Rockstar done gone and announced that GTA 6, the game everyone’s been waiting for in 2025, ain’t coming out until May 2026. In a statement they put up on their social media, they said they need more time to get the game just right.
While there wasn’t no official release date for this open-world game, folks were thinking it would drop this fall. Other games even pushed back their own release dates to stay clear of going up against Rockstar’s big ol’ game. But now, all them plans are all messed up ’cause GTA 6 won’t be hitting shelves until May 26, 2026.
“We’re real sorry this is later than y’all expected,” Rockstar wrote on X. “The hype and buzz around a new Grand Theft Auto has been so darn humbling for our whole team. We appreciate y’all hanging in there and being patient while we finish up the game.”
Delays like this ain’t nothing new, as teams gotta take a step back and realize they need more time to get things just right. But with GTA 6 already being worked on for a bunch of years, this delay is a pretty big deal. Especially for Rockstar’s owners Take-Two, whose stocks took a nosedive after the announcement, dropping over nine percent.
“With every game we put out,” Rockstar’s statement kept on, “our goal has always been to try and go above and beyond what y’all expect, and Grand Theft Auto VI is no different. We hope y’all get that we need this extra time to give you the quality y’all deserve.”
Take-Two Interactive, through 2K, already got a busy fall lined up with Mafia: The Old Country and Borderlands 4 on the horizon, along with NBA 2K26. Borderlands 4 even moved its release date up by 11 days, making folks wonder if they were trying to get out of GTA 6’s way. But now we know that ain’t the case, but it could’ve been a sign they were shuffling things around before the big delay.
This delay gonna have a huge impact on the whole dang industry, ’cause everyone’s expecting GTA 6 to break all sorts of records. Not dropping before the holidays might really hurt console sales, ’cause lots of folks are waiting for GTA 6 before they upgrade to the newest consoles. It’s also gonna be a tough hit for them physical game stores.
But for us regular gamers, these delays might be a bummer, but in the end, a finished game later is always better than a broken one sooner. But dang, this sure is a big announcement that’s gonna shake up the whole gaming world.
