Rockstar has announced that GTA 6, the most anticipated game of 2025, has been delayed until May 2026. In a statement posted to its social media, the company has said it needs more time to create the game.
While no official release date had been made for the upcoming open-world game, it was widely expected to arrive this fall, with other games delaying their own release into next year in an attempt to avoid launching against Rockstar’s behemoth. That’s all now thrown for a loop, with the game now set to be released on May 26, 2026.
“We are very sorry that this is later than you expected,” Rockstar posted to X. “The interest and excitement surrounding a new Grand Theft Auto has been truly humbling for our entire team. We want to thank you for your support and your patience as we work to finish the game.”
Delays at this stage are not unusual, as teams take stock and realize that another half a year isn’t going to be enough to get the game ready for launch. But given GTA 6 has been in development for many years already, it does take on rather more significance. Not least for Rockstar owners Take-Two, whose shares took a sharp pre-market dip in the minutes following the announcement, losing over nine percent.
“With every game we have released,” Rockstar’s statement continues, “the goal has always been to try and exceed your expectations, and Grand Theft Auto VI is no exception. We hope you understand that we need this extra time to deliver at the level of quality you expect and deserve.”
Take-Two Interactive, via 2K, already have quite a busy fall, with Mafia: The Old Country and Borderlands 4 due, alongside the likes of NBA 2K26. Borderlands 4 has only just moved it own release date ahead 11 days, fueling much speculation that it might be moving out of the way of GTA 6. We now of course know this is definitely not the case, but could have been an early sign of the publisher rearranging things ahead of the announcement.
This delay will have enormous implications across the entire industry, given the wide expectation that the game will sell record-breaking numbers of copies. Not releasing ahead of the holidays will likely hit console sales extremely hard, given GTA 6 will be a game many are waiting for before upgrading to the current generation. It will also be a real blow for physical gaming stores.
Still, for the regular player, these delays might suck, but are invariably good news in the end. A finished game later on is always better than a broken one earlier. But gosh, this remains a seismic announcement that’ll ripple across the whole gaming industry.
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