Companies need to grow a spine. Good games sell regardless of what’s out. If your confidence in your own game is so low that you’d push it to a slow release date, it’s probably not worth playing anyway.
I don’t know about that one. Games are expensive these days and if your game releases anywhere near the rumored $100 GTA 6, a LOT of people are going to have to choose one or the other, and it’s very unlikely that in most cases they don’t choose GTA6, literally the most anticipated video game of the last decade. Sure you can always buy the smaller game later, but a huge part of the sales of video games is the opening week, when all the hype around it has had time to come to a head, and you’re influenced by the fact that lots of other people are playing it.
Yeah good games will always sell SOME copies. But if you thinking that a game even releasing in the same month as GTA6 won’t have a permanent impact on that games sales, you’re smoking the reefer.
I think what you’re saying is true but perhaps you’re both talking about different things. I think you’re speaking about the reality of the situation whereas the comment OP is talking about the risk averse nature of large game studios. I don’t think it’s the same thing.
Also, I think I’m part of a growing minority but if gta 6 reviews are bad I’m not buying it until I hear it’s been fixed. I’ve been burned so many times 😭
You cant trust reviews. For example dragon’s dogma 2 which i just picked up is a great game. But some people wouldn’t know it based a lot of criticism and bad reviews it recieved when it launched.
Ehh yeah that’s a whole other can of worms. By “reviews”, for me, I mean a bunch of different sources.
And I do that because you’re correct! Trust in those is low.
So “reviews” maybe isn’t the right word. Just tryna keep the comment simple.
It’s the exact same thing actually. Their claim was:
Good games will sell regardless of what’s out
But that’s just not true, and game studios of all sizes know that. The risk aversion of these companies exist because of the reality of the situation.
It also has nothing to do with a studios confidence in their game. The quality of a game is light years away from being the sole objective indicator of a games sales. The Outer Wilds is objectively one of the greatest games ever made and has no real peers in what it does. And yet it didn’t make nearly the sales numbers as the latest asset flipped Call of Duty game.
The Outer Wilds was a first game from an indie studio. On this basis alone it was practically guaranteed to not get the success it deserved. And it does deserve a ton of it.
Conversely, call of duty is literally one of the most notorious franchises in the entire industry, and pretty much sells on its name alone.
A good observation. Hence why one of those games can afford to launch during a crowded window despite its lack of quality, and the other, despite their confidence in their work, and the high quality of their work, could not. You’re starting to get it now.
I’m buying it regardless of reviews. Which are gonna be amazing anyway but still. I paid full price for Forspoken and actually really enjoyed it. I like the Kojima attitude of (for him it was a bookstore) picking something blindly that calls out to you. It might be amazing, it might be shit, but you learn something from everything you engage with. I just like the surprise of trying something I’ve got a lukewarm interest in and enjoying it a lot. Horizon Lego Adventures and Lost Records Bloom and Rage impressed me recently
Course I play games to play them, not complain about them online all day. And most of the time I enjoy what I find
if you thinking that a game even releasing in the same month as GTA6 won’t have a permanent impact on that games sales, you’re smoking the reefer.
Maybe they should stop trying to peddle bland-ass live service games that live and die by their players numbers then. A good solo game might take a hit to its initial sales but should recover in the long run.
A good solo game might take a hit to its initial sales but should recover in the long run.
It won’t though. This feel-good theory that if a game is “good” then it’ll just make the same amount of money it always would have otherwise is not supported by any real world evidence. And even the most hypothetically high quality, ethical, game making company is still a company in the end, and companies need to money to pay living wages and keep people employed making new games. And if the games they are putting out are high quality, they probably have competent leadership. And competent leadership isn’t going to gamble the future of their company and livelihoods of their employees on an unproven feel-good fantasy espoused only by people on Reddit and Lemmy who’ve never run a business before.
If the game is good, doesnt need an active playerbase to survive (ie isn’t entirely based on multiplayer), and the company is already reputable, it has no reasons to not sell decently in the long run. Also if an (already established) company’s future is jeopardized by a single game not doing well, I’m sorry but it’s not well managed. Ask me how I know.
That’s just not how these things work. Launch windows have a documented history of being uniquely impactful to the long term success of games, movies, even products. It would take some serious evidence to the contrary for you to claim otherwise.
Also if an (already established) company’s future is jeopardized by a single game not doing well, I’m sorry but it’s not well managed. Ask me how I know.
That’s not really here nor there. It also isn’t really true.
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that’s not true. games can absolutely get fucked by release dates coinciding with big names. and have.
The two Horizon games picked really shitty weeks to release on lol. I think that’s done significant damage to the player base. They’re not groundbreaking games, but still extremely well done (imo)
Ask Titanfall 2 how well launching between Battlefield and CoD went for them
Release dates of big games matter, people only have so much disposable income
I don’t know why but I couldn’t give two shits about GTA6, maybe I’m just burned out on AAA games
maybe I’m just burned out on AAA games
I know I am.
It’s just so meh. Another city, you’re a criminal doing crime. There are just games with much better stories or mechanics at this point. I don’t get the hype around it.
Im completelly opposide. Its maybe only AAA game im intrested in long time.
Mostly because of their track record. I have been playing GTA since the very first top down game and every main game in the series has pushed the games further.
Thinking how big leaps every game has done, i cant wait to see what kind of the beast 6 is going to be.
I just want trains to work in this new game. They never make trains work properly they’re always just indestructible juggernauts and are therefore boring. GTA V had submarines but not drivable trains.
Because it will be full of micro transactions and bullshit content no-one asked for, with anti cheat horseshit that will pretty much be a virus on your computer.
Sad thing is that it’ll still sell millions because most people don’t even know when they are being served shit.
No doubt it’ll also have Denuvo, just to make the game run even worse too.
I’m the same but I may just be getting older. Last game I was hyped for was Cyberpunk 2077 coming off of the stellar Witcher 3 and having followed both games I loved, W1 & W2. Sometime before it released, I just dropped all hype for it and haven’t felt the same after. Haven’t even played it yet either.
Today, I let myself be pleasantly surprised by games I never thought I’d like. I really liked Death Stranding and I’m waiting for its sequel but still no hype… I haven’t even seen the trailer yet and I doubt I will… I’ll buy it and go in blindly. Just have a PS for Sony’s once a year AAA and that’s it for AAA gaming. Most other days, its just AA or indie games on PC… which is where I find a lot more flavor. As an example, this month, I’ve played Minami Lane, MudRunner and Art of Rally and starting Tactical Breach Wizards soon.
I’m holding out some hope for GTA VI still. Reason being, while Cyberpunk promised to be super duper everything interconnected magic programming to follow an absolutely awesome but technologically realistic game (Witcher 3), I haven’t seen hype like that for GTA VI. The expectation is to get a well polished freeroam game with lots of fun toys to play around with, a story that’s hopefully long enough to be worth the game’s price, and a new Online mode that gets updates over time. Basically GTA V with a new city and a more polished game overall, but no exponential leaps - despite the fact that the budget is much larger than Cyberpunk.
But I mean MudRunner is also awesome. Couldn’t get into Death Stranding myself, just wasn’t feeling it. Should pick up Art of Rally soon. Tons of great AA and indie games out there if GTA VI flops indeed.
Weird vibes in this comment section.
They are all from players who are against things Rockstar did with GTA and what it represents for the industry. But they are not representative of the whole market.
The article is right about the impact for small studios. On the timeline for the game I’m working on, we have a prediction for GTA VI release with a big question mark and we hope to avoid it.
The problem is not that all players will spend $100 on the game. The problem is that the majority of the press coverage, Steam traffic, streamer time, etc. will focus on the topic. Even if there is bad press around GTA, that’s still attention that is not on other games.
Exactly this. I work in the games industry as well and even big studios are falling over themselves NOT to release anywhere near GTA6.
Nobody believes there won’t be people playing other games at that time. But it’s going to dominate the media cycle for a month, especially if it is either better or worse than fans hope. And the reality is that many, many people have limited gaming budgets. If you’ve only got $100 to spend, GTA6 is very likely to be the default pick at that time.
It’s a behemoth in terms of grabbing attention from both the media and players. All the best laid plans for a successful release can be completely derailed by a game like GTA6.
I really didn’t know what to expect with this article. That being said, the industry holding their breath on GTA 6 is a bit much, to say the least.
I’m not quite sure why they’re so concerned. I suspect they’re actually not and this is just things “analysts” say.
I suspect that the release of GTA VI is going to be lukewarm compared to the release of GTA V, because everyone remembered what Rockstar did to GTA V. People are going to wait around and see how they handle GTA online because they need to do better than last time because last time was ridiculous.
I’m certainly not all that interested in getting it day one and I know a lot of other people aren’t either.
because everyone remembered what Rockstar did to GTA V
Released a fantastic game worth replaying multiple times?
GTA Online =/= GTA V
Oh yeah with all that DLC oh wait
GTA5 is more than a decade ago,.
The older gemers may remember but there is a whole generation that has spung up since.
Edit: a quick look shows there were 1.7 billion people born between 1995 and 2007 i.e. born in the period that would have trurned 18 between 2013 and 2025… This corresponds to 20% of the global population.
Nice of you to assume there are no underage players of GTA V
born between 1995 and 2007 i.e. born in the period that would have trurned 18 between 2013 and 2015
I still haven’t played GTA5. Does it hold up (single-player) all those years later?
gameplay-wise, yeah absolutely. writing-wise, pretty alright, some hits and some misses. kinda like south park.
I remember liking GTA4 but getting burned out on its archaic in my view mission design.
Who cares when it releases, you know it’s gonna be crap.
I’ll wait until it gets free on Epic and proceed not playing it, since i have better things to do with my life.
More like the sphincter of GTA 6 am I right?
If your game can’t even complete with a game nobody knows anything about and doesn’t even have a set release date, maybe your game just fucking sucks?
“Just make good games” doesn’t really work in the age where we’ve got tens of thousands of game releases per year compared to the age of a few hundred games per year.
Well making bad games isn’t working so well either is it…
The failure of a game doesn’t come hand in hand with it being bad. Lots of studios are struggling right now, because there’s just so much out there, and no one wants to compete with GTA.
I do wanna point out that one of the Horizon games (I believe the second) got pretty screwed by releasing within a week of Elden Ring and didn’t suck. Publishers big and small do need to be careful to not release within a time frame of absolutely massive releases such as Elden Ring and, inevitably, GTA6.
Even if the game doesn’t let you play on release day, I’m willing to bet my kidney that it’ll sell millions of copies and nothing big will be released within a month of it
And the first game released closed to Breath of the Wild
Oh yeah, I forgot just how bad the timing of both releases were. Didn’t the second games dlc also drop right around Shadow of the Erdtree?
A spinoff game, Horizon Call of the Mountain, which is a VR game
Ah, that’s right.
The horizon devs really need to get together with From Soft so that’ll stop happening
Release timing is always a critical thing to think about, whether you’re talking about games, movies, TV series, or toys.
Take your console exclusive bullshit and shove it up your ass. I’ll play it when it’s on PC. And only on PC.
I just don’t have the patience to wait even more. I have a PS5, so why wouldn’t I play it on release??
Why would you want to pay $70 for a pay to win game at all?
There’s a single player game people are pretty jazzed about, too.
Or $100 ,as some people are predicting
Huh? For £70 I’m getting -
- Huge open world
- Very fun and emergent gameplay
- Likely a world with multiple competing systems and subsystems to play with
- Incredibly detailed world to get lost and immersed in
- Given the RDR2 writing, likely a really well written story
But you’ve decided to latch onto one aspect of the previous game (the Online mode) to try to be as contrarian as possible?
I sure as heck will pay £70 for the above. And so will many millions of others. Sorry if that does a poo on your hate-train.
You hope you’ll get those things. It’s Rockstar though so who really knows. I mean we do know we’re going to get a single player that’s been confirmed by Rockstar but everything else is just a guess. The map leak people seem to suggest that the map will include NASA and Disneyland which will be cool I guess, but we don’t know that that’s just a prediction and I don’t quite understand how they can predict that.
I just don’t trust Rockstar not to screw it up with GTA online 2, now with more irritating flying bikes
Dude thats crazy. I havent paod full price for a game in years, have a little patience and you can get a bunch more games for that much.
Games are always on sale.
Good for you! For GTA VI, I definitely wanna play it as quickly as possible and £70 is a pretty reasonable price for that.
Why the rush?
I’m with you on not paying full price in general, but they answered your main question before and you didnt acknowledge it.
Well, to be fair, you don’t know you’re getting it for that. As far as I’ve seen, they haven’t announced the release price yet. And a lot of studios are hoping that Rockstar will take the fall for being the first $100 game so publishers can start charging used console prices for AAA games from then on.
Either way though, I won’t be paying anything for it.
Huh? For £70 I’m getting
Based on what? You don’t actually know until it gets released. Sure, past history and reputation are certainly things to factor in, but we’ve seen plenty of major gaming companies shit the bed, despite their reputations.
Wait until it launches and the reviews come in.
I’m responding to a comment assuming it’ll be nothing but a “pay to win” game, despite any real evidence of that - I’m pointing out the expectations of GTA VI.
This sub is like Reddit on steroids. Just a bunch of contrarian kids trying to start arguments on the internet. Bizarre.
I don’t see any horse balls physics in your list.
Utterly unplayable.
Because I don’t want to play full price for a 1080p upscaled experience at 30fps. If it’s a good experience then it will be worth the wait and that much better when it runs smoother, looks better, and loads faster. Plus it will have most of the bugs worked by then.
Because I don’t want console level performance when I play it for the first time
Because of backlogs and eventual price drops /sales
This will probably be the last time it ever happens. They’re trying to get people to double dip, and plenty will, but the console install base isn’t what it was when GTA V came out at the end of a generation. Plus we all know full well that the PC version will happen, whereas in yesteryear, we weren’t sure.
the console install base isn’t what it was when GTA V came out at the end of a generation.
I had a look to check the figures.
From the PlayStation perspective February 2025 estimates put the PS5 at 74.9m, while January 2013 estimates put the PS3 at 77m.
However Xbox is really letting their numbers lag with 28.3m Series consoles sold by September 2024 vs 77.2m 360 consoles by April 2013.
If we were just talking PlayStation I would say 97% is near enough to make no difference but if we compare both platforms together its only 67% and that is enough to influence strategy. A console only release in 2025 is unlikely to eclipse GTA5’s position as “fastest-selling entertainment product in history”.
But also don’t forget that the amount of gamers is larger today than in 2013. Gaming is much more mainstream, and so even 97% of the install base is still disappointing considering steam grew by, what, 3x or something in terms of average monthly users?
Another source I found is that the amount of total gamers grew by roughly 50% from 2013 to 2025. But yeah, I just did a quick skin numbers are not precise
But still, 97% is disappointing considering the general demographic was supposed to grow. And then, in reality, it’s just 67% too
Yeah that’s a good point.
If gaming grew and the total userbase is the same now, then it’s smaller by percentage.
That must been that PC is just exploding in popularity over the time period in question.
A game like GTA is likely to drive console sales, but not enough to make up that deficit.
I’ll go a step further and say only when it’s been vetted and discounted on PC.
K. You do that.
K
And only on PC
That’s going to be a long wait my friend.
It’s been the same for… ~25 years, since at least GTA3.
You can still play them on both console and PC and not only PC.
I got nothing but time
I’d rather wait than buy a console for a single game that will barely hit 720p/30.
I think they mean it will never be PC only, so it’d be an infinite wait. Or maybe some future release version will be console only.
Also, “720p/30” lol
While at one point GTA was my favorite series and I was absolutely hyped for GTA V, I’m not for this one. I kind of feel like I’m getting a little old for GTA.
Maybe I’ll change my mind after it releases and there’s a good chance I’ll play it anyway, but right now… meh.
This is so strange. Wasn’t it not long ago that studios were crowding into very specific release windows ( usually november iirc ) so they could maximize initial sales? Maybe the digital release era has changed things. I mean, I get it if your game was in the same niche or smth, but “companies might tank” seems a little much.
Either way, if this is true, eoy 2025 is in for a dry spell when it comes to new games.
Edit: Also I find it hilarious how all these “industry analysts” keep popping up suggesting ominous things despite Rockstar not saying a peep about the game besides the trailer. Almost as if they were paid to do it.
They aren’t crowding into those windows because competition helps their sales, it’s because they expect the biggest shopping period of the year will result in more sales than they lose. And there’s a reason only the biggest titles release in these windows.
Capcom made the decision years ago to release in February/March because they know a November window will drown them.
Over time they realised that, while holiday windows or whatever have high sales, if there’s a better or more popular game coming out then, yours will just be forgotten.
That said, most “industry specialists” are just glorified influencers, so take it with a grain of salt
Sure is a great way to stir the pot, that’s for sure. This article raised my eyebrow so much I just had to share it.
What’s with half the commenters acting like GTA V isn’t a great game?
Y’all know GTA Online is a different game technically, yeah? The single player of GTA V is still there and even better now that Enhanced is on PC. Rockstar didn’t fuck Up RDR2s single-player Mode so why assume they would on this?
Even GTA Online was fantastic. There’s so much to do and the heists and races were a lot of fun. I think I had more fun playing online than in the single player mode. I definitely put more time into it.
Shark cards never bothered me because I never got one.
Judging by all the shark card crap they jammed into the last GTA, I fully expect them to shovel a bunch of crap in to make more money: $70 base games, deluxe editions, DLC, micro transactions, social club integration, required internet connections, all of it.
I miss the old GTAs before they got greedy.
As an optimist, I expect more expansions like Gay Tony and for them to simply make fun of microtransactions on the radio.
Ah, full expansion DLC. That’d be nice.
Also, actual singleplayer content would be sweet.
I’d pay over $100 for GTA6 personally. And microtransactions aren’t out of the question for me either. I don’t have nearly as much time as money these days. Not that I have a lot of money, but I’ll pay it if it makes the experience better
Comments like yours are why the overwhelming majority of video games these days suck.
Yup. “Please bend me over and fuck me for all I’m worth, corpo daddy!” type energy. Some people just can’t get enough of being exploited.
You have no time, but plenty of money, so you are willing to spend extra money just for the sake of having no time AND no money? Get that corpo dick out of your mouth.
Even if I was a millionaire I wouldn’t want my games to have micro transactions in them. It’s not about the cost, it’s about the fact that as soon as micro transactions are included in the game, the game instantly becomes all about pushing those microtransactions, to the detriment of the gameplay.
Also you are mad if you prepare to pay $100 for GTA VI especially because we all know that it’ll be discounted at some point.
