Release date set for Grand Theft Auto 6, according to rumours

It may be sooner than fans think

The last GTA game, GTA V, was released in 2013 and became the fastest-selling entertainment product in history, earning $800 million in its first day and $1 billion in its first three days, along with rave reviews from critics.

It's no wonder then that the next installment in the series is so highly-anticipated, with fans desperate for new information about it.

Gamers may not have to wait quite as long as they perhaps feared for GTA 6 though, with the latest rumours suggesting it could be released as early as 2024.

In a post on Reddit from GTA leaker @TezFunz2 earlier this month, he said that the “aimed-always-changing-not-set-in-stone deadline is holiday 2024”.

This would seem to back up previous rumours about a 2024 release; back in November 2022 Microsoft stated in a response to the UK’s CMA that the GTA 6 release date "is expected" in 2024.

Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson also suggests that this rumour is in line with his own sources, saying that as early as 2021 Rockstar was aiming for a 2024 release. According to Henderson's sources, part of what's taking GTA 6 so long is that it's being developed for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S exclusively.

But both have warned that the game could slide back into 2025. Whereas Henderson speculates that a GTA 6 release date of holiday 2025 is more plausible should such a delay happen, @TezFunz2 says it's possible that Rockstar could cut “more portions of the game to package into DLCs to release later on” and that it would be more “sustainable for management than delaying further” into late 2025 or even 2026.

There is still no official word from Rockstar about when GTA 6 may hit shelves. The most they have said is a tweet in February 2022 announcing that “active development for the next entry in the series is underway”.

This came after hackers leaked Graft Theft Auto VI content, in one of the biggest confidential data breaches in gaming history.

The leak revealed development footage and source code, along with more than 90 videos and images of the long-awaited follow up were leaked, in an intrusion which Rockstar Games described as “extremely disappointing”.

A statement from Rockstar Games at the time confirmed an unauthorized third party had illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from its systems, including GTA footage.

The team said they will “properly” introduce them to GTA 6 when it is ready.

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