The delay of ‘GTA VI’ goes far beyond a mere change in the calendar. It is an earthquake for industry

Not as expected, the Delay in the launch of ‘GTA VI‘He has stopped causing a stir in the video game industry. Rockstar’s title was announced in the Already distant December 5, 2023 With a trailer that gave us clues of where the shots would go, but that left us wanting more after the launch of a ‘gta v’ that dates back to 2013. In its first version. ‘GTA VI‘It was the great launch of 2025 and its absence is much more than the delay of one of the greats.

It is an earthquake in the industry because it affects the rest of the calendarto the actions of your parent company and even console sales that do not go as they should.

Momentum. In a strange way, on Friday, May 2, at 13.25 peninsular time in Spain and with a release Bug, Rockstar confirmed what was smelled to kilometers: ‘GTA VI’ was going to 2026. The company sets date: May 26 next year, and it is a fairly significant date, not so much because it represents something, but because the rest of the industry breathes relieved and knows what to stick to.

But despite the ways, the way of communicating that ‘GTA VI’ will not be launched this year is not accidental. From the first 2023 trailer and that “will arrive in 2025”, we had not had more news about it. ‘GTA VI’ would sell even without advertising, but it was strange not to have seen anything else from the game. The players knew in the background that the game may not leave this year, and Rockstar itself knew it before that announcement. Why did he do so? Because we are in the middle of the year and they could not do it before April 1.

Impact. It was that day that finished Take-Two’s fiscal closure, a company that Rockstar Games is filial and could not announce in any way that the game was delayed if they wanted to keep investors happy. For sample, a button: The value of the actions:

The difference between half an hour prior to the announcement and later days is evident. Because, as we said, ‘Grand Theft Auto’ has long since stopped being a game to become the game, the one that raises passions and moves a lot, a lot of money. Not surprisingly, the fifth delivery has been released several times (in 2013 the original arrived for Xbox 360 and PS3but then relaunted for PC, Xbox One and PS4 and, later, for current Xbox Series and PS5), adding More than 210 million copies as of December 31, 2024.

2025 is again in the menu. Even ‘Red Dead Redemption 2‘, which is a game that has sold well below’ GTA V ‘, has managed to place more than 70 million copies since its launch in 2018, a barbarity in a supersaturated market. Because, as we say, Rockstar is a company that can paralyze the industry. So much that it has become a kind of joke within the sector.

Because nobody wants to launch their game in the window of a ‘GTA’ and, after those sales of the fifth numbered delivery, the industry was waiting for Rockstar to specify a date -beyond the window given a year ago– To start moving marketing machinery. This, more than a personal appreciation, has been a recurring comment on networks these days.

An example is Luke Dale, voice actor in ‘Kingdom eats Deliverance 2‘That he joked with the possibility that the game in which he participates, now, can opt for the Goty (the best game of the year) in the absence of the Rockstar title.

Console sales. But, beyond public and private opinion of the sector, it is a fact that players have no money or time for everything. They are the two goods that the industry seeks to monopolize by all possible means, and the launch of a ‘GTA’ is a large black hole for the rest of the companies that, now, can place their games in the launch windows they estimate without worrying about the elongated shadow of the rockstar saga.

But there are entities in the industry to which this sure delay that has not fallen so well. Xbox stopped being in the hardware race with Any device can be an Xbox. PlayStation, a brand traditionally linked to the ‘GTA’ saga, would surely have many hopes that the new installment gave both its PS5 and a Ps5 pro With more power to display the best visual quality of the video game.

HE esteem That, between January 1 and April 25, Sony has distributed 3.2 million machines. Xbox, meanwhile, 730,000 consoles in that period and, although especially in the case of Sony is a good figure, It supposes One million units than those he managed to place in the same period last year. ‘GTA VI’ seemed like a breath of fresh air, especially when there are already rumors that point to A PS6 in 2027.

2025 was never realistic. At least, that states Jason Schreier. It is one of the most reputed journalists in the video game industry and, just after the announcement of the delay of ‘GTA VI’, he commented that none of the people he has talked about within Rockstar trusted 2025 as a viable date for the launch and that a delay to 2026 was inevitable.

In their wordsthere is “a lot of work and very little time”, and this delay was an internal desire to Avoid a crunch -Term of the world that reflects extra hours to finish the development- inevitable if someone from above intended to launch the game in 2025.

Now, it only remains to wait to see if that date of May 26, 2026 remains fixed, since like other developments – of Rockstar itself – they have shown us, it is that no date is marked in stone and that there can be one … or even two more delays from there.

In Xataka | A ‘GTA VI’ I only ask you to look less at ‘GTA V’ and more to ‘Vice City’. These are the reasons