Feeding the Insatiable Hype Beast
The gaming industry doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to hyped releases. Notorious for releasing under-cooked, unfinished games, it’s no wonder gamers jump quickly to anger after spending $60 on a buggy, underperforming game.
In 2020, scandal rocked the gaming community upon the release of the now infamous game, Cyberpunk 2077. Gaming critic and industry insider from THEGAMER, Jade King, recalls the game’s release, saying, it was released in its unfinished form to appease shareholders despite the development team making it clear that the game wasn’t ready. Developers knew that the game wasn’t complete, yet the shareholders—the type of white-haired, conference call-worshiping, suit-wearers who have never held a game controller in their life—insisted on releasing it anyway so they could collect their dividends. “Cyberpunk 2077 [was] riddled with bugs,” Culture journalist at The Courier, Morgan O’Hara, says. “The developers faced over 30,000 refund requests early on due to lack of customer satisfaction.”
With multiple patches and enormous, multi-gig game updates, the studio managed to slap a bandaid on the glitchy, reputationally ruined video game, but the damage was done. It’s clear that the hype and over-promised marketing that preceded Cyberpunk’s release is what ultimately crucified it. Due to being rushed, it turned from a fun and exciting game into a major disappointment.
Turns out, there is such a thing as too much hype.
And this is not an isolated incident. The gaming industry is so lucrative and enormous that clueless shareholders crank out underbaked games to the public on a regular basis, cashing in on pre-sale excitement and counting on gamer loyalty to perpetuate the grift. If GTA VI follows the new industry standard, the game’s release will probably be riddled with development issues. Money-grubbing board members may be satisfied with the cash cow of a swift release, but time-tested gamers may never recover from the disappointment of a flop.
Legend Has It
Gamers aren’t known to be the most patient group out there, but when it comes to Grand Theft Auto, nobody had much of a choice. Previously, Rockstar announced that the game would be released by the end of 2025. However, recently they pushed that date to May of 2026. While I applaud the studio for accepting the realities and constraints of creating a comprehensive, playable universe in their game, I worry that the six month push is not enough.
As we get closer to this looming release date, and after two years of building the hype, the holy pinnacle of gaming actually appears to be coming to fruition. New releases have been teasing at the gameplay and fanning the flames of gamer excitement. But gaming skeptics, like myself, are left to wonder if this game will live up to the precedent.
“Fans have been dreaming about this game for years, and given its long development process, their expectations grow day by day,” Ahmad Bagheri, a gaming critic from Gamefa, says. Rockstar has remained extremely mysterious about the game’s content so gamers’ imaginations are running wild with the possibilities, naturally overlooking the technical constraints. Baheri continues, “these expectations are completely far-fetched and could lead to player disappointment.”
The only foolproof way to cheese the potential disappointment of GTA VI’s release is to dial back our excitement, hunker down, and wait out the storm.
Patience is a Virtue
Nowadays, Cyberpunk 2077 is a super fun, fully-functional open-world game with interesting characters, plot, and gameplay. So, if the new GTA game is released in a subpar state, all we have to do is wait. After so many years of building the hype, Rockstar will do just about anything to maintain their reputation as a studio—if only to prevent fiery torches and pitchforks at their company gates.
”Releasing the most anticipated game in history amid high expectations from fans is an incredibly challenging task,” Bagheri says. “However, Rockstar has proven itself time and again, and we hope they will do so once more, allowing us to see this beloved company shine brighter than ever before.” Hopeful, patient gamers will ultimately reap the rewards of a fun, finished game. So as long as the gaming community can come to terms with a marginally longer wait time, they can effectively avoid gaming bugs, broken maps, and faulty gameplay physics by riding the wave of incoming patches and updates that will effectively complete the game.
Perhaps Rockstar will surprise the gaming community with a perfectly functional game on release day, but more likely than not, 2027 will be the real play-year for GTA VI. So, as long as we can all get behind that reality, this urban legend will actually get the chance to live up to the hype and dazzle us all once again.
