The developer of Grand Theft Auto has announced the date when pre-orders for the new installment will open
Following the announcement that pre-orders for GTA VI had opened, Take-Two's stock rose by nearly 5% / Photo: rockstargames.com
Shares of video game developer Take-Two Interactive rose nearly 5% at the close of trading on June 18, after its subsidiary Rockstar Games announced the pre-order start date for Grand Theft Auto VI. Pre-orders will open as early as next week, on June 25. The news confirmed that the most anticipated game release of the decade will take place as scheduled on November 19, Bloomberg notes. The company had previously postponed the release twice, citing the need for additional time to refine the project.
GTA VI is the series’ first installment in more than 12 years. It could become one of the biggest entertainment releases of all time, wrote Piper Sandler analyst James Callahan in early June. According to his forecast, sales of the new installment in the franchise will reach 45 million copies in the first 24 hours, Investing reports.
Expectations are tied to the success of the previous game. Grand Theft Auto V, released in September 2013, earned about $800 million on its first day and more than $1 billion in three days, which remains an industry record, notes Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter, as quoted by Business Insider. To date, GTA V sales have exceeded 230 million copies, Take-Two reported in May. The game continues to generate revenue through GTA Online, which remains one of the company’s key assets.
The hype is also evident in the fact that other developers are avoiding competition with GTA VI, Bloomberg notes. After the release was pushed back to November 2026, publishers began actively securing release dates in September and October for their own titles. These include, for example, Sony’s Marvel’s Wolverine, Xbox’s Gears of War: E-Day, and the new Call of Duty from Activision Blizzard. Bloomberg analyst Jason Schreier believes that GTA VI will consume virtually all the resources needed for a successful sales launch in 2026: players’ money, media attention, advertising space on the home pages of digital stores, retail shelf space, and support from console manufacturers
Development of GTA VI has been underway for more than ten years, and the project's budget, including marketing expenses, could exceed $1 billion, according to Business Insider. If these estimates are confirmed, the new installment will become the most expensive project in the history of the gaming industry.
The story will take place in the fictional state of Leonid, inspired by Florida. Players will return to Vice City—a modern-day version of Miami—and, for the first time in the series’ history, one of the main characters will be a woman named Lucia. The game will be released exclusively on Xbox Series and PlayStation 5 consoles, with a release on other platforms scheduled for next year.
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
