GTA 6 is "definitely gonna be a big economic boost for the games industry" that'll help "bring a lot more people back into the ecosystem," says Day of the Devs' lead curator

The whole game industry is waiting for the launch of GTA 6, with some analysts hoping it'll put the gaming market "back on a growth trajectory." At the same time, a whole lot of developers are eyeing the game's as-yet-unconfirmed launch date because they don't want to get lost in Rockstar's shadow.

One of the key figures behind Day of the Devs' outreach efforts reckons that GTA 6 could help, not hinder, the potential of smaller games. "[GTA 6 is] going to be the best, awesome, giant game for the year, for sure," says Greg Rice, speaking with GamesRadar+ in his capacity as lead curator for Day of the Devs.

Rice, who has served as the head of PlayStation Creators at Sony Interactive Entertainment and VP of business development at Double Fine, went on to add that: "I hear a lot of the opposite of devs, worried about it sucking all the space out. 'I don't want to launch during GTA week or even month, because that's all anyone's gonna be playing.'"

Rice believes it's "100% true" that Rockstar's game will "do gangbusters and sell millions of copies," and he's certainly not alone in that belief. "But I think the industry is matured enough that there's space for that and for other things as well. It's gonna be a combination of 'there will be games that will be successful around GTA time because they're totally different,' but it'll also bring a lot more people back into the ecosystem."

The theory that GTA 6 will help convince people to finally invest in a current-gen console is also one that's been espoused by folks like Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, and those players might want to play games besides GTA once they've wrung all the content out of it.

"I'm sure there's lots of gamers that [GTA 6 will be] the only thing they play," Rice admits, but "it'll be the opportunity to get in on the new console generation and see what else is out there. So it's definitely gonna be a big economic boost for the games industry, and will be a multiple billion dollar title, but I don't think that it's at competition with [indie games]."

We'll have more to come from Greg Rice in the coming days following our conversation at GDC 2025 – exploring all of the exciting games platformed by Day of the Devs, and much more. While you wait for that, here a look at the new games for 2025 that need to be on your radar.