Grand Theft Auto VI is changing the release calendar of video games

Who's afraid of the next GTA? According to the last days of the summer game, almost everyone. Carjackers No. 6 did not attend any of the events, but its existence was felt every time it was published. GTA VI released November almost empty. At the same time, the remainder of the autumn is absolutely overcrowded.

The months leading up to the release of the GTA in November are becoming more crowded.

It started on Tuesday at Sony's State of Play Fair. Even before that show, we knew that the next PlayStation game of Wolverines would be launched on September 15. But now we have joined a series of major third-party games: Sand dunes: Awakening (22 September), Control Resonance (24 September), Silent Hill: Town Fall (24 September), Ghosts: Kendo (25 September) and Royal Air War 8 (2 October). This is on top of other games launched before November (e.g. Mission Call: Modern War 4) in October.

At the same time, on tonight's SRF Live, many big games go further and are scheduled to be launched in 2027. These include: Sega's criminal history poem "Stranger Than Heaven" and its derivatives "Crossroads" ; the Mandaran Palace of Dreams, up to Rogue Orbit; Karp's "large-scale extension" to Monster Hunters: Wild; Clutch, Maverick Gomes's first car racing game similar to Forza; and Telltale's Wolf 2 around us. The night's premiere, The Last Fantasy VII: The Apocalypse, will not be released until next spring.

Although Xbox's keynote address will not be held until Sunday, it has left GTA unobstructed. When it was announced that The Ghost Fable would be postponed again until 2027,MicrosoftThis is partly because “the year was full of incredible games”, and then, among other games, the name GTA VI was named.

Of course, not all of these games have changed dates because of GTA, but at least some of them did. Nor is this a completely new phenomenon. Last year, when Silksong unexpectedly announced the September release date, other independent games changed plans and avoided the date. In some respects, GTA VI is similar because it is a follow-up to the long-term development of a big game. But it is clear that the scale of the Robbers is much larger: these are not small stand-alone studios that changed the plan, and they are the largest distributors in the industry, including Sony, Microsoft and Cap empty.

There is some reason for this reasoning. GTA VI has been very close to the guaranteed hot door. This is a follow-up to this game, which not only sells nearly 230 million copies in a three-generation game, but also continues to make a lot of money through a lucrative online model. GTA VI is likely not to reach such high sales, but it is still bound to sell many copies. Strauss Zelnick, CEO of the GTA issuer Take-Two, stated at a recent financial teleconference that he expected “to create a new level of business performance record, facilitated by the launch of Grand Theft Auto VI on 19 November”. Even the recommendations of the new GTA VI trailer are enough for the Internet to boil.

But when everyone had the same idea to avoid the November release, different kinds of problems arose: In the following months, the publication of the major editions was completely deadlocked, especially in September, when the major games were released on the same day. Is this really better than living near GTA?

When The Verge inquired about the matter at a recent preview event with the Creative Director of Control Resonant, Mikael Kasurinen, he did not seem to have been intimidated by the number of games published in the same window. "We have faith in our game," he explained. “We feel we are in a good place and we have a very unique and unique experience, and we believe in it.”

Of course, in the list of companies fleeing GTA, there's a notable absence, Nintendo. The company has not yet elaborated on its vacation plan, but has focused on upcoming games, such as the Star Fox (25 June), the rhythm of paradise (2 July) and the Jet Warrior (23 July). But beyond that, the calendar is empty, so it is almost certain that there will be a major announcement (or bulletins) that will reveal the game that will power Switch 2 during the most important holidays.

If a company can reverse industry trends and launch a mainstream game in November, it must be Nintendo.

Kallie Plagge.