Grand Theft Auto 5 2013 Release

Though it was surmised that BioShock Infinite was delayed into early 2013 to make room for the highly anticipated release of Grand Theft Auto 5, one analyst thinks that not to be the case. Thus far, the big Rockstar GTA releases have taken place around the end of the year, but with so many triple-A titles, like Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty, occupying that space, it's easy to see why Rockstar might be a little gun shy about an October release.

According to Baird analyst Colin Sebastian, Rockstar is most likely going to be looking to early 2013 for the release of Grand Theft Auto 5 as well. Rather than compete with the likes of Halo 4 or even the release of the Wii U, Rockstar is going to position themselves for a strong winter or spring.

If you'll remember, Max Payne 3, which releases in just a few days, was originally set to release earlier this year, but Rockstar delayed it, most likely to make room for Mass Effect 3. Clearly Rockstar no longer thinks that they are the publisher to beat, and actually worries about when their games release.

If Rockstar really wanted to surprise everyone they would wait until E3 2012, and the Nintendo Press Conference, to reveal a release date for GTA 5 that would also include shipping on the Wii U. Since the announcement of the game many have speculated that Nintendo's new console would feature GTA 5 but nothing has been confirmed.

Nonetheless there is still the belief, one held by competing analyst Michael Pachter, that suggests Grand Theft Auto 5 will release in October. It's not an absolute that we will see an announcement from Rockstar during E3 2012 — the developer has a longstanding tradition of sitting out the annual event — but given the amount of uncertainty surrounding the game's release we'd hope to hear at least something in the next month or so.

Do you think that Grand Theft Auto 5 will release in this year or the next? Will we see a big announcement from Rockstar during E3?

Source: MCV