For gamers waiting on GTA 6 news, 2021 might not be the best year to tie your hopes of a big announcement.
If anything is going to be revealed, it will be coming much later this year, possibly during November.
But a recent update from the owners of Rockstar Games makes it sound like the studio will have different priorities over the coming months.
As many gamers will already know, GTA 5 is coming to a third-generation of consoles, with the PS5 and Xbox Series X benefitting.
This will mean several new next-gen features, including visual upgrades and performance enhancements, to take full advantage of the latest hardware.
This has been done in the past, with GTA 5 being ported over to the PS4 and Xbox One, offering new options.
But what might disappoint gamers this week is news that these won’t just be simple ports, but a continuation of Rockstar’s big multiplayer project.
During the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference last month, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick revealed that GTA 5 wouldn’t be getting a subtle port for PS5 and Xbox Series X.
He told the meeting: “We’ve done great with the Mafia series, and Grand Theft Auto 5 is now heading into its third generation, which is incredible.
“It was a standard-bearer when it was launched; it continued to be the standard-bearer in the second generation; we’ll see how Grand Theft Auto does in the next generation.
“Obviously, I’m confident that Rockstar is going to deliver just a great experience, but you can’t do that if you’re just doing a simple port.”
It doesn’t sound like Rockstar will be expanding past this project, with Zelnick adding: “I’m not sure there’ll be a bigger part of the strategy.
“Remastering has always been a part of the strategy. We’ve done differently than the competition – we don’t just port titles over, we actually take the time to do the very best job we can making the title different for the new release, for the new technology that we’re launching it on.
“So, we improve the technology, we upgrade the visuals, and we make performance enhancements.”
What this suggests is that the Grand Theft Auto 5 launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X will be more than just a small release.
Instead, Rockstar is looking to extend the life of the game and the whole GTA Online package.
This means that the GTA 6 release date is unlikely to be announced before the next-gen GTA 5 launch.
So there is still a slim chance that something could be revealed near the end of the year. What’s more likely is that Rockstar Games will wait until 2022 before making the big push.
It could be a full year before we found out everything we want to know more about the next Grand Theft Auto game.
And even while GTA Online will remain playable on PS4 and Xbox One, Rockstar will be offering new updates and features exclusively to next-gen and PC platforms.
A message from the GTA Online development team reveals: “And for the massive and vibrant community of Grand Theft Auto Online players worldwide, the journey through the ever-evolving, shared world of GTA Online will continue on to the new generation with more new updates including additional GTA Online content exclusive to the new consoles and PC.
This confirms that GTA 5 and GTA Online on PS5 and Xbox Series X will not be a small project but something that Rockstar will want to sustain past its initial release date in 2021.
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