It might be disappointing that Grand Theft Auto 6 was a no-show at E3, but given Rockstar and general industry trends, it probably wasn't surprising.

E3 2021 was chock full of game announcements, from widely predicted ones around Starfield and Halo Infinite to surprises like Metroid Dread. One conspicuously absent title, though, was Rockstar's next magnum opus: Grand Theft Auto 6. Anyone who follows Rockstar and overall industry trends probably wasn't shocked, even if they did have some of their hopes dashed.

It's still not clear what GTA 6 will actually look like. Rumors (and fan wishlists) have pointed to Vice City as a setting, but while this is certainly a possibility, many of the claims surrounding GTA 6 have been questionable or outright debunked. There have even been hints of the game having a multi-city tableau, although that would require enormous amounts of work even for a business as large as Rockstar, which has 10 subsidiaries spread across the U.K., U.S., India, and Canada. It took years to craft GTA 5's Los Santos, never mind repeating that two more times.

The predominant factor in withholding GTA 6 was probably Rockstar (and/or publisher Take-Two) wanting to control timing and impact. Developers are often forced to rush a "slice" of their games for showing at E3, which can interrupt development cycles or simply not align with them. Rockstar would also have been forced to share the spotlight with other E3 news, and under that expo's terms - whereas solo announcements can monopolize media attention at precisely the right moment. This why companies like Sony and EA have abandoned E3 in favor of independent livestreams, which could eventually spell the end of the show.

Every GTA Is A Mammoth Enterprise

There's also the likely prospect that GTA 6 isn't close enough to completion. The game has no doubt been in development for years, since GTA 5 first launched in September 2013, but much of the intervening time has been spent on GTA Online, Red Dead Redemption 2, and not one but two GTA 5 upgrades. That's bound to slow progress, especially since GTA Online has been such a cash cow that there's been little incentive for another single-player title.

Without an E3 2021 showing, it's likely that Grand Theft Auto 6 won't ship until at least late 2022, if not sometime in 2023. Any product shipping in late 2021 or early 2022 would probably have had enough polished gameplay to show by now. Of course, it's established that Rockstar is ready to operate on its own terms - and a surprise holiday launch wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility. The game would probably crush all rivals so long as it didn't make any Cyberpunk 2077-level mistakes. Mercifully, Rockstar has largely avoided any of those.

Next: Grand Theft Auto 5 Is Responsible For 42% Of Sales In The Series