GTA V to be announced before E3?

Games industry analyst Mike Hickey has said a Grand Theft Auto V announcement may be on the way - and that it could be made before E3 kicks off in June.

"There is building suspension for a pre-E3 GTA V announcement," he said, as reported by Industrygamers. "Although we expect nothing from Rockstar at this year’s official E3 event."

Rockstar is more likely to hold a separate press event and make the announcement independent of any publisher conferences, apparently. That's because GTA V really is kind of a big deal.

"We think the next iteration of GTA for console can significantly outsell its predecessor," reckoned Hickey. That's the conclusion he reached after "Reflecting on the sales acceleration of the prior cycle GTA console iterations, an accelerating core gamer installed base (with an emphasis on PS3 installed expansion where GTA has historically dominated relatively), and the most talented / motivated development team in the world, in our view." Crumbs.