Back in May, publisher Take-Two projected an income of $1.8 billion for the upcoming fiscal year (as in, this one that’s happening right now). Nobody was certain how Take-Two would reach such high figures (forgetting Spec Ops The Line, Max Payne 3, Borderlands 2, Bioshock: Infinite…) and journalists took this to mean that GTA V was getting a release before the end of March next year. Of course, since that initial trailer in November of last year, we’ve heard nothing, save for a couple of screenshots released in the last few months.
This has lead to Colin Sebastian, a senior research analyst at Baird, to conclude that it is very unlikely that GTA V will make it out prior to April of next year. Here is his expert explanation as to why.
By no means am I convinced that Grand Theft Auto V will miss March, but there are a couple of factors to consider. One, we haven’t heard anything definitive from the company on release timing. Second, retailers typically would want four to six months lead time to prepare for a launch as large as GTA, and from what I understand, they haven’t heard anything. Third, Rockstar rightly prioritises game quality over release date, and this dynamic could shift timing.
Brilliant, mind-blowing stuff. Of course, you could have inferred this yourself without any help simply by two things. For 1: Rockstar games come out in May. They have for the last 5 years, they’re not stopping now, it’s officially a thing. And for 2: We haven’t really heard anything about the game since said trailer. We know that it’s in development, we know it looks pretty and we know that they keep occasionally releasing screenshots for it. But other than that? Nothing. No previews, no trailers, nothing approaching an actual release date. Games don’t just drop nowadays. You won’t just wake up one day and hear, “GTA V‘s finished and they’re releasing it tomorrow!”
GTA V is still a way’s away. Accept it and move on.
Via: CVG
