Analyst: New Grand Theft Auto Game In 2010

It seems like only yesterday that everyone was waiting for Grand Theft Auto IV... but according to video game industry analyst Michael Pachter, Grand Theft Auto V might be coming as early as next year.

Take Two hasn't publicly predicted any release window for the game, or even mentioned its existence. It's much more interested in the second piece of Grand Theft Auto IV DLC, "The Ballad of Gay Tony," which is set to come out on October 29th for the 360. "Gay Tony" and "The Lost and Damned," the first piece of downloadable GTA content, will be combined into one independent game that is scheduled to come out this holiday season.

Personally, I think Pachter is off base with this prediction. There may be a new, standalone GTA game coming, but it's not going to be GTA V.  Grand Theft Auto games tend to only be affixed with Roman numerals when everything about them is overhauled.  Think of the difference between GTA III and GTA IV. I think it's more likely that RockStar will continue its current scheme of releasing episodic content as DLC, then later combining the DLC into standalone games. If that's the case, I think we'll see another downloadable episode during Christmas in 2010.

What do you think? Any prediction for when the next, true, GTA game will come out?

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