Pachter: Grand Theft Auto V Will Launch in October

Following this morning’s, ahem, shock BioShock Infinite delay, Wedbush Securities’ Michael Pachter has predicted that Grand Theft Auto V will launch in its place. Admittedly, it was the first thing that crossed our minds too.

See, the delay of BioShock Infinite means more than just one less present to put under your Christmas tree. The Irrational Games developed first-person adventure was publisher Take Two’s tent pole holiday release, and without it the company’s stock price has nosedived.

But according to Pachter, the firm has an answer to the on setting investor concern, and it's to release Grand Theft Auto V. He wrote:

In our view, the delay opens the window for Grand Theft Auto V to be released in October 2012. We believe that October is the preferred release month for GTA V’s developer, Rockstar Games, as the studio has scheduled every prior GTA releases during that month (with GTA IV delayed to April 2008, due to bugs in the PS3 version). We speculate that once Rockstar Games notified Take-Two that GTA V would be ready by October, Take-Two gave Irrational Games the option to spend more time fine-tuning BioShock Infinite.

Pachter added that he believes we’ll find out more about Grand Theft Auto V’s release date “as early as 22nd May” during a scheduled investor call, or potentially at next month’s E3. We've got everything crossed.