Amid all the kerfuffle over Max Payne 3’s delay until May of 2012, much has been postulated as what the news means for publisher Take Two’s other mega-release Grand Theft Auto V. After all, May has been a staple month for Take-Two in recent history, with the company releasing Red Dead Redemption there in 2010 and following up in 2011 with L.A. Noire.

Surely that slot would have been considered for Grand Theft Auto V?

But now that Max Payne 3 dove its way into the month, the news has left many clueless as to when we’ll be returning to San Andreas. To help paint a better picture of the scenario for us, a triumvirate of respected video game analysts recently spoke to Game Informer and took their best guess. Here’s what they had to say.

National Alliance Capital Markets analyst Mike Hickey:

EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich:

It seems unlikely that Rockstar Games would launch both Max Payne 3 and GTA 5 in the month on May. Therefore, we have shifted our original expectation for GTA V to launch in May 2012, into the Company’s 2013 fiscal second-half operating period (release window: Sept. ’12 — March ‘13).

We remain confident GTA V will ship in calendar year ’12, based on an assumption that Rockstar is using a sub 12 month marketing window for GTA V and the Company’s fiscal 2013 performance guidance, which would suggest the game’s release.

Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter:

[Take-Two] are still saying they will achieve $2.00 earnings per share in fiscal 2013, so Grand Theft Auto V has to come out by March 2013.

Essentially (if analyst consensus was to be taken as gospel) we’re looking at the holiday season of 2012 or before March of next year. But what about that month of May Take-Two seems to love so much? Could we be looking at a full one-year delay of Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V? Time for some exhilarating market analysis!

I don’t know if [the delay] means a full year gap, but very likely six months. Too bad, as I think Grand Theft Auto V would benefit from giving Call of Duty some breathing room.

The most important insight into when GTA V might release is Take-Two’s earnings per share estimate. You can view all of Take-Two’s stock information here, but know that for their estimate of $2 in earnings per share (fiscal year March 2012 to March 2013), the company would have to hit a grand slam. At the risk of not disappointing potential investors then, it would make sense to drop Grand Theft Auto V somewhere in that window to guarantee an avalanche of earnings.