Early this year, Rockstar finally announced that Grand Theft Auto 6 is in development. After almost a full decade without a new installment – with GTA 5 having first released in 2013 – Rockstar’s flagship series is officially active again. While the release date is still likely a long way off, the fact that a new game will be coming is exciting for longtime GTA fans.
Although the general mood is positive regarding the upcoming GTA 6, some fans are puzzled as to why it has taken so long for a new title to be announced. For a long time, Grand Theft Auto was a very active franchise, with new installments every few years. The long gap between GTA 5 and GTA 6 is an irregularity for a series that had previously released five installments in less than 10 years. Although GTA 6‘s release date is not confirmed, just knowing that it’s coming will likely be a relief to fans.
Rockstar has not been a dormant studio during the space between Grand Theft Auto titles, as can be seen through its other projects, with Red Dead Redemption 2 – arguably the studio’s most ambitious title ever – having released in 2018. Even so, it is difficult for one not to wonder why GTA 6 took so much longer to be announced than any of the series’ previous titles. For a series that once produced five games in less than a decade, over nine years between installments is quite a stretch. However, there are a few plausible explanations for the long wait.
GTA Trilogy May Have Shaken Up The Timeline
The disastrous release of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy- The Definitive Edition has gone down as one of Rockstar’s few infamous moments. The GTA Trilogy released in a buggy, disappointing state – much to the displeasure of fans. While this may have pushed back work on GTA 6, it may not have delayed it as much as it could have, with the remasters having been developed by Grove Street Games, which is not one of the core development studios at Rockstar.
It’s rare for Rockstar to produce a critical misfire, but that’s very much what the GTA Trilogy turned out to be. What could’ve been a charming revisit to the studio’s early GTA titles – and potentially something to tide fans over in the wait for GTA 6 – ended up being anything but. Early leaks hinting at the GTA remasters stirred up quite a bit of excitement. However, despite the hype, it backfired once player complaints about GTA Trilogy started quickly piling up. What should have been a feather in Rockstar’s cap became a bit of an embarrassment.
The problems with GTA Trilogy on launch may have actually forced Rockstar to make the announcement of GTA 6 earlier than first planned. Its reputation was taking serious damage, and focusing on GTA 6 is a nice way to inject some positivity into discussions surrounding the studio. The reveal of the next mainline Grand Theft Auto turned attention back to the future, and reinvigorated fan anticipation in the long-awaited sequel.
The Success Of GTA Online May Have Delayed Plans For GTA 6
Grand Theft Auto Online has been running for almost nine years, and it could easily be considered Rockstar’s current flagship product. The game has received frequent support and updates as well as a very large playerbase, and PlayStation Plus providing GTA Online for free will only grow that base. It has grown to the point that it arguably has more content than GTA 5, and it only keeps expanding. This ever-evolving game could have also played a role in Grand Theft Auto 6‘s delayed announcement.
It is widely believed by fans that Grand Theft Auto Online receives most of Rockstar’s attention, and it can be hard to argue with that considering the amount of updates that the game receives when compared to Red Dead Online. On that note, it is possible that Rockstar’s intense focus on GTA Online meant that development on GTA 6 was slowed down. GTA 5‘s multiplayer has received a healthy amount of content, with the auto shop being GTA Online‘s latest addition. With so much time being put into adding more features to GTA Online, and with its immense level of success, the need to develop GTA 6 may not have been as urgent as previous sequels made by the studio.
The Size Of GTA 6 Could Also Be Why It Took So Long To Announce
There is also a chance that the lateness of Grand Theft Auto 6‘s announcement has nothing to do with any of Rockstar’s other games. In fact, the delay could have been caused by a reason that could have happened to any game on the market. The reason for the gap between GTA 5 and GTA 6‘s releases could be because of GTA 6 itself.
Creating a video game is a long, difficult process that can take years. When working on a release for a major franchise – GTA arguably being the biggest globally – there’s a lot of pressure to deliver on expectations and even exceed them. After GTA 6‘s reveal received over 500,000 Twitter likes, it is clear that fans are expecting the game to deliver. Fans have had years of rumors that have built up a version of GTA 6 bigger in scale than both GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, and although expectations should never dictate development, it is possible that Rockstar is conscious of how the long wait for GTA 6 will have impacted on said expectations.
Grand Theft Auto 6 is rumored to have been in development since after the release of GTA 5, which would mean that Rockstar has spent nine years working on the project in some form. The game’s development cycle has also intersected with the arrival of more powerful games consoles, such as the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Grand Theft Auto 6‘s late announcement may have simply been how long it took for a concrete plan for the game to be laid out, and Rockstar didn’t want to announce it until then. There are also rumors that GTA 6 is Rockstar’s most chaotic project, and if true, that very well could have played a role in the delays.
An almost 10-year gap between mainline Grand Theft Auto titles is very unusual for the series, but the announcement of GTA 6 means that the wait may soon be over. The true cause of the announcement’s delay may never come to light unless someone from Rockstar reveals the truth. Whatever the case, the wait for Grand Theft Auto 6 has been a long one, and fans can only hope that the final product will be worth it.
