Apologies to fellow game developers, but Rockstar remains tight-lipped about the release date, emphasizing the importance of preserving “anticipation.”

There’s a lot we still don’t know about GTA 6, but probably the most annoying thing that has gone unanswered is just when it’s coming out. Not annoying in the sense of, “oh golly gosh I’m so excited please I need to know”, more “come on now, just get it over with!” It’s just a whole thing, and I wish it wasn’t, but Rockstar and their owner Take-Two also clearly know it’s a whole thing, and are riding on that very fact. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick recently spoke with Bloomberg about a whole bunch of bits, and of course the question of when GTA 6 is coming out came up.

Doubly of course, Zelnick didn’t give a definitive answer, but he did give the exact kind of response a CEO would give. “The anticipation for that title may be the greatest anticipation I’ve ever seen for an entertainment property, and I’ve been around the block a few times,” he said. “We want to maintain the anticipation.” Speaking of “competitors” who lay out their release schedules quite plainly, Zelnick said that they “found that the better thing to do is provide marketing materials relatively close to the release window”.

Translation? A release date isn’t being shared probably until the summer or so, given that Take-Two have already expressed confidence in meeting a fall release window. And as game devs everywhere read this, I can hear them all saying “cripes, when the hell can we even release our game?” Alright, maybe they wouldn’t say cripes, but you know what I mean.

A recent report from the newly established site The Game Business claimed that multiple major publishers have plans in place to deal with the release of GTA 6, because they all fear that it would completely obliterate anything released close to it (a fear they’re right to have). Now just imagine trying to be an indie dev with a game out this year. I shudder at the thought, glad I’m this side of the fence.

All of this doesn’t matter much for readers of RPS though, given that GTA 6 won’t be available on PC at launch, and will likely come a bit further down the way. Which, now that I think about it, is just another release date other devs will likely have to avoid. Just a bit of a lose-lose situation, isn’t it?