Thirteen years after Grand Theft Auto V became a record-breaking success, Take-Two Interactive-unit Rockstar Games is preparing to launch its successor.
GTA VI, as it’s known, is expected to be one of the biggest entertainment releases in history, and is already one of the most expensive video games ever made.
How big a deal is it?
Remember the summer film epic The Odyssey and how it broke the box office? That’s expected to be peanuts by comparison, with GTA VI seen making the same kind of money in weeks.
The game’s launch, however, comes at a challenging time for the industry, which is facing rising development budgets, mass terminations and widespread studio closures. Still, Rockstar holds a unique position among its rivals.
Backed by the success of the franchise and financial support from its parent, Take-Two, Rockstar has the luxury to develop at a huge scale, with estimates suggesting the budget for GTA VI exceeds US$1bil (RM4.08bil).
Part of that investment can be seen in the detailed, fictionalised version of Miami the game is set in, featuring high-fidelity graphics for its open-world crime saga.
Some analysts project the title could generate as much as US$3bil (RM12.25bil) in its first four months alone. Its highly anticipated success has even led some competing publishers to stand aside, moulding their release schedules to avoid the game’s launch window.
And this initial surge comes well before the expected rollout of its lucrative multiplayer component, Grand Theft Auto Online, expected to launch in 2027. With all the hype and the tremendous amount of money at stake, for GTA VI, failure is apparently not an option. – Bloomberg
