After a long 13-year wait, Grand Theft Auto 6 will finally launch officially on November 19, and publisher Take-Two has extremely high confidence in the market performance of this massive blockbuster. According to the company’s latest financial forecast, Grand Theft Auto 6 is expected to drive Take-Two’s Net Bookings for the third quarter of this fiscal year to $3.35 billion to $3.5 billion.
According to Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, Grand Theft Auto 6’s pre-order performance alone has set a historic and astonishing record, and they expect this year to be a milestone year in Take-Two’s history. Although Take-Two has not officially disclosed exact pre-order figures, recent reports indicate that since pre-orders opened in June, the game has sold 9.69 million copies, surpassing Cyberpunk 2077 to become the highest pre-order selling game of all time, and it is very likely to exceed 10 million copies before launch.
It is worth noting that Take-Two’s net bookings in the second quarter were $1.6 billion, down 18% from last year and slightly below market expectations. In the previous quarter, its flagship sports game NBA 2K27 was considered one of the reasons for the weaker-than-expected performance. Take-Two officials said that although this sequel set the second-highest net bookings record in the series’ history, its actual performance still fell short of the company’s original forecast.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Strauss Zelnick said he believed that the enormous anticipation surrounding Grand Theft Auto 6 may have, to some degree, affected players’ willingness to purchase other titles released this year, such as NBA 2K27. Looking ahead to the full fiscal year 2027, Take-Two set its full-year forecast for net bookings at an astonishing $8.0 billion to $8.2 billion, which makes it clear that the company indeed sees Grand Theft Auto 6 as a key driver of growth for the entire business.
On the other hand, Rockstar Games has recently also begun a larger-scale marketing campaign for the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6, and on November 9, with the century-old British high-end department store brand Selfridges A collaboration was launched, releasing about 60 Grand Theft Auto 6-themed apparel and limited-edition collectible merchandise items with a total value of over $9,700.
Among them, one item that sparked a lot of discussion among players was a custom-themed “Goodtime State Varsity” jacket priced at $3025, but beyond that, the event also included a wide array of merchandise. In addition to some higher-end apparel and other items, fans could also buy more affordable merch such as $6.5 themed shot glasses. Moreover, many of the items were inspired by fictional brands from the Grand Theft Auto universe, greatly increasing players’ motivation to collect them.
Before this, Selfridges had also hosted a Pokémon 30th anniversary pop-up event, and this Grand Theft Auto 6 project is regarded as one of the department store brand’s largest video game-themed collaborations in recent years.
Source: KOCPC Chinese