It’s been over a decade since we got a new Grand Theft Auto game, and fans have started to get annoyed — but to coin an old proverb, “patience is a virtue.”
When the GTA 6 trailer hit the web in 2023, it was like a burst of rain in the desert — a blessed oasis for fans parched by an 11-year drought of updates. This beguiling glimpse of the next installment in the beloved series quenched their thirst momentarily, offering a refreshing taste of what’s to come.
Unfortunately, though, since then, that little oasis has dried up in the baking heat of fan’s skepticism. And recent news that the most anticipated game of the decade isn’t coming out until late 2025 (there are even fears it could be pushed back further, although Take-2 denies these rumors) has only exacerbated matters.
Yet, I’ll be honest: I actually think the long wait is a good thing, and if anything, it only makes me more excited to get my hands on GTA 6, whenever that might be.
Some things are worth the wait
Too often, games are rushed out to hit arbitrary dates or holiday seasons. As a result, we’re getting AAA Games that are glitchy and broken or missing key features. Look at the recent release of Spider-Man 2, which is a great superhero game but also a bit of a mess.
On launch, it was missing some key features, most notably New Game+; there were reports of unexpected crashes and many visual bugs and glitches (who didn’t love the amazing white cube-man). It was a real shame to see the launch of such an eagerly anticipated game marred by these issues, and fans couldn’t help but complain that the game was “rushed” out the door.
Whether that’s true or not, we can’t say for sure, but it’s hardly the only game released in a rather sorry state. There’s Battlefield 4, Starfield, and Star Wars Battlefront, to name but a few, and who could forget the disastrous launch of CyberPunk 2077? Players were all giddy about getting their claws on those games and bitterly disappointed when they picked up a controller.
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I‘d much rather Rockstar have the time to get GTA 6 as polished as possible because I don’t want the release of what is the most highly anticipated game of the decade ruined by day-one patches to fix basic bugs that should have been caught during playtesting.
Patience…
Of course, the granddaddy of botched launches is No Man’s Sky. While the game wasn’t broken, it suffered an even worse problem. It was really dull and missing several key features. Since then, it’s gone on to receive several free updates that have vastly improved the gameplay, yet you can only make a first impression once, and its reputation has been a difficult one to shake.
We can’t have GTA 6 launch without the features we’ve come to expect from Rockstar games, and if a longer development cycle is the price we have to pay for a polished game, then I’m happy to pony up.
I understand why fans are frustrated with the long wait for GTA 6. It’s been more than ten years, and we’ve had to buy it on three different generations of consoles — that’s part of a broader problem in the industry: the ballooning development times of certain games. Yet you’ve waited more than a decade for GTA 6. If another year means getting the best GTA experience possible, what’s the problem?
If you love Grand Theft Auto, check out our guide breaking down everything you need to know about the GTA Online Summer update 2024, as well as our list of the best GTA RP servers and how to join them. Finally, we’ve an article listing all the best GTA V cheats if you’re tired of playing by the rules.
