GTA 6 release date is 2023 suggests analyst as Take-Two reveal marketing plans

Take-Two’s own financial predictions point to a massive increase in marketing in 2023 and everyone seems to think it’s for GTA 6.

The closest anyone at Rockstar Games, or parent company Take-Two, has ever come to admitting Grand Theft Auto 6 exists is when Take-Two refused to comment on whether it’d be out before the year 2025.

They were asked because they plan to release up to 93 new games by that point and, well, you’d really hope that GTA 6 would be amongst them.

But while they neither confirmed nor denied the suggestion they may have answered the question in a different way in their latest financial results, as for unexplained reasons they plan to spend more than twice as much on marketing in 2023 than at any other time in their history.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that the reason for the increase is GTA 6, but Take-Two’s only other big franchise at the moment is NBA 2K20, which is yearly and therefore has a very consistent level of marketing.

So either they’ve got amazing faith in an unannounced game that’s still three years out or… it’s GTA 6.

To be exact, Take-Two is planning to spend $89 million (£72m) on marketing for the 12 months up until 31 March, 2024. So whatever it is they’re promoting would be out somewhere between April 2023 and March 2024.

The theory that all this is for GTA 6 was advanced by investment analyst Jeff Cohen and does seem the most obvious explanation for what’s going on.

‘We are not sure how much we should be reading into this shift, but we would note that this disclosure accurately predicted the launch of Red Dead Redemption 2 prior to that game’s announcement,’ wrote Cohen.

It’s also interesting that the same spend was originally planned for a year earlier and was pushed back to the next fiscal year, suggesting the game is taking longer than expected – which sure sounds like Rockstar.

The theory also matches up with recent rumours which suggest that GTA 6 is in development but nowhere near finished.

On the upside this new rumour at least confirms that GTA 6 is underway, but the downside is that there’s very little chance it’s going to be announced this year, given how far away it still is.

Although that in turn makes the chances of a new next gen version of Grand Theft Auto 5 and GTA Online all the more likely.

Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, and follow us on Twitter

Follow Metro Gaming on Twitter and email us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk

For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.