Felipe Busquets is a video game industry veteran who spent roughly 12 years at Rockstar Games from 2005 to 2016. He watched from the inside as GTA launches rearranged the industry's calendar. Now he's speaking out — and his message isn't what publishers want to hear.
In a LinkedIn post published after Grand Theft Auto VI went viral — with every other game developer avoiding it at all costs — Busquets argues that publishers are making a huge mistake by squeezing themselves into September 2026.
"By avoiding the GTA 6 freight train on November 19, they are running directly into each other. The net result for most titles is arguably worse — at least in November, there was only one competitor to lose to. In September, there are at least ten."
The Problem vs. The Reality
What Publishers Think
- Avoided November alongside GTA 6
- Escaped 29% of gamers reducing spending
- Avoided GTA 6 marketing saturation
- Secured two months of sales runway
What Actually Happened
- Launched alongside Wolverine, Control Resonant, Silent Hill simultaneously
- September wallets split across 10+ titles
- Buried by each other; Control & Silent Hill share Sep 24 targeting same audience
- Sales runway compressed into a window where every title competes for early-autumn budgets
Busquets' conclusion is blunt: trying to time your release around a Rockstar launch is a losing strategy regardless of which direction you run. The publishers who succeed are the ones who build products strong enough to sustain their own momentum independent of what Rockstar does.
Not everyone agrees. Remedy Entertainment's new CEO argues that releasing Control Resonant near GTA 6 would be worse, saying the studio "will cut through the noise" in September. Time will tell who's right — but history suggests the industry veteran who spent 12 years inside Rockstar might know what he's talking about.