The Grand Theft Auto series has always eclipsed the very fabric of the gaming spacetime continuum. A GTA release is such a massive event that some say there’s sorcery involved. Pfft. I am a sorcerer, and no one has that type of power in the sorcerer industry.
It’s highly competitive, and casting a spell isn’t as easy as it looks, especially when one has to collect coins touched by ghosts for a love spell—I am single because, you know, coins and all that. I digress, as usual.
Long story short, GTA VI finally received a launch date, or at least an ambiguous whisper of a launch date—“fall of 2025.”
According to Take Two Interactive, the birth mother of 2K and Rockstar Games, “Our outlook reflects a narrowing of Rockstar Games’ previously established window of Calendar 2025 to Fall of Calendar 2025 for GTA 6.”
Okay. Great. That’s like when an intrepid detective asks you to describe a murder suspect, and you reply, “The serial killer murder person was tall and wore a mask and that’s all I know.”
Thanks. So. Much. Really. Let’s all take two seconds to get excited for nothing.
Cloudy with no meatballs
Take Two Interactive lost the plot in regard to cloud gaming. Industry insiders call them “the losers”—that’s a direct quote. While the rest of the world took to cloud gaming, Take Two Interactive lags far behind its competitors in the cloud gaming sector.
According to a recent Global Data Thematics report, “It is still early days for cloud gaming, but the market is attracting investments from tech giants (e.g., Microsoft, Nvidia) and telcos (e.g., Swisscom, China Mobile). Game publishers like Ubisoft and Electronic Arts are partnering with service providers to strengthen their position in this market. Tencent, Valve, and Netflix also plan to enter the market in the next two years.”
The report also estimates that cloud gaming will be worth more than $20 billion by 2030; an estimated $16 billion growth forecast circa 2023. (It’s sorcery!).
Yet, for reasons unknown, Take Two has no plans to introduce GTA VI to cloud gaming anytime soon. “We are highly confident that Rockstar Games will deliver an unparalleled entertainment experience, and our expectations for the commercial impact of the title continue to increase,” Take Two explained.
What’s the deal?
As of 2023’s Q4 financial report, Take Two Interactive’s total revenue exceeds $5 billion, with only a net income loss of $1.4 billion. Although subsidiaries include the likes of Zynga, Nordeus, Rockstar Games, and 2K, the question remains whether this juggernaut will survive if it doesn’t proactively invest in the cloud gaming industry.
GTA VI will most probably sell a trillion billion gazillion copies upon release, so there’s that. As a massive GTA fan myself, I can’t afford a PS5 or an Xbox console to experience this Magnum Opus.
I’d rather turn to my trusty cloud gaming services to play AAA masterpieces such as Baldur’s Gate III, because sorcery is in the eye of the beholder, not the pocket.
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