Rockstar’s extremely anticipated open-world sport GTA 6 was speculated to be launched round proper now, in Fall 2025, however the sport has seen a number of delays because it was initially introduced. Now, the sport is slated for launch in a couple of yr on November 19, 2026, following a pushback from Could 26, 2026.
Why was GTA 6 delayed a second time? And the way does the delay sample for GTA 6 line up with Rockstar’s earlier releases? We’re breaking down all the important thing issues to know on this publish.
Rockstar’s rationale for delaying GTA 6
In early November, Rockstar introduced that GTA 6 was being delayed by 5 months and 24 days, from Could 26 to November 19. However why did Rockstar make the choice to delay the sport as soon as once more? The corporate mentioned it got here right down to high quality. “These further months will permit us to complete the sport with the extent of polish you will have come to count on and deserve,” the studio mentioned.
“We’re sorry for including extra time to what we notice has been a protracted wait,” the workforce added.
Rockstar is owned by Take-Two, and the corporate’s CEO Strauss Zelnick mentioned Rockstar is “searching for perfection” with GTA 6–and that takes time.
“Once we set a date, we actually do consider in it. We mentioned once we set the final date, if a sport requires extra polish to be the absolute best model of itself, then we are going to give that sport extra time. And that is precisely what occurred.”
Zelnick mentioned the corporate feels “actually good” concerning the new November 2026 launch date, and lots of have targeted on this quote as a result of it is precisely what Zelnick said–down to the identical “actually good” line–when GTA 6 was pushed from Fall 2025 to Could 2026.
For Zelnick, a part of the explanation he nonetheless feels “actually good” about GTA 6’s November 2026 launch date is as a result of it falls throughout the similar fiscal yr for Take-Two, thus permitting Take-Two to take care of its fiscal projections and hold traders happy. He is additionally excited by the truth that GTA 6 will launch throughout the vacation season. “It occurs to be an important launch window, and naturally we’re actually supportive of Rockstar’s method,” he mentioned.
GTA 6 launching throughout the busy vacation purchasing season could also be a boon for the sport’s gross sales, however Zelnick mentioned beforehand that the sport’s launch date throughout the calendar yr would not matter a lot due to the unimaginable quantity of pent-up demand for it. Briefly, Zelnick believes folks will purchase GTA 6 regardless of when it is launched, and nobody is questioning that logic.
“Searching for perfection”
One of many traces that Zelnick has repeated again and again is how Rockstar is “searching for perfection” with GTA 6, and this generally is a gradual course of. “Once we really feel we have optimized creatively, that is the time to launch,” he mentioned.
“There’s inherent pressure, probably, between getting one thing to market and creating perfection,” Zelnick added. “However this firm errs on the facet of perfection.”
In an interview with CNBC, Zelnick mentioned, “What Rockstar Video games places into all of their titles is a need for artistic perfection, which is why it takes a very long time and why it is complicated. We do not declare success till it happens.”
Zelnick’s feedback could make your eyes roll as a result of company communicate, however the government is talking from a place of strength–after all, GTA 5 bought greater than 220 million copies and is among the many best-selling video games ever. One other Rockstar franchise overseen by Zelnick, Crimson Useless Redemption, is a gross sales juggernaut as effectively, with the sequel alone promoting some 79 million copies.
GTA 6 was not delayed because of Rockstar union controversy
Rockstar just lately fired 30-40 employees in Scotland and Canada for what it referred to as “gross misconduct” reportedly associated to leaking secrets and techniques, not for attempting to type a union. A UK union pushed again, saying Rockstar is blatantly and ruthlessly attempting to dam a union.
Greater than 200 Rockstar employees signed a letter demanding that the fired staffers be reinstated. UK lawmakers have raised concerns about the Rockstar situation in proceedings just lately. Whereas that is all happening, reporter Jason Schreier of Bloomberg mentioned these occasions are unrelated to GTA 6’s newest delay to November 2026.
“This delay was not as a result of firings… Whereas the fallout from these firings might actually have a long-term influence on the challenge and result in extra missed deadlines within the future–due to these vacant roles, protracted authorized battles, morale loss, and so on.–the sport didn’t slip 6 months as a result of 34 folks had been fired per week in the past,” he wrote.
Rockstar not often launches video games on time
Rockstar has a protracted historical past of asserting launch dates after which lacking them, so it was no shock that GTA 6 was the newest instance of this development.
The vast majority of Rockstar’s greatest video games over the previous decade-plus have all been delayed past their initially introduced launch home windows, together with Grand Theft Auto IV, Crimson Useless Redemption, Grand Theft Auto V, and Crimson Useless Redemption II. In all of those circumstances, Rockstar maintained that the choice to delay got here down to picking to deal with high quality as an alternative of dashing to market, and Rockstar has mentioned the identical factor about GTA 6 for every of its two delays to date.
Here’s a temporary historical past of Rockstar’s delays for its huge video games:
- GTA 4 — Was set to launch in October 2007 earlier than being delayed to April 2008.
- GTA: Chinatown Wars — Was set to launch earlier than the tip of January 2009 earlier than shifting to April 2009.
- Crimson Useless Redemption — Was lined as much as launch on the finish of April 2010 earlier than shifting to Could 2010.
- GTA 5 — Was initially scheduled for Spring 2013 earlier than being delayed to September 2013.
- Crimson Useless Redemption 2 — Was speculated to launch in 2017 earlier than shifting to Spring 2018 after which once more to Fall 2018.
- GTA 5’s PS5/Xbox Collection X|S ports — These new variations of GTA 5 had been lined as much as launch in November 2021 earlier than being delayed to March 2022.
How huge will GTA 6’s launch be?
Everybody assumes GTA 6 can be a big success upon launch. One analyst has predicted the sport will promote 40 million copies and drive greater than $3 billion in income in its first yr. Again in 2013, GTA 5 wanted simply three days to clear $1 billion in income, and the sport solely grew from there.
Whereas GTA 6 is predicted to be an enormous hit, persons are “naive” to assume one huge launch like this can assist the online game trade total rebound from its core points right this moment, in accordance with one analyst.
Joost van Dreunen told IGN that individuals shouldn’t look to GTA 6 to assist tackle the broader, extra systemic points impacting the online game enterprise. Van Dreunen concurs that GTA 6 can be an enormous launch, however mentioned persons are overly optimistic in the event that they assume GTA 6 is a magic bullet.
“After the excessive comes the hangover,” he mentioned. “I notice that many within the trade are wanting ahead to this undoubtedly pivotal second. There’s even a considerably naive expectation that this one launch will reverse the trade’s present route. It will not.”
When GTA 6 comes out, avid gamers and traders alike will “take pleasure in their respective highs,” however the painful comedown could come subsequent.
“I count on a interval of sobriety to comply with. Within the absence of any comparable releases within the close to future particularly traders are prone to redeploy their capital elsewhere, thereby decreasing the trade’s total valuation,” he mentioned.
The online game trade has confronted cuts and setbacks lately, together with a spate of mass layoffs, value will increase, and quite a few sport cancellations.
Folks like former PlayStation government Shawn Layden have been saying again and again that the AAA scene is unsustainable. In 2012, Murderer’s Creed III director Alex Hutchinson mentioned the pursuit of AAA video games represents a “cancerous development.” Due to this, Hutchinson mentioned he expects AAA video games to die out. “I feel that may depart the AAA blockbusters as nothing greater than the final of the dinosaurs,” he mentioned.
What will we find out about GTA 6?
Again in early 2022, Rockstar gave the primary official assertion about GTA 6, saying work was “effectively underway” on the sport. “With each new challenge we embark on, our aim is all the time to considerably transfer past what we have now beforehand delivered–and we’re happy to substantiate that energetic growth for the subsequent entry within the Grand Theft Auto sequence is effectively underway,” the developer mentioned on the time.
The primary trailer for GTA 6 got here in December 2023, following a leak. The spectacular trailer, which used Tom Petty’s “Love Is A Lengthy Street,” launched followers to the sport’s setting of Vice Metropolis (the identical setting as 2002’s GTA: Vice Metropolis) and the broader state of Leonida, a stand-in for Florida. The trailer additionally offered the primary take a look at the sport’s predominant characters, the lovers Jason and Lucia.
A second trailer was launched in Could 2025 to coincide with the delay from Fall 2025. This trailer impressed followers, too, displaying off the sport’s vibrant world full of colourful characters. A website for GTA 6 went live right now, too, offering a ton of data on the sport’s characters and setting.
Everyone seems to be ready for a 3rd trailer, however as of but, Rockstar has not launched one or offered any phrase on when it might come. Past the sport itself, a serious dialogue level round GTA 6 has been what its value can be. There was ongoing chatter and debate about if Rockstar and Take-Two will comply with Nintendo’s Mario Kart World playbook and lift the value to $80, or probably extra. That is still to be seen, and there are some who consider the next value level won’t really be factor.
As all the time, hold checking again with GameSpot for extra on GTA 6.