On the 4th of December 2023, after years of leaks, rumors, and speculation, the long-awaited GTA VI official trailer landed on YouTube. Currently, that 90-second video has amassed an impressive 173 million views, and the numbers are still racking.
Typically, trailers end by giving us a few hints, such as a release date or the supported platforms, but not this time. Not Rockstar Games. From a company that’s notorious for spending years baking their games to perfection, all we got was “Coming 2025.”
They didn’t tell us the exact time or the supported platforms. There was no PlayStation, Xbox, Steam, or Epic Games logos, nothing. So, when is the GTA VI Release Date?
Narrowing Down the Release Date
Since we don’t have an exact date yet, we have to rely on our understanding of Rockstar’s game release pattern. Let’s take a few steps back to GTA IV and a few other Rockstar games to date.
GTA IV was initially released on the 29th of April 2008 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The PC version followed almost eight months later, in December of the same year. On the same date as GTA IV’s release, Midnight Club Los Angeles was also released on the same consoles and the PSP.
Two years later, Rockstar released Read Dead Redemption 1 on May 18h, 2010. Once again, only on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Sadly, we never got to see a PC version of this one.
One year later, on May 17, 2011, L.A. Noire came out on the same consoles, then the PC version came out six months later on November 14. You may have noticed that Rockstar has stuck to the first half of the year when it released its games on the PS3 and Xbox 360. However, once they started releasing for the next generation, most of their games came out in the second half of the year.
GTA V was released on the PS3 and the Xbox 360 on September 17, 2013. A year later, it was released on the next generation, the PS4 and the Xbox One, on November 18, 2014. The PC version came out five months later, on April 14, 2015.
To follow the pattern a bit more, the Anniversary Edition of Bully was released on December 8, 2016. L.A. Noire VR, first released on the HTC Vive, was on December 15, 2017. Moving further, Read Dead Redemption 2 was released on PS4 and Xbox One on October 26, 2018, and the PC version came out a year later on November 5, 2019. Last but not least, the nostalgic GTA Trilogy came out on all consoles of that generation on November 11, 2021.
Following that pattern, it’s safe to say that we can expect to see GTA VI in the second half of 2025, assuming that no delays push it back to 2026.
Why Is GTA VI Coming Out in Late 2025?
The primary reason that led us to this conclusion is the expected discrepancy between the official release date (which is yet to be revealed) and the actual release date. Let’s take GTA V, for example.
GTA V spent five years in the making with a budget of over $200 million. Yet, it was delayed three times until it was finally released on September 17, 2013. GTA VI, on the other hand, spent over 10 years in the making, with a freakishly large budget of $2 billion. That’s 10 times more than GTA V’s budget!
With a project that huge, a lot can go wrong, and Rockstar isn’t known to release an unfinished game. So, even if the official release date is announced to be in the first half of 2025, fans should be carefully excited, as Rockstar is no stranger to delays.
While that may be somewhat disheartening, it’s always better to get a polished, nearly bug-free game on the release day. Nobody wants another Cyberpunk 2077 incident
GTA 6 Website Going Live
GTA VI’s official page is up on Rockstar, and it gave us a little extra bit of information that wasn’t mentioned in the trailer. Once you open the page, you’ll see the game’s protagonists, Lucia and Jason, leaning on a muscle car.
Scroll your mouse wheel down, and the VI logo will cover the picture with “Welcome to Leonida (Rockstar’s version of Florida)” written next to it.
If you read through the written text, you’ll see that GTA VI is coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, with no mention of the PC version. We can only assume that it’ll take Rockstar an average of 6-12 months until the PC port is out for grabs. We hope it won’t be pushed back to 2027.
Why Is the 2025 Release Date a Good News
With at least one year ahead before GTA VI is released, fans may find it hard to wait, and it is, but the good news is that the expected release date lines up perfectly with the refresh of the current generation consoles. PlayStation 5 Pro and Xbox Brooklin are expected to release later in 2024. With some delays, it should still make it before the release of Grand Theft Auto 6. We’ll have two new consoles with updated specs that can handle the incredible environment, life, and NPC density in the game.
There could even be some bundles where you can grab the console and GTA VI in one go. Just imagine the feeling of walking back home with these two babies under your arms. If fans have been waiting for over 10 years, then it’s only fair they receive a treat. Running a game on a smooth 60 FPS on 4K or even a stable 30 FPS on 8K doesn’t look far out of reach for the next console upgrades.
Based on Rockstar’s latest patterns, we can give ourselves a release window in the second half of 2025. However, with the little information currently available, it’s difficult to know for sure. Rockstar might surprise us all by announcing an early release date and actually sticking to it. But until we know more, we shouldn’t expect an early release in 2025.
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