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Analysts suggest Take-Two's latest earnings report factors in release of new entry in flagship franchise from Rockstar Games. 
Grand Theft Auto V will ship by the end of March 2013, multiple analysts are predicting based on Take-Two's latest financial report. Yesterday, the company announced it is planning to haul between $1.75 and $1.85 billion for the year ending March 31, 2013. This marked increase over last year's haul factors in, according to analysts, the release of GTAV.
Wedbush Securities' Michael Pachter said Take-Two's guidance is "unattainable" without a new big title from Rockstar Games. The industry watcher predicts Rockstar will contribute $1.1 billion to Take-Two's bottom line in fiscal 2013, with $300 million of that coming from Max Payne 3 and its downloadable content. He said another $150 million will be made up by Rockstar catalog sales, which leaves a void of $650 million. Pachter suggests that figure will be made up by sales of GTAV.
Robert W. Baird analyst Colin Sebastian echoed Pachter's belief that GTAV will ship in the next year. In a note to investors, Sebastian said Take-Two's latest guidance for the current year suggests the new open-world title will ship during March 2013. Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia's estimations indicate that the new game will arrive by then, too.
Analysts aren't the only ones talking about an upcoming GTAV launch. A NeoGAF user claims Microsoft's Xbox Support Twitter service revealed that GTAV will be out sometime in 2012. The tweet in question has since been deleted, but the support channel has sounded off on the speculation,
writing this morning, "There is no official release date for [GTAV], and we are not aware of what date it comes out."
In April, Rockstar said further GTAV details are months away. That time frame lines up with the game industry's biggest information-drop event of the year, the Electronic Entertainment Expo. This year's show will return to the Los Angeles Convention Center June 5-7.
Rockstar has provided brief glimpses at GTAV thus far. The game will be set primarily in present-day Los Santos, a fictional town modeled on Los Angeles. Rockstar has also said that GTAV boasts the largest scope of any installment in the franchise to date.
For more on GTAV, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.
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