18 May 2023 , 10:01
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GTA 5 is the cash cow that has Take Two has been successfully milking since 2013, but now it seems that the publisher is finally looking forward to the next instalment – and the milky river of money that comes with it – as early as next year.
The publisher may have tipped its hand on the GTA 6 release date front, with the game launching as early as April 2024, according to its FY2025 forecast that predicts a whole lot of money coming the publisher's way. As its resident golden goose, GTA 5 can only do so much, so it's very likely that the source of next fiscal year's cash is GTA 6.
Since its 2013 launch, GTA 5 has released on three generations of consoles, starting on the Xbox One and PS3, and getting a PS5 and Xbox Series X|S version last year. The title has amassed more revenue than any other form of media in history, coming in at over $6 billion (£4.2 billion) which was the last count in 2018, and over 175 million units sold worldwide as of February 2023 (via Statista).
And now Take Two is preparing to rake in another boatload of cash, according to its annual earnings report, saying that FY2025 will see the company enter a "new era" that'll see $8 billion in net bookings. That's a pretty optimistic number considering that last fiscal year's figure was a record high of $5.3 billion – although its acquisition of Zynga might have had something to do with that.
Here we go again
Aside from more acquisitions, Take Two's forecast is based on the impending release of "an incredibly robust pipeline of projects" that it believes will take the company to "even greater levels of success". These projects include "several groundbreaking titles" that will "set new standards" in the industry and push it towards its $8 billion projection. It doesn't explicitly name any titles, but given the monetary behemoths that GTA 5 and GTA Online have become, it's reasonable to speculate that GTA 6 us one of them.
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Based on the report, we're looking at a possible GTA 6 release date as early as April 2024, to March 2025, which is the window that FY2025 encapsulates. This falls in line with the rumours we've been hearing for a while now from the likes of industry leaker Tom Henderson and Bloomberg's Jason Schreier. Take-Two CEO, Strauss Zelnick, declined to comment on the speculation when prodded by IGN, giving neither a thumbs up or thumbs down in response to the speculation.
It's possible the publisher has some more acquisitions up its sleeve, but given GTA 5's unprecedented success, and fact that we know GTA 6 is in development, it's unlikely that another IP is waiting in the wings to draw in that much revenue. In the words of GTA San Andreas' CJ, "here we go again".