Associated Press
Published Tuesday, December 5, 2023 at 9:09 PM ET
Last updated on Tuesday, December 5, 2023 at 9:09 PM EST
NEW YORK (AP) – The long-awaited Grand Theft Auto VI trailer has arrived a little early after a copy was leaked online.
Citing leaks, Rockstar Games released the first look at the sixth installment in the wildly popular video game series on Monday evening, about 15 hours before its scheduled Tuesday morning announcement.
“The trailer has been leaked, so watch the real thing on YouTube,” Rockstar Games wrote on Platform X, formerly known as Twitter, shortly after 6pm ET on Monday.
Rockstar Games and its New York parent company Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. have not released any details about the leak. The company did not respond to The Associated Press’ request for comment early Tuesday.
Still, die-hard Grand Theft Auto fans could take away a few things from the 90-second teaser – including that the next film will be set in the Miami-inspired Vice City, and that the series It also includes the first female protagonist named Lucia. At the end of the video, it was also confirmed that the game would not be released until his 2025 year.
This is slower than some researchers at Raymond James & Associates had expected. Raymond James analysts said in a conference call early Tuesday that they originally expected Grand Theft Auto VI to arrive in the 2024 holiday season.
Shares of Take-Two Interactive fell about 1% on Tuesday.
While Take-Two hasn’t yet revealed a specific date for 2025, industry analysts still predict the game will arrive within the first few months of this year. The company’s “comments on pre-order estimates” points out that the game’s retail price is just under $8 billion. 2025.
“While we expect investors to be somewhat disappointed with the exact timing and expect the stock to decline slightly as a result, our assertion regarding the expected launch size when it actually hits shelves remains the same. .This possibility remains ‘large scale’,” the Raymond James analyst added. “This isn’t a drop in expectations, it’s just a change.”
The first Grand Theft Auto hit store shelves in 1997. Its soaring popularity led to multiple sequels over the years, each with a lot of anticipation (and sometimes long waits) between them. Grand Theft Auto VI comes more than a decade after the release of his Grand Theft Auto V in 2013.
Rockstar games and Take-Two announced on Monday that the sixth installment will be available for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X systems.
Stifel researchers pointed to “very strong” buzz and pent-up demand after the Grand Theft Auto VI teaser, which garnered tens of millions of views within hours. As of approximately 8pm ET on Tuesday, Rockstar Games’ official YouTube trailer had been viewed over 94 million times.
The timing of Grand Theft Auto VI’s release is also “likely to impact release schedules on the industry front,” Stifel analysts wrote, which “looks weaker next year.” “This could intensify the situation,” he added. As competitors try to avoid releasing games similar to Grand Theft Auto VI, a flurry of new titles will be released through the second half of 2024.
