Game publishers are refusing to commit to release dates for fear of clashing with GTA 6

Forward-looking: Grand Theft Auto 6 is still almost a year away from release, but it's already having a huge impact on the gaming industry. According to a new report, several competing publishers are refusing to set firm release dates for their games until they're sure they'll avoid GTA 6's launch.

Take-Two wrote in its November earnings report that GTA 6 is still listed as coming to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in fall 2025. That doesn't mean it won't be delayed, of course, especially since all of Rockstar's major open-world games from the last 20 years have been delayed at least once before release, going all the way back to the console launch of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in 2004.

It's a worrying situation for rival game publishers. No company wants to release their titles around the same time as what will doubtlessly be one of the biggest and best-selling games of all time.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier writes that some of these publishers are holding off from committing to a release date for their games. The companies want to ensure that GTA 6 really does launch in Fall 2025 and not slip into 2026. Whenever it arrives, other games will want to keep their launches as far away from this date as possible.

Altering game launch dates based on the competition isn't something new. The full release of Baldur's Gate 3 on PC was brought forward from its original August 31 launch last year to August 3 to move it further away from other major titles, especially Starfield, which arrived on September 6. In hindsight, BG3 needn't have bothered.

At last month's Golden Joystick Awards, Rockstar's David Manley accepted the Most Wanted award and promised that some "absolutely mind-blowing things" would appear in GTA 6.

In related news, YouTube channel Dark Space has recreated the map from the upcoming game in GTA 5. The design comes from a community-made map of GTA 6 that is based on the trailer and leaks. The YouTuber also referenced real Miami Beach buildings, which the GTA 6 buildings replicate, for the finer details. There are limitations, of course, such as most of the map being empty, but it's still very impressive considering one person made it all in a few weeks. There's also a cool cutscene in which a safe is dragged down a street, a recreation of a section that is said to be in GTA 6.