GTA 6: Too Big to Fail, Too Massive to Release On Time

Why is GTA 6 so special?

GTA 6 is a phenomenon. What started out as a simple game about earning points driving through the city, a literal 'Grand Theft Auto', has now turned into a juggernaut so big, it shakes the internet with every trailer. But how did we get here? Well, it all started in the early 2000s.

Controversy shaping identity

With GTA being one of the great pioneers of technological innovation in the early 2000s with GTA 3 being the first ever 3D open world, it was bound to take off. It shook the gaming landscape and broke new ground for the industry. But this immense growth almost resulted in its collapse.

With the release of GTA San Andreas came the Hot Coffee Scandal. With the increasing media attention video games were getting, the discovery of the Hot Coffee files alongside past grievances about violence in video games was the perfect storm for a controversy that shook the industry hard. Though the files were never intended to be in the game, the damage was done and the ripple effects were immense.

Hillary Clinton herself attempted to bring forward the Family Entertainment Protection Act in the United States but the bill did not pass. It brought a new ESRB rating from M to AO which Rockstar Games eventually got changed back. This backlash from the mainstream media the likes of which we haven't been seen since those days.

This controversy was one of a kind truly and despite the obvious detrimental consequences Rockstar Games faced, it shaped the identity of GTA. It solidified it not as just another video game but a cultural phenomenon. Something greater, even if you were the very media that would host programs for repeated days on end to tear it apart, you were waiting for the next GTA.

For gamers, what they saw was outside forces infiltrating their space. Media heads that had no clue of what Gaming was and were simply interested in farming engagement, in the eyes of gamers, Rockstar Games and GTA were the victims of a smear campaign designed to destroy gaming from media people who didn't understand the medium nor did they care for it. This developed a lasting loyalty in the minds of many gamers.

With all of this context, one can understand why GTA today is such a phenomenon. The controversy that threatened to kill it instead became its catalyst, the fuel it needed to escape the gaming sphere.

Today, this fire burns so brightly, its embers spread so wildly, that one might even question if it's ever gonna be extinguished. If anything could possibly kill it.

Can GTA 6 Fail?

Following the recent delays, GTA 6 is now releasing on the 19th of November 2026. The last GTA release was 12 years ago in 2013 and much has changed since, but despite this long hiatus, the hype for GTA 6 is never-ending.

But this most recent delay, pushing the game back a whole 6 months has got the community in an uproar.

Many gamers are tired of waiting, at least the infamous meme of 'X happened before GTA 6' gets another few months of life. If you spend time reading the general reaction, many people are simply saying they're tired of waiting and that they don't 'want it anymore'. And in a way, it makes perfect sense. From 2001 to 2013, the same 12 year old gap, GTA got 5 games but not a single game in the last 12 years.

But despite all this backlash, negative press and controversy surrounding Rockstar's parent company Take Two allegedly union busting, I simply don't believe GTA 6 can fail. But what does failure even mean for a cultural juggernaut like GTA 6?

Interpretation of failure

What is a failure to you may not be a failure to another. One can interpret this simple question in many different ways, I am not a betting man but I would bet my house on GTA 6 selling like hotcakes and crashing the internet the day it releases so its not gonna fail financially. If it did, that would be a shock of unparalleled magnitude and dare I say, may result in bigger ripple effects than the Hot Coffee scandal.

But if you're here, I am assuming we're on similar frequencies. For you and me, success doesn't mean sales. Video Games only come together for the gamers with a perfect blend of amazing gameplay, worlds and stories. We want to feel something when we play games and in that way, GTA 6 can fail. The expectations on GTA 6 are extremely high, perhaps more than any other release in the history of video games.

And Rockstar Games understand the stakes more than anyone else.

The Mountainous Stakes

The entire world has their eyes on GTA 6. I know plenty of people who only play 1-2 games in a whole year and even they're excited for GTA 6. But these stakes come with a crushing, brutal burden. Though I love Game Development, I would hate working on GTA 6. The immense pressure on every little decision and the burden of expectations eating away at your mental.

Take Two understand these stakes extremely well too, the day the delay announcement came, Take Two's stock price saw an almost 10% drop. With stakes like this, delays are inevitable. I had predicted this delay long ago but even I didn't foresee the backlash it would get. Though it will most likely not fail in the sales department, I can only speculate on the consequences if after all this hype, GTA 6 is simply mediocre.

But does it even matter? Unless the game is entirely broken, does it matter if GTA 6 is not the greatest game of all time? Can it get away with being good enough?

Intention vs. Perception: The Straight Flush of Hearts

Perception. Its something that's quite hard to understand at times. If you only look from your own lens, you're much more likely to be wrong. Even as a creator myself, I understand that my writing and creative ventures may be perceived differently than I intended it to. Just because I intended something doesn't necessitate its perception as the same.

I can only really speculate on how GTA 6 will fare and I certainly wouldn't bet on this either but despite all I have said so far, I believe this game will not fail. It can't fail, even outside of the google sheets.

How can it? If its existence, its culture, its impact, its worldwide domination is a luxury on its own. GTA 6 is not just a game, it's a moment in time. An era. Even the hiatus has created its own culture, so I ask you, how will its release not?

And that's just the numbered cards. To complete the straight flush, Rockstar Games and GTA need the royals of hearts. The royals that will steal the hearts of the people. All they need to do is to play them.

The Queen of Hearts: Unmatched Polish and Graphical Brilliance

Graphical Fidelity has always been a staple of the franchise, dating back to 2001 with GTA 3 and even today, GTA 6 stands at the forefront of what graphics can be. Every trailer gets frame-by-frame breakdowns on every tiny little detail. But how its perceived is also important.

Games with great graphics, realistic ones especially, appeal to the casual gamers more. It signifies luxury, builds up the hype and keeps one distracted from flaws they might have noticed otherwise. Eye candy at its finest.

The King of Hearts: Incredible Track-Record and Blockbuster Quality

Rockstar Games have a long history of delivering on the expectations placed on their games. Ever since the Hot Coffee scandal, the world has had its eyes set on GTA and in turn, Rockstar. And Rockstar has delivered at every front. GTA 4 is regarded as a cult classic while GTA 5 is regarded as the Game of the Year of 2013. But even outside the GTA sphere, the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 proved to be vital to the unshakable trust in Rockstar's talents. The incredibly touching story, the life of Arthur Morgan, the heart-wrenching ending and the absolute cinema storyline with incredible acting has left a lasting impact in the hearts of gamers.

Due to this incredible trust built over the years, the people trust Rockstar Games to deliver another blockbuster experience. And because Rockstar's style of games is rather rare, its hard to believe they won't succeed by the simple virtue of offering something unique and premium. Something only they can offer.

The Ace of Hearts: What shaped the past shapes the future

This is where I throw out my most hottest of takes. Because you see, the ace in the hole for Rockstar, like it always has been, is the reason for a lot of criticism. Just like the Hot Coffee scandal, this is something Rockstar frequently gets criticism for. But unlike the Hot Coffee scandal, the media is not the attacking side. Its the gamers themselves. Because to them, this is the biggest reason why GTA 6 has taken this long to release.

GTA Online.

Perceived Complacency and Greed

GTA 5 is the 2nd best selling game of all time, just behind Minecraft clocking in at a monstrous 220 million copies sold. But that's just the number of copies sold, GTA 5 with the Online mode and shark cards is the most profitable game of all time, clocking in around 1 billion dollars from online alone.

With this much money being pumped out, many people have taken to calling it the downfall of GTA. Why release a game when you can farm shark cards for another year, releasing games is risky. They can fail. But the Online mode? That's a proven product.

To many, this is corporate greed at its most greediest. Despite its success, the game continues to suffer from griefers and hackers. Getting one-shotted across the map with a sniper rifle shot in mid air, flying players and getting targeted by hackers until you quit the game are daily occurrences but even serious matters like DDOSing and IP leaks are ignored.

And yet, despite all the cries for better anti-cheat and more punishments for the griefers, Rockstar simply pumps out another high-speed car. Maybe a new Jet plane and some more ridiculous looking skins and asks you to pay more. Buy shark cards. Update after update.

But just like the Hot Coffee Scandal, it gives Rockstar another layer of defense. One layer that is hard to see in the present moment but I am sure will be used if and when the game releases.

The Live Service Model.

Conditioning

When the online mode released, it was disastrous. Game crashes, server overload, login failures, matchmaking problems, the list goes on. And unlike in the present day, they had no shield back then because Rockstar never did online modes of this scale before this. It was new. No one knew if they could even turn around such a massive failure. Many thought Rockstar would never try online again after what was a monumental failure.

But as time went on, with more updates being pumped out, Rockstar turned the ship around. The perception around GTA Online shifted dramatically. But its not the only game that's done that before. Many argue games like Cyberpunk or No Man's Sky have done it better and comebacks are real. Games that release in a terrible state and get fixed later have their initial broken days forgiven.

With this conditioning in place, even if GTA 6 suffered from launch issues, people will be ready to defend it because they know games this big can't release in a perfect state.

The real ace in the hole is trust. People trust Rockstar enough that even in a broken state, the game will be ready to ward off its critics. If Cyberpunk or No Man's Sky could do it, why not GTA 6? And if that wasn't enough for the defense, if somehow, someway this wasn't enough, all it would take is money and an extra few months to once again, turn the ship around.

Failure is not Allowed

There's a reason why GTA Online survived for as long as it did, in truth, it may not be the quality of it at all. Sure, it has its merits but ask any player today and they'd tell you, they don't like the state of the game. But despite all of this, Rockstar Games and parent company Take Two continue to throw wheelbarrows of money into the game, burning through cash just as they're doing with GTA 6.

For a franchise like GTA, Take Two is willing to put it all on the line and would much rather burn millions of dollars on fixing issues post-launch than spend a fraction of that money on a new project. To the executives, failure is not an option. What has kept GTA Online alive is the relentless money being thrown at the project to make it succeed.

Even if GTA 6 launched in a poor technical state, Take Two will simply throw money at the problem until it gets fixed.

This is the Straight Flush of Hearts. The hand that's almost impossible to beat. And as I see it, it will most likely win out in the end. Even if the game itself is simply good enough, nowhere near its expectations, it will win out. But I would be a fool and a cynic to tell you that there's no way to beat this hand. Perception.

Just as some may use these cards to defend the game to their last keyboard stroke, they can very well be used against them. Graphical Fidelity? If it runs bad and causes major failures in the console hardware, what's the point?
History of Excellence? Comparisons are bound to be made. If its not good enough, these comparisons will be used against the game to highlights its weaknesses.
GTA Online? Not much needs to be said. If the single-player experience is simply a trailer for the inevitable online version, the backlash would be immense.
And the numbers, the higher they go, the higher the expectations. All of these cards, in a different hand and a different suit like spades, can work against Rockstar.

But there's one card we haven't discussed. A card that Rockstar completely lacks and one that could blindside every cynic including me. Because its very nature is to be unpredictable. And if it gets played, in the place of 9, it will beat out the hand full of hearts.

The Jack of Spades: The Ever-evolving Gamers

If there's anything the past few years have proven, its that success is very unpredictable. Take Palworld, sure it has cute pokemon-esque creatures and good graphics but really, its just an indie survival management game. But in just a few days, it gets millions of concurrent players on Steam alone.

But its not just the numbers, even in the ongoing legal battle between Nintendo and Pocketpair, many support Pocketpair as they see a big corporation jealous of the success of the little guy. I highly doubt Pocketpair expected this level of success and community support. Success is highly unpredictable.

And there's plenty more examples. I was a day 1 Cyberpunk defender. Despite its numerous issues, I enjoyed my time playing and I felt the heart of the game. Which is why even before the patches, I was defending it online relentlessly. Despite the hate Cyberpunk got, deservedly so, I simply loved the game. And its redemption arc only made me feel justified in the end.

No Man's Sky is the same. I highly doubt Sean Murray expected his game to get so popular so quick and in the chaos, he ended up making promises he could never fulfill. In hindsight, one could tell that Hello Games never had intentions of scamming people. They were simply way in over their heads.

All of this is to say, the taste of gamers is truly diverse. Which is why there's often so much chaos in the community about everything. But there are moments, times when the entire community comes together. To celebrate or to outrage. Elden Ring. Baldur's Gate 3. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

All examples of this collective love and appreciation for games.

Star Wars Battlefront 2. Battlefield 2042. Examples of collective outrage and hate.

Although it may be chaotic and sometimes, detrimentally so, there's some things that no gamer appreciates. And when these voices come together, it forms the final card needed to beat the hand of Rockstar.

Even through my cynical lens, seeing the success of GTA 6 as inevitable even if it's not as good as I hope it would be, I can't deny the chance that it won't be. GTA 6 truly is a moment in time.

All that's left to do is to wait for it. The release of GTA 6 will most certainly mark a turning point for the industry for the good or bad. Either way, its going to be one hell of a ride.

Conclusion

Now that's a long read. Don't worry, I'll finish it off quick here. In truth, I am not that excited for GTA 6. It most likely won't be good enough to beat out my top favorite games. And I am not that big of a fan of GTA 5 anyways, I thought it was an alright GTA game. But I did find myself surprised by the reaction to the delay, seeing many negative comments which I didn't expect. Whatever it may be, I can't help but be intrigued by how this game will fare in the eyes of the community.

If you've read this far, thanks! I doubt many people actually read these posts but if you're one of them, I appreciate it. I hope my ramblings and flawed knowledge of how Poker works didn't distract you from the read and I hope it resonated with you in some way.

There's plenty more games to enjoy in the meantime, make sure to have fun and stay healthy!

Till next time!