“GTA 6 is basically a huge meteor and we will just stay clear” Multiple major publishers are reportedly prepared to delay games to avoid clashing with Rockstar’s little thing

You’ve probably not heard of it. GTA 6? Ring any bells? No? Well, it’s a little indie game that’s currently set to drop later this year, in a fashion that’s sure to fly under the radar, I swear.

Ok, you got me. It’s biggest game of the year and several major publishers have now been reported to be prepared to delay their own games if needs be in order to avoid coming out at the same time as Rockstar’s “huge meteor”.

This is according to cool new Chris Dring thing The Game Business, which cites three major video game publishers as having told it that they’re ready to delay their own games if that ends up being what it takes to avoid running into the GTA 6 time and money buzz-saw.

Basically, no one wants to release at exactly the same time as Rockstar’s crime fun time, so they’re all holding off on locking in their release plans for Q4 this year until they know for sure when that game’s coming, with fall 2025 being the current window Take-Two is citing. Studios and publishers which operate top live-service games are also reportedly avoiding planning to drop any significant updates to their titles around the time of GTA 6’s release window.

“Rockstar games always suck a lot of money and, more importantly, time out of the market,” The Game Business cites the boss of one of the world’s biggest game publishers as having told it, “We don’t want to be anywhere near that. We are working up multiple different plans for our titles.”

Meanwhile, one studio boss put the situation thusly: “GTA 6 is basically a huge meteor and we will just stay clear of the blast zone. We will nudge our releases back or forward three weeks to avoid it. Of course, the problem is everyone is going to do the same. So three to four weeks before or after GTA 6, you’re going to get a load of games dropping content in what they believe will be the safe zone.”

It’s the uncertainty that comes with GTA 6 not yet being locked into a concrete date that’s causing the most headaches, with publishers fearing that if they opt to delay their stuff into 2026 right now to avoid GTA 6, Rockstar could end up pushing its big shark into next year too, neccessitating more running around from the panicked swimmers at the games industry beach.

How will it all play out? We’ll just have to see, but you’ll now find it a lot harder to fill in the time by exploring an attempted re-creation of GTA 6’s map in GTA 5 as a mod attempting to do just that was pulled offline by its creator the other day following a Take-Two YouTube claim. Ah well, off to the GTA Discord server’s most unhinged channel it is, then.