--- title: "Just Cause Creator Says Competing With GTA 6 Is \"Impossible\"" canonical_url: "https://www.gtaboom.com/samson-wants-to-be-the-game-you-play-between-gta-6-sessions-638f" markdown_url: "https://www.gtaboom.com/samson-wants-to-be-the-game-you-play-between-gta-6-sessions-638f.md" site_name: "GTA BOOM" site_url: "https://www.gtaboom.com" published_at: "2026-04-04T04:53:33Z" updated_at: "2026-04-09T07:02:15Z" section: "news" language: "en-US" primary_category_slug: "gta-news-053f" category_slugs: - "gta-news-053f" - "grand-theft-auto-6-588b" - "gta-6-news-7d1f" tags: - "GTA 6" - "PC" - "Rockstar Games" authors: - name: "Ray Ampoloquio" url: "https://www.gtaboom.com/authors/ray-ampoloquio" hero: url: "https://media.gtaboom.com/variants/1920/media/images/8a/55/samson-wants-to-be-the-game-you-play-between-gta-6-sessions-1.jpg" alt: "GTA's dominance has made the entire genre untouchable for everyone except Rockstar." width: 1920 height: 1080 caption: "GTA's dominance has made the entire genre untouchable for everyone except Rockstar." word_count: 767 reading_time_minutes: 4 --- > [!INFO] TL;DR Summary Christofer Sundberg says competing with GTA is impossible and is pitching Samson as a smaller, leaner action experience instead. It launches on PC on April 8, 2026, ahead of GTA 6, with a lower price and humbler ambitions. Christofer Sundberg, the co-founder of Avalanche Studios and the creative director behind the _Just Cause_ series and _Mad Max_, knows better than most not to compete with [Rockstar Games](/rockstar-games-f280 "Rockstar Games") and [_Grand Theft Auto_](/grand-theft-auto-8695 "Grand Theft Auto"). This is why, ahead of his new studio, Liquid Words, releasing a game on April 8, he wants to set the record straight. "There are times when you want to put _GTA_ down and pick up something else," Sundberg told PC Gamer. "And so I see _Samson_ as being like back in the day when action movies were 90 minutes long, not over two hours. I keep on going back to watching _Die Hard_ and _Ronin_ and _First Blood_ and _Rambo_. I think there's a space for us there, and that's where I want to end up." In short, what Sundberg is saying is that he wants people to stop comparing his upcoming game to _GTA_. It isn't trying to compete. It's trying to ride the wave. [Embed (youtube)](https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y9QPihtKmBc) After decades of trying, the open-world crime genre is now effectively a one-franchise monopoly. _Saints Row_ is dead, _Driver_ is dead, _Sleeping Dogs_ never got a sequel, and the _Watch Dogs_ series is in limbo. There is Rockstar, and then there is everybody else, and everybody else has either shut down, pivoted, or stopped trying, [in no fault of their own](/gta-6-will-have-zero-competition-when-it-launches-in-november-5569 "GTA Killed Its Competition"). So, when [_Grand Theft Auto 6_](/grand-theft-auto-vi-a428 "Grand Theft Auto VI") launches on [November 19, 2026](/take-two-just-confirmed-gta-6-is-actually-releasing-this-november-39ac "GTA 6 Release Date"), the cost of competing with a [$3 billion game](/gta-6-budget-may-be-higher-than-any-movie-ever-made-9a75 "GTA 6's Reported $3 Billion Budget") built by a studio with effectively unlimited resources is so prohibitive that nobody can justify trying, so Sunberg is doing the next best thing by hoping on its coat tails. > I have a huge respect for Rockstar and what they've done to the industry. Every time a _GTA_ game releases, it's just Christmas for everyone. He also called competing with _GTA_ "impossible." Unlike other analysts who've called _GTA 6_ a [meteor](/gta-6-release-reportedly-causing-panic-among-major-game-publishers-f754 "No One Wants to Get Close to GTA 6") and [iceberg](/analyst-compares-gta-6-impact-to-an-iceberg-7e0e "GTA 6 Could Uplift The Entire Video Game Industry"), Sunberg's words show that the upcoming title could potentially be the rising tide that the video game industry desperately needs, that lifts all the boats after a [historically down market](/new-report-claims-gta-6-could-save-console-gaming-from-its-biggest-crisis-yet-7f60 "GTA 6 Delay Causes Video Game Industry Crash") last year following its [delay](/gta-6-just-got-delayed-again-heres-the-new-release-date-ede4 "This Is The Latest GTA 6 Release Date"), especially in the open-world crime genre. ![There are no Saints Row games left. No Watch Dogs. No Sleeping Dogs. The open-world crime genre is a one-studio monopoly. One developer is trying to exist alongside GTA 6 instead of competing with it.](https://media.gtaboom.com/media/images/89/38/samson-wants-to-be-the-game-you-play-between-gta-6-sessions-2.jpg) Millions of people who buy _GTA 6_ on November 19 will play it intensely for weeks or months and then, inevitably, want something else in the same vein. The question is whether anything will exist to meet that demand. _Saints Row_ will not be there. _Watch Dogs_ will not be there. _Sleeping Dogs_ will not be there. The genre has been so thoroughly vacated by every studio that is not Rockstar that the adjacent market, the games people play between _GTA_ sessions, is effectively empty. Sundberg is positioning _Samson_ to fill exactly that gap. It's the _Die Hard_ to _GTA 6_'s _Lord of the Rings_. It is a modest pitch, but it is also an honest one, and in a genre where every game that tries to be the next _GTA_ gets crushed under the weight of that comparison, honesty about what you are and what you are not might be the smartest survival strategy there is. _Samson: A Tyndalston Story_ launches on PC on April 8, 2026, seven months before _GTA 6_. Whether it finds an audience will depend on whether Sundberg is right that people want a lean, focused crime game to play alongside whatever Rockstar has to offer. Then again, given the complete absence of anything else in the genre, he might just be right to bet on his $25 game. ## FAQ - **Q:** Is Samson trying to be a GTA competitor? **A:** No. Sundberg is openly positioning Samson as something players pick up alongside GTA. - **Q:** How is Samson being framed differently from GTA 6? **A:** The pitch is a shorter, leaner crime game rather than a massive open-world blockbuster. Sundberg compares that difference to a tight action movie versus a much bigger event experience. - **Q:** Who is Samson aimed at right now? **A:** It is aimed at players who want a focused crime game to dip into between longer GTA sessions. - **Q:** What is the biggest risk for Samson? **A:** Finding an audience is still the open question. The whole strategy depends on players actually wanting a smaller crime game next to GTA.