This is Grand Theft’s power take-off.
Gamers are bracing for mass illness ahead of the highly anticipated release of Grand Theft Auto VI, which has already racked up over $1 billion in pre-sales.
After nearly 13 years in development, the latest installment in the GTA series will be released on November 19 and is already the most pre-ordered game on Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation with more than 12 million copies sold worldwide, according to Sensor Tower sales tracking.
About 18% of workers plan to take Thursday off to park on the couch and wreak havoc in the new Vice City, according to data from BambooHR, which analyzed insights from 3.4 million U.S.-based employees.
“Of course people are going to be playing hooky on November 19. Speaking of which, my throat is a little scratchy,” said Matthew Payne, a professor of film, television and theater at Notre Dame.
Half of joystick jockeys who plan to take off will simply call in sick instead of requesting time off, BambooHR reported.
Hordes of truant workers could cost the U.S. economy $1 billion in lost productivity, International Business News reported.
Although there will be economic losers from this disease, video game makers Rockstar and Take-Two will not be among them.
GTA will likely earn $3 billion or more in its first weeks, predicted Dmitri Williams, a professor at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism.
“Compare that to the most successful film launch, “Avengers: Endgame,” which grossed an estimated $3 billion over its lifetime, and you get an idea of the magnitude involved.”
For context, Williams added, “imagine this is a new ‘Avatar’/’Star Wars’/Taylor Swift combo movie coming out.”
Payne added: “This is just the beginning. Once GTA Online multiplayer becomes available, Rockstar and Take-Two are going to make a lot more from microtransactions. This will eventually make these impressive pre-sale numbers dwarfed by comparison.”
The UK and Canada are also seeing an increase in leave requests for November 19, the company reported.
A mass of eager gamers downloading the 212GB game in the UK has led to slow internet speeds for YouFibre users, Forbes reported.
Virgin Media O2, one of the UK’s largest internet providers, revealed that November 10 – the day the game became available for pre-download – was its busiest day ever for broadband traffic and its largest daily data volume ever, the Independent reported.
US internet provider Spectrum is offering a free temporary upgrade called “Gig Speed Lift” that will allow players to improve download speeds on launch day and potentially have the game on their system in just 30 minutes.
Xfinity is also offering players a free WiFi speed boost for 15 days, which translates to approximately 30 minutes of download speed.
Depending on internet speeds, it may take several hours or days to fully install the game.
Gn tech
