Grand Theft Auto 6 is now just two months away, and we know that it is not launching alongside GTA 6 Online , a multiplayer mode. The original GTA Online has made billions for Rockstar over the last decade and continues to, so that tradition is meant to press on. But Rockstar isn’t talking about it, nor its release window. Someone else credible is, however.

Twitch CEO Dan Clancy said in a new interview with Bloomberg that there’s a release year, at least:

“We spent a lot of time talking with Rockstar about their plans,” Clancy said. “You are going to see this big bump with GTA 6 , but then an even bigger one next year when they launch multiplayer.”

While that could be 4-15 months from now, anything in that range is far different than GTA Online, which was released just two weeks after GTA 5’ s release date on September 17, 2013. Again, there’s no stated reason why this might happen, but it can be inferred that this is a different situation this time around for a few reasons.

1) It’s likely the vast, vast majority of effort has been thrown into getting the GTA 6 base game out the door, and that may push back release further than it would be otherwise.

2) This time around, GTA Online already exists, so it is not urgent to get GTA 6 Online out with that mode still making lots of money.

3) There’s a transition needed here. GTA Online will not simply be shut down for GTA 6 Online. While many will obviously move over, some will stay, having built up a huge presence there over 13 years. So that may prove tricky.

I previously said it could be as long as a year or two until GTA 6 comes out. Not two, clearly, but a year would still be 2027 as Clancy says. I’d probably lean more toward six months, personally, not a launch on say, January 1, 2027.

GTA 6 is expected to sell a world-record amount of copies at launch, surpassing GTA 5 despite a higher price point in an increasingly terrible economy. Since release, GTA 5 is the best-selling AAA video game of all time with 230 million units sold. Obviously, Rockstar has plans to get past that eventually, and GTA 6 Online is going to be a big part of that. GTA Online is the major reason GTA 5 continues to sell well all this time. There are, of course, new-generation re-releases and ports to PC, as well as other ways to boost sales. Rockstar knows all these tricks and will no doubt employ them here, as they did last generation. But no, don’t expect GTA 6 Online any time soon, as Clancy indicates.

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