Dread it, run from it – the Grand Theft Auto 6 delay arrived, as many assumed it could. Whereas former Rockstar technical lead Obbe Vermeij is taking it positively, Circana’s Mat Piscatella believes it can considerably affect the business.
Talking to GamesRadar+, the analyst mentioned the open-world title is “a recreation that will convey relapsed gamers again to the consoles specifically and would have been a driver of incremental {hardware} gross sales. It could additionally, if profitable, have introduced potential progress months to the business (once more, notably on the console facet) and should have even labored to reinvigorate investor curiosity within the phase.
“I don’t suppose anybody advantages in 2025 from this push. It wasn’t looming over the vacation season. It was going to be a giant driver of what success potential the vacation season had.” Piscatella believes complete online game spending in america will “fall within the mid-single-digit share vary, with spending falling to the bottom degree since earlier than the pandemic. On account of additional uncertainties round pricing and product availability, there may be additionally the potential for important draw back from there.”
“Uncertainties round pricing” doubtless refers back to the tariffs and their affect on console and recreation pricing. Nintendo already introduced a value enhance for its Nintendo Swap 2 equipment forward of the July fifth launch (with the $80 value level for video games already garnering backlash). Microsoft has additionally elevated the worth of its Xbox Collection X/S worldwide, with first-party titles to undertake an $80 value from Fall onwards, relying on their scale.
As for Grand Theft Auto 6, it launches on Could twenty sixth, 2026, for Xbox Collection X/S and PS5. The delay is allegedly because of Rockstar administration avoiding “brutal crunch” and is supported by Take-Two Interactive, which nonetheless expects sturdy web report bookings from this fiscal yr.