Doing the job that I do, reading certain articles and trawling social media on a daily basis, one thing is becoming more and more likely:GTA VIis never going to live up to expectations.
Let’s look at this objectively and take in a few stats.GTA Vhas soldover 200 million unitsworldwide, which has earned Rockstar Games and Take-Two around $8.6 billion. The game has been released across several platforms, first launching on PS3 and Xbox 360 in September 2014, before going on to launch for PS4 and Xbox One the following year. Of course, it has since been upgraded for PS5 and Xbox Series consoles while finding a thriving community on PC as well.
These are, frankly, staggering numbers. No other singular game, aside from maybe the original Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog have seen anything close to this level of consumption. To put this into perspective, there are more copies ofGTA Vexisting than there are people in Russia or Bangladesh.
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It’s hard to meet those sales figures, but if any game can do it, it’ll beGTA VI. However, those facts are quite something to live up to and the fanbase waiting for this game is rabid - and let me be clear, I don’t mean that negatively. I do hold firm, however, that no matter what Rockstar Games pulls out of the bag, it’s never going to meet the hype or expectations of fans.
Rockstar Games
In the past few weeks, I’ve seen Reddit posts dedicated to: thenumber of coloursshown in the trailer, the fact that there are disabled parking spaces in Vice City, whether the time of day will impact traffic, expectations onupcoming earnings calls, and evenanalysis on the carsand which real world vehicles they’re based on (one fan has even gone to lengths ofcounting every single carin the trailer).
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If theGTA VIcommunity can pick apart something, they will. It doesn’t help that the game is scheduled for next year and we haven’t seen more than one trailer, which didn’t even feature gameplay.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with looking at a game with this level of detail - though outside of perhaps Marvel movies, I’m struggling to think of another medium that warrants this level of scrutiny. Combing over everything like this can only end badly, right?
If you’re sitting on Reddit or Twitter every day looking for tiny clues in trailers that have now been around for months, forming ideas about character models, radio stations, and locations to explore, you’re creating a narrative that can’t be matched. The human imagination is a powerful thing and what you’re thinkingGTA VIis going to look like is likely way off the mark.
Rockstar Games
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Sure, it’s going to look stunning, the story will be first-class, and the gameplay only needs to slightly surpass that ofGTA Vfor it to be a success, but it will never rise to what you’ve got in your head. Not if you’re speculating whether the high-rise buildings might have interiors to explore, or whether the angry grandma from the trailer is a character we’ll meet. Because what if they aren’t? Then you’ve built a narrative that might never manifest which can only end in disappointment. Ultimately, Rockstar Games can’t do everything, despite the billions of dollars it invests.
ABethesda veteranrecently warned against fans building up too much expectation forThe Elder Scrolls VIand I fear the same thing is happening here. There’s no doubt these titles will be amazing games but, as the developer said in that aforementioned interview, it is “almost impossible” for these games to match what we have in our heads.
It’s times like this when I wish that Rockstar Games was a little more open. The studio has always been very closed-off and it’s said that employees have to sign NDAs upon leaving the company to prevent them from talking about projects, past and present.
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Of course, if they were open and laid out more of what’s going on with the game, it would be beneficial to all but I can also understand that closed-off nature because announcing features or mechanics for the game will only stoke the hype train further.
Rockstar Games
The chances the game will deliver are high. If youlook at Metacriticand wheel back the years to 2001 whenGTA 3released, the game earned a Metascore of 97 out of 100. That’s the same score asGTA V.
Between those years, we gotGTA: Vice City, which earned a 95,GTA: San Andreas,which also scored 95, andGTA IV,which landed a whopping 98 out of 100. The track record is there. It’s clear that Rockstar Games makes masterpieces, and that’s without taking the Red Dead Redemption series into account, or looking further back to the likes ofBully.
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However, we must tread with caution. Rockstar Games has become so big that anything short of excellence, or perfection in some cases, could be ruinous - and when they fuel speculation, the stakes get even higher.
As we inch closer to 2025, we will begin to see a full-blown promotional campaign begin. Another trailer will drop, screenshots will start to appear, interviews will be conducted, and slowly we’ll get a bigger picture of what’s to come. I only hope that the eventual product doesn’t fall short for fans (me included) who have spent the better part of a decade wondering what’s next. Because I feel confident in saying that it’s going to be amazing, but it still won’t meet that expectation.
Topics:GTA,GTA 5,GTA 6,GTA Online,Grand Theft Auto,Rockstar Games,Take-Two,Opinion
