If you have been biding your time to know the release date of the much-awaited next Grand Theft Auto game, well we have some news for you. It is still going to be next year, but it will be during the fall. This news is likely to be little consolation for die-hard gamers who have been waiting, for now well over a decade for the next big release in the acclaimed Grand Theft Auto series. With the last installment Grand Theft Auto 5 is still going strong. Before we get to the question of what gamers can expect from the next game, what is scarier is the sheer wait times between the games, which is the focus of this post.
Grand Theft Auto 4 to Grand Theft Auto 5
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It is hard to imagine that the previous Grand Theft Auto game: GTA IV was released all the way back in 2008. 16 years ago! Let that sink in. Virtually a generation of gamers were never even born when the previous major release came out. And it took only half a decade for the release of the much anticipated GTA V. Which at the time of its release became the fastest entertainment property to reach $ 1 billion, reaching the milestone in a matter of 3 days.
The success and fanfare of GTA V require little elaboration. The game is a phenomenon. Whilst some would argue that GTA IV is the better game overall in contrast to its successor, there is no taking away the astounding achievement that is GTA V, with GTA Online becoming an unbelievable cash cow for the developer Rockstar Games, in the decade since its release GTA V, has made over $8 billion.
This success effectively dwarfs the revenues earned by GTA IV, a massive game in its own right that took around $100 million to develop. GTA V with twice the development costs has far surpassed it.
Grand Theft Auto V – Too Much of a Good Thing
The success of GTA V in terms of its gameplay, value proposition of online play, and the sheer freedom it affords players has been a boon and a curse. For the developers, in terms of the financial return, and for gamers in terms of replayability and entertainment value. However, the downside has been that the emergence of the next big installment has been forestalled.
Gamers today rightly recognize the growing costs of game development and the time it takes to produce a top-quality game. And for an AAA game studio like Rockstar Games, there is that extra bit of freedom to take their time and produce their next big thing. The trouble of course is that these wait times are getting longer. Ridiculously long. Having to wait over a decade for a new game in the series… If you work out the math that means the average gamer in his thirties has about 4 – 5 GTA games left in him, provided the development times don’t get any longer.
Added to this internal changes are also a factor. Recently Rockstar’s parent Take-Two Interactive announced a series of layoffs, notably with the closure of its Seattle office, which may not be a good sign. Here it is important to note that game studios, yes even major ones like Rockstar games are controlled by huge public limited companies that have to answer to shareholders. For whom the profit motive, as opposed to gamer satisfaction, comes first.
Grand Theft Auto 6 – What Can Gamers Expect?
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Nothing but the very best. That is what gamers deserve for years of loyalty to this massive franchise and the countless dollars they (we) have poured into online play. The question is can Rockstar deliver? If past games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and GTA V are anything to go by then we are in for a treat. The only trouble is the waiting time alone is taking a good decade out of your life.
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