It’s Grand Theft PTO.
Gamers are gearing up for a mass sick-out ahead of the highly anticipated release of Grand Theft Auto VI, which has already racked up over $1 billion in presales.
After nearly 13 years in development, the latest installment of the GTA series will be released on Nov. 19 and is already the most preordered game on both Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation with more than 12 million copies sold worldwide, according to Sensor Tower sales tracker.
Roughly 18% of workers plan to take Thursday off to park themselves on the couch and wreak havoc across the revamped Vice City, according to data from BambooHR, which analyzed information from 3.4 million US-based employees.
“Of course, folks are going to play hooky on November 19th. Speaking of which, my throat feels a little scratchy,” said Matthew Payne, professor of Film, Television, and Theater at Notre Dame.
Half of the joystick jockeys planning to take off will simply call in sick instead of requesting time off, BambooHR reported.
The hordes of workers playing hooky could cost the US economy $1 billion in lost productivity, International Business News reported.
While there will be some economic losers from the sickout, video game makers Rockstar and Take-Two won’t be among them.
GTA will likely make $3 billion or more in its first weeks, predicted Dmitri Williams, professor at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
“Compare that to the most successful launch in movies, “Avengers: Endgame,” which has made about $3 billion lifetime, and you get a sense of the scale involved.”
For context, Williams added, “imagine that this is a new combined “Avatar”/ “Star Wars”/Taylor Swift movie coming out.”
Added Payne: “This is just the beginning. Once the multiplayer GTA Online mode is available, Rockstar and Take-Two are going to earn so much more from microtransactions. It’ll eventually make these impressive pre-sale numbers look quaint by comparison.”
The UK and Canada are also both seeing a surge in time-off requests for Nov. 19, the company reported.
A mass of impatient gamers downloading the 212 gigabyte game in the UK resulted in slower internet speeds for users of YouFibre, Forbes reported.
Virgin Media O2, one of the UK’s largest internet providers, revealed that Nov. 10 — the day the game became available for pre-download — was its busiest day ever for broadband traffic and its largest daily data volume of all time, the Independent reported.
US internet provider Spectrum is offering a free temporary upgrade called a “Gig Speed Lift” that will allow gamers to improve launch day download speeds and possibly have the game on their system in just 30 minutes.
Xfinity is also offering gamers a free 15-day WiFi speed boost that results in a download speed of about 30 minutes.
Depending on internet speeds, the game could take several hours or several days to fully install.
