Grand Theft Auto 6 has been missing in action since its debut trailer last year, but it’s still reportedly set to come out next year, according to a new report.
In the report, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier confirmed that GTA 6 is still “on track” for its Fall 2024 release window, despite missing “multiple deadlines,” which he called a “common practice at Rockstar.” But the game’s publisher Take-Two says it’s back on schedule to release in its previously announced window.
Schreier called GTA 6 “possibly the most lucrative entertainment product of all time,” though the game has not been seen or heard from since its debut trailer over a year ago despite being in development for 10 years. This would mean GTA 6 started its development in 2014, a year after GTA 5’s initial release, although he said it kicked into full development mode in 2018 after Red Dead Redemption 2’s release.
It was then, according to Schreier, that reports of poor workplace culture like extreme crunch pushed Rockstar to improve itself, like promising a more reasonable schedule. But after a massive hack of Rockstar in 2022 that revealed GTA 6‘s existence, the team was forced to move back to the office five days a week.
With the debut trailer last year, Rockstar announced the 2025 release date for the highly-anticipated open-world action game. That hasn’t changed—at least not yet—and if GTA 6 is to last as long and be as successful as GTA 5 in the end, the wait will have been worth it. GTA 5 has sold 205 million units since release on multiple platforms, utilizing GTA Online and microtransactions to boost sales and keep the title going for over a decade.
In the report, Schreier also noted that GTA 6 will be “less crude toward transgender people and other minorities, the common targets of throwaway gags in previous versions,” as was asked of the writers by Rockstar Games’ higher-ups.
The news will likely not go over well with some in the gaming community, and call into question whether or not Rockstar has gone “woke” in current times. Looking back on previous titles in the series, many jokes likely have not aged well since, which may be forcing the studio and its writers to be a bit more selective with its punching bags as society itself has taken a more critical stance on what we used to call a parody.
With GTA 6 presumably less than a year away barring any unannounced delays, it’s possible that more of the game could be shown soon, including an official release date.
