Milked GTA 5 for 13 years. greedy soulless nasty company
Honestly that's what this is about.
GTA 5 has made nearly $9 billion. As it stands, they still earn roughly $500M/year with the online shyt.
Once GTA 6 drops, all the focus will shift and they're probably pressed to make sure the game is perfect. They gotta keep what made 5 so popular but upgrade everything else (character models, overall environment and the ability to interact with it, building interiors etc). It's going to require a little more "RPG" in its world building instead of being more action.
They also......might be trying to set it up so that it can drop on PS5/Series X, but then quickly pivot to PS6 and whatever other consoles drop. GTA 6 on PS6 would be the hottest combo in gaming history. If they keep pushing this back, they're going to have to consider releases on next-gen consoles and be prepared to drop something.
Honestly - 5 is a cash cow. It's rare to get something like that in gaming. We saw how Madden was a top seller for years despite falling off in quality over two decades ago. They just kept putting the same low quality shyt out there because people would buy it.