Update:
Rockstar Games has since confirmed that a trailer will release in early December.
Original Story…
As reported by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, Rockstar Games has plans to announce the game as soon as next week. They will then be publishing an official trailer on December to mark Rockstar’s 25 year anniversary.
Jason reached out to Rockstar, but the studio had yet to respond to a request for comment.
The big elephant in the room for this announcement was the hack that leaked Grand Theft Auto VI over two years ago. Fans had been worried about the clearly incomplete state that the leaked build was in, and speculated that it would take a long time before the game would be ready to release.
Rockstar had an extremely cautious response to this leak, confirming that the leak was real, but also pointing out that it did not reflect the actual state of development. While some fans cautioned each other to be wary of Rockstar’s statements, it would seem that we should have been more cautious about making conclusions based on leaks, rumors, and speculation.
This would also quite the culmination for the wait for a new Grand Theft Auto, which turned out to have extended to a full decade. Of course, unlike previous Grand Theft Auto games, Grand Theft Auto V came with the debut of Grand Theft Auto Online.
As Rockstar themselves would glibly confirm, Grand Theft Auto Online allowed Rockstar to get by without releasing new games for longer than they had before. Of course, as a live service game, Grand Theft Auto Online itself saw continued development. But, comparatively speaking, Rockstar was able to keep making a high amount of revenue for less work than they would have releasing a new game.
Many fans had worried that the start of live service games would lead to the end of single player narrative campaigns, but now we have a fuller picture of how they would affect the industry. Live service games cannot replace single player games, but they serve a new slice of the gaming market. While there’s overlap between fans of single player games and live service games, it’s clear that fans properly recognize them as a completely different experience.
Getting back to Grand Theft Auto VI, we literally saw the franchise pass over an entire console generation. Of course, expectations are sky high as a result, but if Rockstar feels confident, they must have something spectacular to show us.
