Is Grand Theft Auto VI the most anticipated video game of all time? Here

Nick Oulette of Vancouver is one of the millions of video game players around the world anxiously awaiting the release of Grand Theft Auto VI.

“The hype is so real with this one,” he told CBC News. “I do think it’ll be the game of the decade.”

GTAVI, the latest in the long-running series of open-world crime simulators by Rockstar Games, is predicted to be the biggest release in video game history — and not just by hardcore gamers or streamers.

Earlier this month, Steven Adams of the Houston Rockets told media he expects the performance of elite athletes in all major sports leagues to “plummet” as they spend most of their time playing the game instead of training.

Here are some of the reasons why the anticipation for GTAVI has reached a fever pitch.

A mega-popular series

The raw numbers are staggering by any measure.

The series has sold more than 470 million units since 1997, with Grand Theft Auto V alone selling more than 230 million. It remains one of the most-played games on Xbox and PlayStation consoles, thanks to its GTA Online multiplayer mode, according to Circana games industry analyst Mat Piscatella.

According to leaked data released by hackers earlier this year, GTA Online makes Rockstar about $500 billion US every year, or $1.3 million every day.

Lucia and Jason, the main characters of the video game Grand Theft Auto VI. (Rockstar Games/Take-Two Interactive)

Piscatella says 29 per cent of U.S. gamers with a PC or console intend to buy GTAVI at some point, whether at launch or later on down the road. 

“If a game gets in the teens-percentage in purchase intent, it’s going to be a hit. If it’s in the high single digits, it’s still really good. But when you’re approaching nearly one-in-three, that’s kind of off the charts,” he told CBC News.

The long wait

GTAVI comes with more than a decade of pent-up anticipation.

Grand Theft Auto V first launched on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox One more than 13 years ago. Development for GTAVI reportedly began around eight years ago. Rockstar only released one major game in the meantime: Red Dead Redemption 2, in 2018.

Rockstar has said very little about the game itself, fuelling a cottage industry of speculation and fake videos purporting to be leaked footage online.

A view of Vice City, one of the playable areas in Grand Theft Auto VI. (Rockstar Games/Take-Two Interactive)

We know the game features two playable characters: Jason and Lucia, a couple juggling their romantic relationship and burgeoning criminal careers in Leonida, the GTA world’s satirical version of Florida. But little else about the story, or what players will be able to do, have been teased.

“There is still a lot we don’t know about GTAVI, and it’s kind of mysterious … including its budget,” said Toronto-based games writer and podcaster Nadia Oxford. 

Open-world games with the ambition of GTA are rare, Oxford notes, because they are “horrendously expensive to make” at the production levels expected in today’s industry.

Rumours this fall suggested…