Summary
- Three major publishers are ready to delay their upcoming games to avoid launching around the same time as GTA 6, claims a new report.
- Some publishers are formulating multiple release strategies depending on when Rockstar plans to launch GTA 6, and major content updates for live-service titles are being delayed too.
- There’s also a latent fear that Rockstar may push GTA 6 to 2026, which would further complicate release schedules for publishers.
Three major video game publishers are reportedly prepared to delay their upcoming releases to avoid Rockstar Games’ looming juggernaut: Grand Theft Auto 6. While an exact release date for GTA 6 hasn’t been divulged, its fall 2025 launch window still seems to be warding off a lot of developers and publishers from targeting game releases during that period.
Excitement for GTA 6 is off the charts on an unprecedented scale when it comes to gamers, but it’s a different story for the games industry itself. Prior reports alleged that GTA 6 is affecting game release schedules for 2025 across several publishers, as tens of millions of players are expected to flock to the Rockstar behemoth once it launches. This will most likely lead to other games being overshadowed, and therefore publishers feel compelled to reconsider their launch cadences in order to stay as far away from GTA 6 as possible.
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As fans await news on GTA 6‘s release date with bated breath, so does the rest of the games industry. A new report from The Game Business claims that three major publishers are ready to postpone their upcoming games to avoid going head-on against GTA 6. The report includes conversations with multiple executives who confirmed that they are actively planning game releases with GTA 6‘s launch in mind. Some publishers are shifting release dates, while others are delaying major content updates for their live-service games to avoid competing for players’ time once GTA 6 is out.
Publishers Coming Up With “Multiple Plans” to Prevent Being Overshadowed by GTA 6
One unnamed exec at a major publisher outright admitted, “We don’t want to be anywhere near [GTA 6]. We are working up multiple different plans for our titles.” Another industry figure concurred with this sentiment, stating that even without GTA 6, it’s “immensely difficult” to find the right window for “new games to shine,” while a third exec (supposedly from a prominent European AAA publisher) explained that publishers are facing a hefty dilemma: releasing before GTA 6 means dealing with an already-packed summer schedule, while launching later puts them in competition with Black Friday deals.
GTA 6 is basically a huge meteor, and we will just stay clear of the blast zone.
It should be noted that GTA 6‘s release concerns aren’t just impacting small and medium-sized publishers. In February, EA CEO Andrew Wilson hinted at adjusting the release window for the next Battlefield game due to an unspecified forthcoming major title, widely assumed to be GTA 6. A huge potential hurdle, though, is the possibility of GTA 6 being delayed into 2026. Some publishers fear that moving their games out of 2025 to avoid GTA 6 might backfire if Rockstar also chooses to go with a delay, forcing yet another round of scheduling changes. As the European exec put it, “If we move out of 2025, what if Rockstar does too? Will we have time to push our game up? Or will we have to delay further? It’s stressful.”
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