Rockstar Games may be focused on next month's released of LA Noire, but we know damn well they're working on Grand Theft Auto V in the background. While Rockstar expands its games library and launches potential franchises with Red Dead Redemption and LA Noire, many gamers - including us at Game Rant - are eagerly awaiting our next chance at stealing cars and blowing stuff up.

We're rather confident that Grand Theft Auto 5 is on its way, sooner than some may think, so we even included it on our list of 5 major imminent sequel announcements. As to not overshadow the release of LA Noire, such an announcement will likely occur at E3 2011 in June. Some rumors have previously pointed towards a fall 2011 release date, but it's much more likely to release early next year as some analysts predicted.

While Rockstar has remained quiet on the subject, with information instead coming from GTAV casting calls and mysterious websites, GameStop is again going out of there way to get their name out there, this time with a posting for the next Grand Theft Auto (which doesn't officially exist, mind you) and a listed release date.

The following screenshot I took this morning from the German GameStop website, knowing they'd take it down. They do this rather regularly, so we all know what to expect. It's an neat, yet annoying marketing trick [Click to Enlarge]:

The site listed the Grand Theft Auto 5 release date of January 15, 2012 and it very well might be, since Rockstar has no release date tradition for their titles. Grand Theft Auto IV hit shelves in April, Grand Theft Auto III released in October and last year's Red Dead Redemption released in May.

What I will say, is that Rockstar certainly won't be released such a game this fall with so much competition against the busiest November in video game history.

Are you still interested in another Grand Theft Auto criminal adventure?

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Source: GameStop