Take-Two Interactive Software Inc confirmed a November 19 release date for Grand Theft Auto VI, assuaging fears that what’s expected to be one of the top-selling video games of all time might be delayed again.
Marketing for Grand Theft Auto VI will begin this summer, Chief Executive Officer Strauss Zelnick said in an interview with Bloomberg. Pricing and pre-order information for the game should be expected around then as well.
Console price hikes put in place by manufacturers due to chip shortages is "not great news,” Zelnick said, but he doesn’t anticipate any industry-related challenges leading up to the game’s debut.
"If we do our job and deliver great properties, which in this past year we were able to do across the board, thanks to the work of my colleagues, then the consumer happily shows up,” he said. "There’s nothing that’s going on in the market that gives me particular cause for concern.”
The shares were up about 7% after the market closed in New York.
Grand Theft Auto VI, first announced in 2023, was originally slated for fall 2025 before it slipped to May and then to November 2026. Silence from Take-Two’s Rockstar Games studio about the state of the title had led to worries it might be delayed a third time.
The video-game publisher is expecting bookings, a measure of revenue, of between US$8bil (RM31.7bil) and US$8.2bil (RM32.5bil) for its 2027 fiscal year, according to a statement from the company on Thursday. Analysts had been looking for about US$9.1bil (RM36.07bil), according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Take-Two said it expects a lower performance from Zynga, its mobile game subsidiary, in part because it had a breakout hit last year.
The company reported bookings of US$1.58bil (RM6.26bil) for its fourth quarter, in line with estimates. – Bloomberg
