Is There Some Truth Behind the GTA 6 Late October Release Date Rumors?

The past few weeks have been quite eventful for the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed that Grand Theft Auto 6 remains on track for a 2025 release date, which was further narrowed by the official reveal of Borderlands 4's launch on September 23.

Then, this past weekend, the source code for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas leaked online and around the same time, Kotaku gave birth to rumors that the upcoming highly anticpated game - that's GTA 6, not San Andreas, just to clarify - will be released sometime late October; specifically on October 28.

Many ran with this as if this was a confirmation rather than an educated guess. It's worth noting that Kotaku never specified that this was an official release date. The news outlet has also been wrong before. Close to a year ago, Kotaku "revealed" that they had information from insiders suggesting that Rockstar might delay GTA 6 to 2026. Although this could technically still happen, all signs point towards a late 2025 release for GTA 6, especially as the game's marketing campaign is expected to kick off in April.

With that said, does this immediately discredit Kotaku's claims that GTA 6 might be available to play in October 28 or within the same week? Not quite. Rockstar Games has a history of releasing major titles in October, and the last Tuesday of the month aligns with their past launch strategies. Then, there's this shirt.

What's particularly interesting about this shirt are the dates listed on the back. The dates first appeared on a poster in Max Payne 3 way back in 2013, and the dates actually line up with official or initial release dates of Rockstar titles. For example, Grand Theft Auto 4 came out on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on April 29, 2008, while October 26 and October 29 has been the go-to date by Rockstar for several of its releases, including Grand Theft Auto: Vice City back in 2002. Considering that GTA 6 is set in Vice City, it wouldn't be far-fetched for Rockstar to "recycle" the 2002 title's release date 23 years later, even if it would fall on Wednesday.

Of course, this is all speculation, and of the listed dates, Rockstar has yet to use January 4. Although this would push GTA 6's release date out of its Fall 2025 release window, it would still fall within the next fiscal year, which is far more important for Take-Two. Then again, October isn't referred to by fans as "Rocktober" for nothing.

Keep in mind that many in the industry believe that Rockstar pretty much has the final say on when it feels like it's ready to launch GTA 6 so if the game isn't ready by late October, no one can stop them. But at the same time, as former Microsoft and Activision Blizzard executive Mike Ybarra put it, GTA 6 is king, so if the inverse is true and it's ready way before the expected release date, Rockstar could very well treat fans to an early release of the game.

As the anticipation for GTA 6 builds, the rest of the gaming industry continues to feel the impact of its impending release. Take-Two's stock prices have already gone up as a result of the latest revelation. Meanwhile, other developers like Xbox and Electronic Arts are strategically planning their own releases to avoid direct competition with what is sure to be a dominant force in the market.

With that said, until Rockstar makes an official announcement, all release dates arespeculative. The company has a track record of revealing information on its own terms, often to everyone's surprise.