GTA VI’s launch on 19 November could pull UAE spending away from malls and cinemas ahead of White Friday, says etoro analyst Josh Gilbert.
His argument is simple: money going on the game is money that isn’t going to the mall or the cinema that month. Gilbert says that at around AED 300, a “little splurge” might keep some shoppers away from the White Friday sales later in November. The UAE price is AED 299.16, and the game unlocks at midnight on 19 November.
Gilbert also points to a first for the UAE. GTA V only became officially available for purchase in the country last year, 12 years after its original release. GTA VI is expected to launch here on the same day as the rest of the world. Players can pre-load the game from 10 November, and the file runs to 212 GB.
Take-Two Interactive, GTA VI’s publisher, is where Gilbert sees the most at stake. He says Take-Two left full-year bookings guidance at USD 8 billion to USD 8.2 billion, short of the roughly USD 8.6 billion analysts expect. Take-Two has also pointed to softer NBA 2K sales as gamers saved up for GTA. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick says pre-orders are “continuing to reach unprecedented levels”, though the company still hasn’t published a figure.
Gilbert says Sony is next best placed to benefit, since GTA VI is console-only at launch and PlayStation takes a cut of every copy sold through its store. Microsoft is a different case: he describes Xbox as a small part of a story that trades on AI and cloud.
With expectations this high, Gilbert argues that a good launch won’t be enough for GTA VI. It needs to be a historic one.
