Rockstar has announced that Grand Theft Auto V has been delayed until September, sparking speculation that it could also be released on the next generation of consoles.
Grand Theft Auto V has been given a worldwide release date of September 17, 2013. It was originally scheduled for the first half of the year.
The delay is to accomodate for extra development time.
GTA V is a massively ambitious and complex game and it simply needs a little more polish to be of the standard we and, more importantly, you require.
"We know this is about four months later than originally planned and we know that this short delay will come as a disappointment to many of you, but, trust us, it will be worth the extra time" said a Rockstar statement.
"GTA V is a massively ambitious and complex game and it simply needs a little more polish to be of the standard we and, more importantly, you require."
"Grand Theft Auto V continues to push the series forward in new ways; Rockstar North are creating our deepest, most beautiful and most immersive world yet," said Sam Houser, Rockstar VP. "We are very excited for people to learn more about the game in the coming months."
The game is listed for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, with a PC release expected shortly afterwards.
However, the delay has prompted speculation that GTA V will be released on the next generation of consoles, despite Rockstar listing the current platforms in the media release.
Cowen & Company analyst Doug Creutz says a September release pushes GTA V and its subsequent DLC into the next generation of hardware.
Creutz believes it may be released on both current and next generation platforms.
"We think the closer proximity of GTA V to the next cycle could, at the margin, impact lifetime sales of the title, though we believe that a title of GTA's stature will still be a major seller regardless," said Creutz, via CVG.
"We think there also could be some impact on the legs of likely GTA V downloadable content as the next-gen installed base increases through 2014. However, we suspect Take-Two may have plans to eventually publish GTA V on the next set of consoles in some form to offset this."
Grand Theft Auto V will be released internationally on September 17, 2013, for PS3 and Xbox 360.
By Ben Salter