Big Publishers And Studios Are Scrambling To Avoid GTA 6‘s Launch

Grand Theft Auto 6 is officially launching later this fall on Xbox Series X/S and PS5. It will likely be one of the biggest game releases in history. Millions of players are planning to buy the Rockstar’s open-world crime sim while inevitably ignoring other games. That’s bad news for publishers and developers working on new games or big updates for live-service titles. As a result, some of these companies are reportedly creating plans to avoid GTA 6 entirely

On March 25, reporter Christopher Dring—over at his recently launched newsletter and podcast The Game Business—reported that he spoke to senior executives at multiple large video game publishers about GTA 6‘s upcoming release, and how it will impact their plans and decisions. While they all had slightly different answers and thoughts, the general consensus was that nobody wanted to directly compete with Rockstar’s juggernaut.

“We don’t want to be anywhere near [GTA 6]. We are working up multiple different plans for our titles,” said an unnamed boss at a massive publisher.

Another exec at a big game company told the outlet that it’s “tough out there,” even without GTA 6 around. “It’s immensely difficult to find free time for new games to shine,” they said, and added that free time is “the real scarcity for us, not money.”

A third executive, in charge of a large European publisher, said “We don’t want to launch just before or just after the game. If it arrives in late October, that means you either have to launch early—which a lot of people seem to be doing with the recent glut of summer release dates. Or go later, putting you up against the Black Friday sales.”

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard reports of publishers being nervous about GTA 6 and changing plans to avoid it. In February, EA boss Andrew Wilson alluded to Grand Theft Auto 6‘s launch, saying, “There may be some things happening in the year that may cause us to think differently about our launch timing.” In that same month, Game File’s Stephen Totilo reported that he heard “everyone’s waiting for Take-Two and Rockstar” to pick a release date for GTA 6 before anyone commits to a fall launch.

Live service devs are worried about Grand Theft Auto 6

And its not just publishers nervous about GTA 6‘s massive impact on the industry. The Game Business reports that people working on two popular live-service games are watching closely and will likely push updates back to get out of Rockstar’s way.

“GTA 6 is basically a huge meteor and we will just stay clear of the blast zone,” said one studio exec. “We will nudge our releases back or forward three weeks to avoid it. Of course, the problem is everyone is going to do the same. So three to four weeks before or after GTA 6, you’re going to get a load of games dropping content in what they believe will be the safe zone.”

Another dev told the outlet that there’s “no point swimming against the current” and that they would just need to “win players back” once all the buzz started to cool around GTA 6.

Perhaps the most frustrating problem publishers and developers are facing is that it’s possible Rockstar delays GTA 6 into 2026. If that happens, that means all the games that moved out of 2025 to avoid it would end up jumping right into its blast radius, unless they quickly delayed again or can move releases dates forward. According to the Dring, publishers he spoke to have multiple plans in place just in case.

“If we move out of 2025, what if Rockstar do, too?” said one exec. “Will we have time to push our game up? Or will we have to delay further? It’s stressful.”

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