consoles to launch in the December quarter. We think the closer proximity of GTA V to the next cycle could, at the margin, impact lifetime sales of the title, though we believe that a title of GTA's stature will still be a major seller regardless.
We think there also could be some impact on the legs of likely GTA V downloadable content as the next-gen installed base increases through 2014. However, we suspect Take-Two may have plans to eventually publish GTA V on the next set of consoles in some form to offset this.
Disgruntled fans are also rallying support and urging others who pre-ordered the game to cancel their pre-orders because they feel deceived by the previously announced spring release date. I would add that such measures only serve as a counterproductive scare tactic for personal vindication that does little for either the game or its fanbase.
A section of fans have posed a theory that suggests Rockstar might decide to remove some parts of the game to reinsert later as DLC.
As for the boxart, Rockstar has officially confirmed that it'll be coming out a bit later.
On a related note, Sterne Agee's Arvind Bhatia expects the game to sell at least 18 million copies and that the development cost could've been around $137 million which definitely makes it one of the most expensive games ever made, second only to SWTOR.
