Grand Theft Auto VI, the subsequent entry within the fashionable open-world franchise from Rockstar Video games, is likely to be popping out as quickly as subsequent 12 months based mostly on some massive numbers present in a brand new earnings report.

It’s not information that Rockstar Video games is engaged on the subsequent entry within the GTA collection. The company confirmed this last year. After which in September 2022, the notorious GTA VI leak happened, revealing a ton of details concerning the still-in-development recreation. However whereas we all know the sport is actual, is in improvement, and is probably going set in Florida, we don’t but have a launch date for the much-hyped sequel to Grand Theft Auto V. What we would lastly have, nevertheless, is a launch window because of a new Take-Two earnings report released on May 17.

In an accompanying press release from Rockstar’s father or mother firm Take-Two Interactive, the writer predicted an enormous improve in gross sales in its upcoming 2025 fiscal 12 months which begins in April 2024. Particularly, it anticipates over $8 billion in web bookings. It additionally expects to proceed this “momentum” into its fiscal 2026. Right here’s the important thing bit from the press launch:

We imagine that we are going to enter our subsequent section of development in Fiscal 2025, as we plan to ship a number of groundbreaking titles that we anticipate will set new requirements of high quality and success and allow us to ship over $8 billion in Web Bookings and over $1 billion in Adjusted Unrestricted Working Money Stream. We count on to maintain this momentum with extra development in working efficiency in Fiscal 2026.

As pointed out by IGN, this can be a fairly daring prediction of the corporate’s subsequent two fiscal years contemplating that Take-Two’s final fiscal 12 months web bookings hit simply over $5 billion, which is among the highest within the firm’s historical past. This was fueled not by a bunch of huge video games doing effectively, however as a substitute by Take-Two’s buy of cellular video games big Zynga, which it bought in 2022 for over $12 billion. Earlier than it owned Zynga its web bookings had been hanging across the $3 billion vary.

Take-Two is anticipating one thing large in 2024

So Take-Two should be anticipating one thing very massive to have the ability to break its earlier excessive report, which itself solely occurred because of a traditionally giant acquisition. There aren’t many online game franchises that may herald that sort of money past one thing like Grand Theft Auto or extra particularly, the extremely anticipated sequel to GTA V, one of many best-selling video games ever made. Yeah, that is likely to be large enough to maneuver the needle to $8 billion or so.

In fact, to be clear: Nowhere on this press launch, its associated earnings report, or its name with traders after the report was launched did Take-Two particularly say “Yeah, GTA VI is popping out in 2024!”

When the corporate’s CFO Lainie Goldstein was requested if the 2025 numbers had been based mostly on upcoming recreation gross sales or can be earned through older titles or microtransactions, she demurred, saying that the corporate wasn’t “speaking about what the element of that’s at the moment.”

At one other level within the name, CEO Strauss Zelnick dodged giving a selected reply about why they had been predicting such an enormous subsequent two years whilst so many games are being delayed. In response, the CEO mentioned the corporate now has “an excessive amount of confidence that that pipeline shall be delivered within the subsequent three years.” No matter meaning!

Kotaku has reached out to Take-Two about its earnings report.

If it looks like Take-Two Interactive is each making an attempt to persuade people it’s going to have an enormous subsequent 12 months whereas additionally making an attempt to not say why, that’s as a result of…yeah, that’s precisely what we predict is happening right here. Loads of winking, nudging, and smiling, however by no means saying what appears seemingly: Grand Theft Auto VI is presumably popping out someday subsequent 12 months.