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The release of Grand Theft Auto V in November will leave a number of big-game publishers nervous about the potential sales impact it may have on their games.
The PS4 and Xbox One title will arrive on November 18th (with the PC game waiting until January 27th) placing it slap bang in the middle of the busiest release period this Q4.
November 11th sees the release of Ubisoft’s next-gen racer The Crew and Microsoft’s Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
On November 13th Blizzard will release World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor and Ubisoft Assassin’s Creed: Unity. Warner’s LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham lands on November 14th.
Squaring up directly against Grand Theft Auto V will be Ubisoft’s Far Cry 4 while the days after its release sees EA’s Dragon Age: Inquisition and Bandai Namco’s Project Cars arrive on November 21st.
Activision’s Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare lands on November 4th, potentially clear of any possible impact.
Of course, with an incredible 34m copies of the game already sold on PS3 and Xbox 360 GTA V’s rivals may be hoping there’s no-one left to buy the game. But with PS4 and Xbox One sales so strong, there are lots of hungry console owners out there in desperate want of triple-A titles.
And the allure of the GTA brand certainly remains unrivalled, as demonstrated by its record-breaking launch last year.
An appetite for HD remakes is already established and Rockstar looks to be pulling out all the stops to ensure GTA V is anything but a simple port. It has enhanced numerous aspects of the game and even offered additional content specifically to those who make the jump from existing versions. Plus, all those hours put into GTA Online won’t be wasted, either, with confirmation that progress can be ported – even for those moving from console to PC.
I wonder what odds William Hill will be offering…
