One of the biggest questions that everyone had in their minds as we entered 2025 was whether Grand Theft Auto 6 would end up getting delayed. Well, surprise surprise, it actually did. Rockstar Games, the folks behind the game, decided to push back the release date to ensure that they could deliver a top-notch product without making any compromises. Will there be another delay in the future? Well, according to the head honcho of the parent company, that seems pretty unlikely.
Originally scheduled to hit the shelves in the fall of 2025, GTA 6 is now set to make its debut on May 26, 2026. The CEO of Take-Two, Strauss Zelnick, mentioned to IGN that historically, they have a pretty good track record of meeting their deadlines once they set them. So, why the sudden change in plans after Zelnick himself was so confident about sticking to the original 2025 schedule? According to him, as they got closer to finishing the game and striving for perfection, they realized that a little extra time could do wonders for the final product. And who doesn’t want a flawless game, right?
Zelnick also pointed out that Rockstar didn’t really start working on GTA 6 seriously until 2020, which was a couple of years after Red Dead Redemption 2 hit the market and a whopping seven years after GTA 5 made its debut on PlayStation 3 and Xbox One. After the delay announcement, Rockstar gave fans a sneak peek at the game through an extensive trailer and a bunch of screenshots, all supposedly taken directly from the game itself. The level of detail and quality in these teasers has been blowing away fans and other game developers alike. It seems like the wait might actually be worth it, especially considering that 2025 is already jam-packed with releases for Take-Two.
The decision to hold off on releasing GTA 6 until next year was seen as a smart move by Zelnick, who called it a “worthwhile investment.” With titles like Mafia: The Old Country in August, Borderlands 4 in September, and Civilization 7 earlier in the year, not to mention the ongoing popularity of Grand Theft Auto Online and Red Dead Online, it seems like delaying the game was the right call. So, mark your calendars for May 26, 2026, because that’s when you’ll finally get your hands on the highly-anticipated GTA 6. Who knows, maybe it’ll be worth the wait after all.