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Striking video game voice actors and motion-capture performers, who held their first picket last week in front of Warner Bros. Games over concerns that Artificial Intelligence (AI) poses a significant threat to their professions, will not delay the previously-announced release date for Grand Theft Auto VI.
Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games, reassured shareholders that its open-world satirical crime epic remains on track to launch in autumn next year. Developers within Rockstar Games have been working on the follow-up to Grand Theft Auto V — the biggest-selling entertainment product in history, with $6 billion in revenue to its name since launch — for over a decade.
This extended development cycle has led to feverish anticipation for the next instalment in the Grand Theft Auto franchise — and why many panicked that the latest round of strikes in Hollywood could cause an even longer wait for the title, which will only be playable for roughly 50% of all PlayStation fans.
Modelling controllers for the Nintendo GameCube and N64, one striking actor stands outside of the WB Games studio. SAG-AFTRA stands for "Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists" and was formed with the 2012 merger of SAG and AFTRA trade unions
REUTERS
A member of the SAG-AFTRA union dresses as a character from the Call of Duty franchise — one of the biggest in the world, earning its parent company $31 billion in total over its launch in October 2003
REUTERS
Video game voice actors and motion-capture performers called a strike last month over failed contract negotiations focused on AI-related protections for workers. This is the latest in a series of strikes to hit Hollywood over concerns about AI replacing performers.
"I think when you remove the human element from any interactive project — whether it be a video game or TV show, an animated series, a movie — and you put AI in replacement for the human element, we can tell! I'm a gamer, I'm a digester of this content," British actor Jeff Leach told Reuters.
Mr Leach has appeared in some of the biggest-selling video games of the last decade, including Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare and COD: Warzone.
The decision to strike follows months of negotiations with major videogame companies including Activision Productions, Electronic Arts (EA), Fortnite developer Epic Games, Take-Two Interactive, Disney Character Voices, and Warner Bros' WB Games.
GTA 6, stylised as Grand Theft Auto VI, returns the action to the fictional city of Vice City, which is Rockstar Games' satirical version of Miami that featured in the 2002 GTA release of the same name ROCKSTAR GAMES Faced with questions about the impact of the strikes during a recent earnings call, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick reassured investors that GTA 6 will launch as scheduled ahead of Christmas next year. In a statement published after the call, the company reiterated: "The Grand Theft Auto series exceeded our expectations, as momentum continues to build ahead of the launch of Grand Theft Auto VI in Fall 2025."
While that'll reassure players excited for the hotly-anticipated Grand Theft Auto game, the earnings call brought some bad news for fans of Xbox. Quizzed on whether Microsoft's decision to debut the next entry in the blockbuster Call Of Duty series onto Game Pass — its Netflix-like subscription for games — the same day as it's available to buy as a standalone purchase would influence how Take-Two Interactive releases its games in the future, CEO Strauss Zelnick was dismissive of this unique approach.
"No, it won't affect our decisions," CEO Strauss Zelnick said. "Because our decisions are rational."
The executive admitted that a headline-grabbing game, like the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, would likely bolster subscriptions to Game Pass ...but worried the impact would be short-lived. Speaking to GamesIndustry.Biz, he clarified: "I think that offering a frontline title with a premium price in a subscription service, day and date, will push consumers to that subscription service for at least a period of time."
Grand Theft Auto V was included in the Game Pass catalogue for some six months, before Take-Two Interactive removed the best-selling title from the Microsoft subscription service. But it's bad news for any Xbox players who hoped a £14.99 subscription to the service would allow them to enjoy GTA VI on launch day.
The entry-level version of the next Call of Duty game will be included with Xbox Game Pass at no extra cost... although Microsoft recently increased the cost of this Netflix-like subscription
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If you also own a PlayStation 5, GTA 5 is still included as part of its answer to Game Pass, known as PS Plus.
The latter was overhauled two years ago, offering a rotating catalogue of games to stream and download on consoles in response to Game Pass. However, Sony does not offer its exclusive titles on launch day, with many of these games released on PS Plus later down the line.
It's unclear when exactly the sixth mainline entry in the Grand Theft Auto series will launch. Take-Two Interactive has narrowed the previous release window of next year to a more specific — but still frustratingly vague — timeframe of "fall 2025". Provided nothing changes between now and then, it means Grand Theft Auto fans will have waited 12 years between instalments.
"As we enter Fiscal 2025 with positive momentum, we expect to deliver Net Bookings of $5.55 to $5.65 billion," the earnings report states. "Our outlook reflects a narrowing of Rockstar Games’ previously established window of Calendar 2025 to Fall of Calendar 2025 for Grand Theft Auto VI.
"We are highly confident that Rockstar Games will deliver an unparalleled entertainment experience, and our expectations for the commercial impact of the title continue to increase."
Grand Theft Auto V first launched 11 years ago on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Since then, the popular title has appeared on another two console generations, with an upgraded version of the decade-old video game launching on the latest consoles from Xbox and Sony in early 2022
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The New York City-based company also confirmed that Grand Theft Auto V has passed the milestone of 200 million units sold. That eye-watering total now accounts for almost 50% of the entire Grand Theft Auto franchise, which was launched back in November 1997.
Grand Theft Auto V has now appeared on three console generations, starting with the Xbox 360 and Sony PS3 back in September 2013. An upgraded version of the game launched on the latest crop of video game consoles, Xbox Series X|S and Sony PS5, in March 2022 with support for 4K Ultra HD visuals, ray-tracing, 60 frames-per-second, and 3D audio. The continued popularity of the game is partly attributed to GTA Online.
Experts believe the next instalment in the Grand Theft Auto franchise could break its own record sales numbers. Its predecessor, Grand Theft Auto V, still holds the crown for the best opening week of sales in video game history — raking in $1.15bn (£1.2bn) in five days. It has gone on to become the second biggest game of all-time, although it's still 100 million copies behind the Gold Medalist, Minecraft.
But many like Dmitri Williams, a video game business expert and professor at University of Southern California, expect the long-awaited follow-up to perform even better. He said: "The brand is as strong or stronger than it was before, but additionally the game industry is larger. If it maintains the same slice of the pie, it's going to be big, because it will come from a bigger pie.
"The games industry is simply massive globally, and is no single genre or platform. It's so large and so varied that even fractions of it are larger than whole parallel industries like movies.”
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Sony is tipped to capitalise on the excitement around the next Rockstar Games title by launching an improved PlayStation 5 console with upgraded graphics and a tweaked case design.
The next instalment of the popular Grand Theft Auto series will take gamers back to Vice City, which last appeared in 2006's Vice City Stories. Rockstar Games has already confirmed the franchise will use a female protagonist for the first time since 2000, known as Lucia.
Little is known about the plot of the satirical action-adventure game, but it's widely expected to mirror the misadventures of Bonnie and Clyde across a fictional US State that spoofs on Florida, dubbed Leonida.