GTA VI Speculation & Discussion - Part ∞ - The Leonida Drought

[daley86]

More confident than ever that it releases this year and we get news in the next month.

[Guchmeister]

Guys, I think it's happening. Light at the end of the tunnel might very well be in sight. 2025 is going to be the year. 

[StarRock]

1 minute ago, Guchmeister said:

Guys, I think it's happening. Light at the end of the tunnel might very well be in sight. 2025 is going to be the year. 

[GRANDHEIST]

So

Mafia Old Country: August 8

5 weeks later:

Borderlands 4: September 12

6 weeks later:

GTA VI : October 24?

 

[US Marshal1911]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

 

That was over ten years ago.

 

We literally have direct comments from the CEO of Take-Two, who wholly own Rockstar, saying they're marketing it differently this time around due to a change in the times.

 

I'm not saying it's delayed or not, but I certainly wouldn't be saying because they didn't supposedly intentionally leak a screenshot by now that it means the game is delayed lol.

Yeah and what builds hype more than a supposed “leak”. I still remember the Dragoon leak hype about the yachts. 10 years ago. Just because it’s been 15 years since the last time they marketed a gta game doesn’t mean the strategy is less effective. If something truly was leaked right now, all you staff would be scrambling like chickens to surpress it and it would be the most talked about thing on X, YouTube, Reddit, etc. building hype before the release. Free marketing 

Edited April 29 by US Marshal1911

[Amygdala]

1 hour ago, Amygdala said:

I've heard early access build of VI is releasing in September

 

I've speculated it might be saparate build for press review 

Damm boi . I've heard even more crazy thing than this

[YOU STEPHEN]

i am loving the fresh air of vigor and optimism this thread has been endowed with! A good break from all the gloom and doom.

[US Marshal1911]

2 hours ago, jaredk_ said:

The game is probably coming out in November which is still 6/7 months away. I know we're all antsy but we have to be less generous about rounding down months lol

I’m just rounding to what we know, Fall 2025 as said by Rockstar. I know it will most likely be later Fall but the window is closing fast on the timeframe they announced. 
 

[Jason]

7 minutes ago, US Marshal1911 said:

If something truly was leaked right now, all you staff would be scrambling like chickens to surpress it and it would be the most talked about thing on X

 

GTAF, historically the most famous source of R* related leaks since R*'s inception, would run around like chickens to suppress a leak, lol.

 

I know I pointed out the flaw in your argument (that the CEO of T2 said they're doing things different this time around), but if you're gonna go for the cliche response of "GTAF staff are bad amirite" at least make it a good jab.

[Krutov]

How many months does it take for outdoor marketing VI? That's a good question.

 

Here, many people did not agree with me that 2 months of outdoor and social marketing would be categorically insufficient for GTA 6. In this case, if not August-September, then which month? July? June? Basically, there will be 4/3 months of promotion in June/July. Is this an adequate marketing window for GTA 6?

 

Rockstar, of course, can technically announce a more precise date on May 12-15, but full-fledged marketing promotion, along with the second trailer and other materials, will obviously begin no earlier than June or August, my personal opinion...

[Spider-Vice]

15 minutes ago, US Marshal1911 said:

I still remember the Dragoon leak hype about the yachts. 10 years ago.

...this has nothing to do with official marketing though. I was around at the time, Rockstar made an oopsy in their patch server which meant anyone could download development versions of upcoming DLC patches on PC, Dragoon happened to find this and leaked content from that update. An oversight from R* changing their infrastructure caused that.

[neaL367]

I want to see Jason steal Hamilton car at the F1 Miami Grand Prix this weekend. 

[Malolaat]

RDR2 60FPS Tomorrow! lets go

 

 

[Jason]

5 minutes ago, Krutov said:

How many months does it take for outdoor marketing VI? That's a good question.

 

Here, many people did not agree with me that 2 months of outdoor and social marketing would be categorically insufficient for GTA 6. In this case, if not August-September, then which month? July? June? Basically, there will be 4/3 months of promotion in June/July. Is this an adequate marketing window for GTA 6?

 

Rockstar, of course, can technically announce a more precise date on May 12-15, but full-fledged marketing promotion, along with the second trailer and other materials, will obviously begin no earlier than June or August, my personal opinion...

 

Real world marketing is like weeks not months lol. That's literally the most expensive form of marketing there is.

 

The murals, the billboards, the posters, you do all that stuff very close to launch. There's the odd exception in the past like the box art reveal mural which was early but yea, you're looking at a few weeks of that type of marketing at most, just before launch.

[Tez2]

Gearbox moved the date two weeks forward they tossed NBA 2K26 (TBA) date to Sept 5th. Deja vu of BL3. Visual Concepts tends to either pick the first or second Friday, but it's guaranteed this time.

Edited April 29 by Tez2

[Malolaat]

3 minutes ago, Malolaat said:

RDR2 60FPS Tomorrow! lets go

 

 

now i dont need gta vi 

im not even excited anymore.

[Krutov]

8 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

Real world marketing is like weeks not months lol. That's literally the most expensive form of marketing there is.

 

The murals, the billboards, the posters, you do all that stuff very close to launch. There's the odd exception in the past like the box art reveal mural which was early but yea, you're looking at a few weeks of that type of marketing at most, just before launch.

Jason, I completely agree with you about real marketing, that is, outdoor advertising in the form of murals, posters and posters on buildings, subway cars, buses, and so on. In fact, this massive marketing will begin sometime in October, if the release of VI takes place in late October or early November.

 

But does this mean that Rockstar can technically continue this drought until September or October? It's probably too drastic. We will most likely receive some social promotional materials in the summer (for example, July-August). The main question was, can they delay announcing the release date until August in this case? As far as I'm concerned, they can. They can, for example, name the date on May 12-15, or they can also name it in August. 

[Jason]

1 minute ago, Krutov said:

Jason, I completely agree with you about real marketing, that is, outdoor advertising in the form of murals, posters and posters on buildings, subway cars, buses, and so on. In fact, this massive marketing will begin sometime in October, if the release of VI takes place in late October or early November.

 

But does this mean that Rockstar can technically continue this drought until September or October? It's probably too drastic. We will most likely receive some social promotional materials in the summer (for example, July-August). The main question was, can they delay announcing the release date until August in this case? As far as I'm concerned, they can. They can, for example, name the date on May 12-15, or they can also name it in August. 

 

Can they technically say nothing until the game is a month out? Sure.

 

Will they? Probably not. 

 

Once the date is locked and revealed we'll probably get a few months of online marketing through trailers, screens, media previews, then the real world stuff will pick up as we close in on launch. There's nothing really unusual about this whole thing just yet.

[Rockstar Vienna]

Everyone is hanging on to Zelnick's marketing statement. But I remember a different time (GTA V, RDR 2). The time when people asked about info about news, a new trailer or a release date/window. Often during their conference calls. Statements like "When Rockstar is ready" or "you have to ask Rockstar about that" ( something along those lines) was the norm iirc. So 2 possibilities here... Take 2 is much more involved in the development stages of Rockstar or (and this is still my guess) it's the CEO just talking to his shareholders and nothing else.

 

That does not rule out a fall 25 release at all, even if it really is just business talk. But I still think a April/May 26 release is more likely. Either way, I hope we'll finally get our info (good or "bad") in 1-2 weeks.

 

And if it really will be a Spring 26 announcement next month, think about it that way... We got a trailer and nothing else for one and a half years. Now imagine getting your hands on the game in just a year from now on with trailers, gameplay, screenshots etc. in between. This is why I really would not mind a delay. Half a year is nothing tbh.

[Jason]

Just now, Rockstar Vienna said:

 it's the CEO just talking to his shareholders and nothing else.

 

It's largely that. The calls aren't made for us and they never have been. But it was an interview where he implied a change of marketing strategy, a more modern strategy, and it fits with not just GTA VI but other games under T2 as well. Look at Mafia, a reveal trailer last year and very little so far, out this summer. BL4 was revealed last year, out this September, very little revealed (that's coming tomorrow). It's not just shareholder waffle.

 

It's also in line with what many other publishers are doing, game reveals followed by a long stretch of silence then a smaller, tighter marketing campaign.

 

The days of announcing a game 5 years in advance aren't over but the days of announcing a game 5 years in advance and then dripfeeding new gameplay demos every year pretty much are.

[Krutov]

8 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

Can they technically say nothing until the game is a month out? Sure.

 

Will they? Probably not. 

 

Once the date is locked and revealed we'll probably get a few months of online marketing through trailers, screens, media previews, then the real world stuff will pick up as we close in on launch. There's nothing really unusual about this whole thing just yet.

Well, in this case, you can believe in a miracle a little bit, so that Rockstar announced the exact date on May 12-15, and then began the first online marketing promotions for the game in the summer. 

 

Although, again, we have the opinion of the former developer of R*, Obbe Vermeij, who for some reason now pins his hopes on the August financial call, before which R* must accurately determine the release date, whether they are ready to release it in 3-4 months. It's funny that in September 2024, he said that the R* should be decided before May. Apparently he decided to play it safe  

[jacqueks]

And so the wait is (hopefully) almost over

[Rockstar Vienna]

25 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

Look at Mafia, a reveal trailer last year and very little so far, out this summer. BL4 was revealed last year, out this September, very little revealed (that's coming tomorrow). It's not just shareholder waffle.

Very true! Never really thought about T2's other games and their marketing/release dates this year. 

[US Marshal1911]

1 hour ago, Spider-Vice said:

...this has nothing to do with official marketing though. I was around at the time, Rockstar made an oopsy in their patch server which meant anyone could download development versions of upcoming DLC patches on PC, Dragoon happened to find this and leaked content from that update. An oversight from R* changing their infrastructure caused that.

My point is that any type of leak or “leak” is free marketing because people will take it and run. I didn’t mean to infer that Dragoon was official marketing team. Rockstar knows that if they put something out in the guise of a “whoops that wasn’t supposed to get out” it’s more exciting than an official post. 

[Punkd]

i got cautiously optimistic with todays news!

i was always team "delay" / team "2026"

but moving borderlands to an earlier date, mafia release in august, etc.: it all makes sense for the real deal, gta 6

its still r* and they are kinda unpredictable, delays could still happen at a later point in time

but now i got very confident in the Fall 2025 release

 

i assume we get some kind of news between 12th-15th May

trailer 2, release date(or month) confirmation, pre-orders opening (99€-ish) could all very well happen in May, maybe not in the conference call week, but maybe by the end of May

i still expect the drought to finally end in the week of 12th May

and the earliest release date for gta 6 could be 26th Sep. or 30st Sep., or maybe October, but i dont think they will wait until november or even december

 

nice to finally join Team "Fall 2025"

(r* in july: "grand theft auto 6 is now set to launch Early 2026, some extra time is necessary to ensure that we can deliver the best experience possible for our fans.")

 

[US Marshal1911]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

 

GTAF, historically the most famous source of R* related leaks since R*'s inception, would run around like chickens to suppress a leak, lol.

 

I know I pointed out the flaw in your argument (that the CEO of T2 said they're doing things different this time around), but if you're gonna go for the cliche response of "GTAF staff are bad amirite" at least make it a good jab.

No I genuinely meant that if a solid leak got out the hype would be immense. No need to be defensive. I’m not trying to strike an argument. 
 

TK2 can say whatever they want to say. The types of marketing available works regardless if it’s been 10/20/30 years etc. Zelnick can say whatever he wants about marketing, if it looks like a “leak” it will have greater hype factor than an ordinary post especially with how secretive Rockstar is.

[Jason]

4 minutes ago, US Marshal1911 said:

My point is that any type of leak or “leak” is free marketing because people will take it and run. I didn’t mean to infer that Dragoon was official marketing team. Rockstar knows that if they put something out in the guise of a “whoops that wasn’t supposed to get out” it’s more exciting than an official post. 

 

Intentional leaks are a thing, very rare, but have no doubt happened in the games industry. But they're not common and while yea it'd generate hype so would official screens. It's not really a something a publishers ever do for promo assets. Ubi are highly believed to have done it years ago when they were doing AC's every year or two, likely leaking out early text details to gather feedback.

 

Also not to mention the last thing R* will want from a PR perspective is a another "leak". Yea sure they could intentionally leak something but it wouldn't be reported that way and they probably don't want those old leak stories dredged up again.

 

1 minute ago, US Marshal1911 said:

No I genuinely meant that if a solid leak got out the hype would be immense. No need to be defensive. I’m not trying to strike an argument. 

 

Fair enough.

[Nawaf]

they f*cking got me!

[Distrom]

1 minute ago, Nawaf said:

they f*cking got me!

They got my ass for 2 seconds

[Retro_Causality]

Their was a smaller gap between the Sep. 2022 leaks and the first trailer versus the first trailer to now, that is insane