GTA 6 Might Release as Soon as 2024, Rockstar Games Owner Take-Two Hints

The parent company expects to hit $8 billion (about Rs. 65,905 crore) in net bookings in the fiscal years 2025 and 2026.

Written by Rahul Chettiyar, Edited by Manas Mitul | Updated: 18 May 2023 11:29 IST

GTA 6 Might Release as Soon as 2024, Rockstar Games Owner Take-Two Hints

Photo Credit: TakeTwo Interactive

The last Grand Theft Auto game was released in 2013

Highlights

For context, fiscal 2025 will begin in the April of 2024
Test build footage from GTA 6 was leaked online last year
Take-Two also has a new Mafia game, Judas, and more in store for us

Grand Theft Auto 6 could launch as early as next year. In its latest yearly earnings report, Rockstar Games' parent company Take-Two Interactive shared massive expectations for the fiscal years 2025 and 2026. This translates to a release window starting in April 2024, with the publisher aiming to achieve over $8 billion (about Rs. 65,905 crore) in net bookings by “launching several groundbreaking titles.” While not explicitly mentioned, a report from IGN suggests that a product of the calibre of GTA 6 could be the main driver for such growth targets. It's really hard to imagine any other franchise achieving similar results for the company.

The assumption is bolstered by taking Take-Two's net bookings in the past fiscal year into account, which reached $5.3 billion (about Rs. 43,673 crore), notably thanks to its acquisition of mobile gaming giant Zynga, early last year. Prior to that, the company's annual net bookings reportedly lay in the ballpark of $3 billion (about Rs. 24,720 crore), and it's clear that to reach its latest targets — fiscal years 2025–26 — it would need to make several major acquisitions or launch double the amount of titles or release one of the most anticipated franchise follow-ups of all time i.e., GTA 6. For context, Grand Theft Auto V has sold 180 million copies since its launch in 2013.

“For the last several years, we have been preparing our business to release an incredibly robust pipeline of projects that we believe will take our company to even greater levels of success,” Take-Two said in its earnings report. “In Fiscal 2025, we expect to enter this new era by launching several groundbreaking titles that we believe will set new standards in our industry and enable us to achieve over $8 billion in Net Bookings and over $1 billion in Adjusted Unrestricted Operating Cash Flow. We expect to sustain this momentum by delivering even higher levels of operating results in Fiscal 2026 and beyond.” Not many games have generated as much social media buzz since Rockstar Games officially confirmed development on GTA 6, last year, followed by a massive data leak that showcased in-development gameplay footage.

In September, the studio suffered a leak, revealing gameplay footage from GTA 6. A user named ‘teapotuberhacker' dropped a trove of over 90 videos showing two playable characters — Lucia and Jason — in line with earlier reports which suggested the inclusion of a female lead in the game. Rockstar Games confirmed that the leak was indeed real, with Take-Two adding that it did not affect business and was largely an ‘emotional matter.' An unnamed 17-year-old from Oxfordshire, England was reportedly arrested under suspicions of hacking and was connected to the hacker group ‘Laspus$,' which was also allegedly responsible for the Uber leaks.

Besides GTA 6, Take-Two's upcoming release slate includes BioShock creator Ken Levine's next game Judas, a new Mafia title from Hangar 13, a new BioShock entry, and its annual lineup of sports games. Meanwhile, it continues thriving on the sales of GTA V, its active online component, and Red Dead Redemption 2 (over 53 million copies sold).

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