Plenty of video game fans are ecstatic about it. We can’t wait for some of these games to make their way into the market. However, the behemoth that will cast a massive shadow in the industry is Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto 6. The game is still slated for this year; however, the studio has remained quiet. It’s believed a delay could happen, and one consultant is warning players that this GTA 6 delay might be fatal for studios.
This news comes from PC Gamer during GDC. The publication had the chance to speak with Ben Porter, the director of consulting for a games industry intelligence firm called Newzoo. During their conversation, Ben Porter noted that many studios will be concerned if GTA 6 doesn’t launch in the marketplace this year.
If you’re a game company who’s holding its breath waiting for GTA 6 to get out, and then it gets delayed by three, four, five, six months, what do you do? You either have to be able to launch into that big black hole that’s been left open now, or you have to extend your run rate by an additional six months—I’m certain some companies are going to tank as a result of that, right? – Ben Porter
If Rockstar Games does get delayed, then studios will have to guess what to do. Planned releases that were set around next year could get pushed back even further. That’s a massive issue for some studios, which might find themselves in danger of going under if they have to push their games around to make way for the launch of GTA 6.
That would also leave some studios to pounce at launching their games early, if possible, this year. We’re sure there will be a ton of cases where studios are adjusting their scheduling over Rockstar Games’ upcoming release. With so much hype built around GTA 6, it will likely be the one game played by so many fans worldwide for a long while.
That said, this release could be good for the industry. The lead curator for Day of the Devs recently explained how this game would benefit the ecosystem. Likewise, another analyst noted that this might be the last hurrah for Xbox, with a solid boost for the Xbox Series S platform in particular.
