They are all from players who are against things Rockstar did with GTA and what it represents for the industry. But they are not representative of the whole market.

The article is right about the impact for small studios. On the timeline for the game I'm working on, we have a prediction for GTA VI release with a big question mark and we hope to avoid it.

The problem is not that all players will spend $100 on the game. The problem is that the majority of the press coverage, Steam traffic, streamer time, etc. will focus on the topic. Even if there is bad press around GTA, that's still attention that is not on other games.

[–] neatchee@lemmy.world 29 points 6 days ago

Exactly this. I work in the games industry as well and even big studios are falling over themselves NOT to release anywhere near GTA6.

Nobody believes there won't be people playing other games at that time. But it's going to dominate the media cycle for a month, especially if it is either better or worse than fans hope. And the reality is that many, many people have limited gaming budgets. If you've only got $100 to spend, GTA6 is very likely to be the default pick at that time.

It's a behemoth in terms of grabbing attention from both the media and players. All the best laid plans for a successful release can be completely derailed by a game like GTA6.

[–] tonytins@pawb.social 7 points 6 days ago

I really didn't know what to expect with this article. That being said, the industry holding their breath on GTA 6 is a bit much, to say the least.