[tab name=’News’]
Online retailer Amazon has listed Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 5 for pre-order on their site and given it a release date of December.
Last year Rockstar teased the new open-world game with a flashy trailer, showing off the new expansive locations, improved graphics and a new lead character – but, most tellingly, no release date was given.
It had been thought that Take Two – Rockstar’s publisher – wouldn’t release Bioshock 3 and GTA 5 at the same time, and with Bioshock pencilled in for an October release it surely meant GTA 5 would land in 2013.
But a spanner was thrown in the works last week during an investor call when Take Two pushed back the release of Bioshock 3, leaving their 2012 release schedule looking rather bare with no real triple-A title to speak of.
This news has since sent the GTA 5 release date rumour mill into overdrive with everyone from analysts to industry insiders speculating when the game might actually be released.
It was reported last week that game analyst Michael Pachter stated that he thought the crime thriller would indeed be out in October 2012. This isn’t the first time an October 2012 release has been mentioned for Grand Theft Auto 5. Last month a Rockstar employee’s leaked CV listed October as the release date.
From what was teased in last year’s trailer, the game does look to be quite far into production, with another telling caveat being this October is GTA’s 15 year anniversary – leading many to think Rockstar will want to celebrate the franchise with the release of GTA 5.
However, this week, Colin Sebastian – another game analyst – stated the perceived threats from big franchises like Call of Duty, Halo and Assasins Creed would be too much of a risk for Take Two and is predicting a 2013 release date instead.
Details about the sprawling game are still sketchy, with the only real nugget of information unearthed by fan sites is that the yet unnamed lead character will be played by actor Ned Luke (of Law & Order fame), as the game briefly appeared on his IMDB profile (which has since been removed).
Even though Rockstar won’t have a stand at E3 they are expected to release a new trailer either before, during or after the event – which is expected to announce when the game will actually be released – so it won’t be long before we know for certain.
Let us know your thoughts on our comments below or via our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter page or Official Facebook group.
[/tab]
[end_tabset]