Rockstar Games’ next game and likely hit, Grand Theft Auto VI, will be launching on 19 November. While the singleplayer mode’s launch seems more certain than ever, the same can’t quite be said about the multiplayer component, if it will even have one. That being said, we may have been given a rough launch window for that, and through a pretty unlikely source, the CEO of Twitch, Dan Clancy.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Clancy says “ we spent a lot of time talking with Rockstar about their plans, and also helping them think about how they can engage our creators”. He then goes on to say “you are going to see this big bump with GTA 6, but an even bigger one next year when they launch multiplayer”.
It’s worth noting, though, that it remains unclear if what Clancy said was explicit confirmation or simply an educated guess. It’s possible that the topic was brought up in the aforementioned discussions between Twitch and Rockstar Games, but as the Bloomberg report does not go further into this point, it remains unclear which it is.
On a slightly related note, Clancy believes that once Grand Theft Auto VI and its multiplayer component get released, “it absolutely will spike the overall viewership meaningfully”. He does clarify “how much I have no idea”.
VGC notes that for GTA 5, GTA Online arrived two short weeks after the game was launched. The report also cites the annual shareholder meeting of Rockstar Games’ parent company Take-Two that said it had no plans to close down GTA Online. With that in mind, Grand Theft Auto VI getting its online mode two months after launch at its earliest is a bit slow in comparison. And while it would make sense to eventually port GTA Online over to the new game, it remains to be seen when that will actually happen, if at all.
