While publisher Take-Two Interactive and developer Rockstar are gearing up for the Fall 2025 launch of Grand Theft Auto 6, it has been no secret that it is going to be one of the biggest launches in gaming. Greg Rice, head curator for Day of the Devs, says that GTA 6‘s release will bring in an economic boost to the industry.
Speaking to GamesRadar during the Game Developers Conference 2025, Rice believes the open-world title might even end up bringing in a new audience to gaming. While he admits that there might be some players that only play GTA 6, he also believes that others might discover other games in the medium, and in turn, help grow the industry.
“[GTA 6 is] going to be the best, awesome, giant game for the year, for sure,” said Rice. “I hear a lot of the opposite of devs, worried about it sucking all the space out. ‘I don’t want to launch during GTA week or even month, because that’s all anyone’s gonna be playing.'”
“But I think the industry is matured enough that there’s space for that and for other things as well. It’s gonna be a combination of ‘there will be games that will be successful around GTA time because they’re totally different,’ but it’ll also bring a lot more people back into the ecosystem.”
Rice also talks about how the release of GTA 6 will be helpful for smaller games as well. While these smaller titles may not be able to directly compete with GTA 6 when it comes to sales, they will benefit from a new audience that has bought a console for the first time that might be looking for other games to play alongside GTA 6.
“I’m sure there’s lots of gamers that [GTA 6 will be] the only thing they play,” Rice continued, saying that “it’ll be the opportunity to get in on the new console generation and see what else is out there. So it’s definitely gonna be a big economic boost for the games industry, and will be a multiple billion dollar title, but I don’t think that it’s at competition with [indie games].”
When it comes to bringing in a new audience, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick has previously spoken about how he believes that console hardware sales will see a “meaningful uptick” thanks to the release of GTA 6.
“When you have a big title in the market and we have many of them coming, historically that has sold consoles,” Zelnick said.
“And I think that will happen this year. I don’t think tariffs are going to be our friend, but I think there will be a meaningful uptick in console sales in calendar 25 because of the release schedule, not just coming from us, but coming from others. So I’m not concerned about that [console sales falling]. I think the trend that you’d want to focus on is this increasing share of the market that is reflected in PC.”
Grand Theft Auto 6 is currently in development for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. There is currently no official word on a PC release. Some analysts also believe that the game might be priced at $100, either on its own or through bundling with GTA Online-related content. Others, on the other hand, believe that it might do Rockstar and Take-Two more harm than good to price the game that high.
