The announcement of a reveal trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6, a behemoth of the industry, perhaps the most highly anticipated title in recent history, has the world circling its collective calendar for early December. From the rollout of Rockstar's previous entries in the franchise to the myriad leaks, rumors, job postings, and investor earning calls, there are conclusions to be drawn on how the next year will go as players are finally relieved of their decade-plus wait for GTA 6.

After years of scraping the internet for scant information, fans were finally given a concrete timeline for GTA 6's reveal on November 8, as Rockstar put out a statement marking early December as the release for the game's first trailer. Though an exact date was not given, December 10 will mark the 25th anniversary of Rockstar's tenure as a studio, making it a likely candidate. The reveal of additional DLC for GTA Online will arrive on December 12, setting up another potential landing spot for the GTA 6 trailer. With over 190 million copies of GTA 5 sold and five years removed from Rockstar's last blockbuster release, Red Dead Redemption 2, the studio is making the right move in a slow-burn approach to marketing GTA 6, stoking hype that has steadily fomented well before the announcement of GTA 6's development in February 2022.

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Charting the Release Schedule of GTA 6

Predicting a release date for GTA 6 based on its trailer dropping is a lesson in Rockstar's patterned behavior. The following timeline of gaps between initial reveal trailers and release dates for the studio hints at what fans can expect:

• GTA 4's first official trailer: March 2007. Released: April 2008
• GTA 5's first official trailer: November 2011. Released September 2013
• Red Dead Redemption 2's first official trailer: October 2016. Released October 2018

With the potential launch as early as the first quarter of 2025, the expected pre-order date for GTA 6 would land in the holiday season of 2024. This tracks with Take Two's last financial report which forecasts 8 billion in revenue for the fiscal year of 2025. The fiscal year runs from the start of October of the preceding year to the end of September of the current one, and GTA 6 might be the lone game on the planet that is a safe enough bet to predict those kinds of numbers. Though the studio could shake up its formula for the unveiling, given the presumed scope of GTA 6, if it bucks the pattern, players should expect it to arrive later than earlier. Red Dead Redemption 2 faced several delays before launch, and fans should brace for the likelihood of the same for GTA 6.

Rockstar Will Look to Be Measured in Unveiling GTA 6

The trailer coming in December will likely focus solely on the single-player portion of GTA 6, revealing its alleged central protagonists, Jason and Lucia, along with ample shots of the revamped Vice City. A trailer for GTA 6's multiplayer mode will probably arrive closer to the game's expected pre-order window, as Rockstar still has some juice to squeeze from GTA Online, and would not want to preemptively make progression and in-game purchases feel like they have a curtailed shelf life.

To call GTA 6 a landmark game at this point comes across as an understatement. Between Rockstar's pedigree, GTA 5's protracted lifespan, rampant speculation on every tidbit of content that has been leaked, patents filed, and social media posts of varying veracity on countless rumors, it all feels like the build-up to a title of truly gargantuan importance. It may be impossible to live up to such unprecedented expectations, but if any game could do it, it would be GTA 6.

Grand Theft Auto 6

Franchise

Grand Theft Auto

Developer(s)

Rockstar Games

Publisher(s)

Rockstar Games

Genre(s)

Action , Adventure