GTA 5 Release Probably Next Year, Says Analyst

We don't go a week without a videogame analyst making some prediction about Grand Theft Auto 5's release date.

Games analyst Colin Sebastian says (via Videogamer) that Rockstar's GTA 5 won't be making it out this year. He believes that the earliest release date the game could have would be sometime in 2013 because of Rockstar's focus on Max Payne 3, and competition with their own game wouldn't be in the company's best interests.

Furthermore, if released this year, GTA 5 would have to compete with the likes of Diablo III, Halo 4, and Assassin's Creed III.

That's not to say that the game wouldn't see competition in the form of Bioshock Infinite, God of War: Ascension, The Last of Us and any other games releasing next year, but having it come out during the busy season—in the same year they're trying to push sales for Max Payne 3—would do more than cramp GTA 5's style.

However, fellow analyst Michael Pachter has a different view. He believes that Bioshock Infinite's delay to 2013 opens up a window of opportunity for GTA5 to be released this year. He thinks it'll come out in October:

"In our view, the delay opens the window for Grand Theft Auto V to be released in October 2012 (Q3:13). We believe that October is the preferred release month for GTA V's developer, Rockstar Games, as the studio has scheduled every prior GTA releases during that month (with GTA IV delayed to April 2008, due to bugs in the PS3 version). We speculate that once Rockstar Games notified Take-Two that GTA V would be ready by October, Take-Two gave Irrational Games the option to spend more time fine-tuning BioShock Infinite."

Only time will tell if Pachter or Sebastian are right. Personally, my money's on Sebastian. Dedicated fans can check out our GTA 5 Wallpapers.