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In case you've been living under a rock in Los Santos, Grand Theft Auto VI has been delayed until May 26, 2026.
Developer Rockstar Games announced the decision to push back its scheduled autumn release date a few months ago. In the days after the delay was made public, Rockstar Games published a 2:46-minute trailer for the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto franchise that revealed fresh details about the lead protagonists and the setting of the game.
Delays have become commonplace in modern game development as studios grapple with rising production costs and growing pressure from players to deliver polished experiences at launch. At the time, Rockstar Games said it planned to use the time "to deliver at the level of quality you expect and deserve."
Weeks on, Strauss Zelnick, Chief Executive Officer at Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar Games, has shed a little more light on the reasons behind the decision.
According to the 68-year-old executive, the launch of GTA VI was delayed to ensure the team at Rockstar Games was able to "achieve its creative vision with no limitations". That sounds like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S game could have made its autumn 2025 ...albeit with a few compromises on the scale and quality.
As we get closer to completion of a title that's seeking perfection," Strauss Zelnick exclusively told IGN, "the needs, or lack thereof, for continued polish become clear.
"In this case, there was an opportunity with a small amount of incremental time, we thought, to make sure Rockstar Games achieves its creative vision with no limitations. And I supported, of course, that approach."
"And while, of course, delays pain me — how could they not?," the Take-Two Interactive executive added, "the most important thing to do is to support your teams in their search for perfection."
Grand Theft Auto VI will follow a modern-day Bonnie-and-Clyde duo in a fictional version of the US State of Florida
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Quizzed by IGN on whether fans of the franchise should expect further delays to Grand Theft Auto VI before May 26, 2026, Strauss Zelnick said that wasn't likely, starting: "I think historically when we set a specific date," he noted, "generally speaking, we've been very good about reaching it."
Despite the delay to Grand Theft Auto VI, the Take-Two Interactive boss is still bullish about the games lined-up for the rest of this year, includingBorderlands 4 and Mafia: The Old Country as well as new entries in long-running sports game franchises, such as NBA 2K and WWE 2K.
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Despite this confidence from its CEO, Rockstar Games parent company Take-Two Interactive saw shares tumble 9% in premarket trading in the wake of the announcement of the Grand Theft Auto VI delay. Since then, the share price has recovered and climbed to a new record high.
Grand Theft Auto VI is widely-expected to be the biggest-selling game of all time when it arrives in May 2026.
Its predecessor, Grand Theft Auto V, which first made its debut in 2013, has now sold more than 200 million copies, making it one of the best-selling video games of all time. That title still holds the crown for the best opening week of sales in video game history — raking in $1.15bn (£1.2bn) in five days.
Players will follow a couple, Jason and Lucia, in the next instalment of Grand Theft Auto, which includes the return of fictional city of Vice City for the first time since spin-off game, Vice City Stories
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However, it's worth noting that Grand Theft Auto V has now appeared on three console generations, starting with the Xbox 360 and Sony PS3 back in September 2013.
An upgraded version of the game launched on the latest crop of video game consoles, Xbox Series X|S and Sony PS5, in March 2022 with support for 4K Ultra HD visuals, ray-tracing, 60 frames-per-second, and 3D audio.
Since its initial launch, Grand Theft Auto V has soldiered on to become the second biggest game of all-time. However, it's unlikely to take the top sport as it's still 100 million copies behind the Gold Medalist, Minecraft.
GTA 6, stylised as Grand Theft Auto VI, returns the action to the fictional city of Vice City, which is Rockstar Games' satirical version of Miami that featured in the 2002 GTA release of the same name ROCKSTAR GAMES Earlier this year, Microsoft added Grand Theft Auto V to its Xbox Game Pass Ultimate service — a Netflix-like subscription with a rotating catalogue of games. With such strong interest in the previous entry in the long-running Grand Theft Auto franchise, some analysts predict record-breaking sales topping $3 billion in its first year alone. That record revenue could be partly attributed to a rumoured price rise for the blockbuster title.
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The long wait between instalments in the Grand Theft Auto franchise is an outlier in the industry, with other chart-topping series, like Call of Duty, EA Sports FC, and Pokémon, typically launching new games every year.
Summarising the bullish sentiment around the next launch from Rockstar Games, video game business expert and professor at the University of Southern California, Dmitri Williams said: "The brand is as strong or stronger than it was before, but additionally, the game industry is larger.
"If it maintains the same slice of the pie, it's going to be big, because it will come from a bigger pie. The games industry is simply massive globally, and is no single genre or platform. It's so large and so varied that even fractions of it are larger than whole parallel industries like movies."
The next instalment of the popular Grand Theft Auto series will take gamers back to Vice City, which last appeared in 2006's Vice City Stories. The developers have greatly expanded the world around this fictional city, Rockstar Games' neon-soaked take on modern-day Miami.
Grand Theft Auto VI will be set in a US state called Leonida that doubles as Florida. Expect a richly detailed world inspired by the cultural, political, and economic quirks of contemporary America, with a satirical lens sharper than ever. From influencer culture to corrupt institutions and viral internet madness, nothing is off-limits. The tone promises a return to GTA’s signature blend of dark humour and biting social commentary.
Influencer culture and real-life Floridians are all expected to be satirised in the upcoming Grand Theft Auto title, which will be set in the fictional US state of Leonida
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The game features dual protagonists in a Bonnie-and-Clyde-style narrative, adding a gritty, emotional layer to the chaos. Rockstar is pushing realism, immersion, and interactivity to new heights, with smarter NPCs and a dynamic in-game economy. Yet much remains shrouded in mystery—from the full map scale to multiplayer details. But one thing’s certain: GTA VI is gearing up to be Rockstar’s boldest, most ambitious entry to date.
In the caption for the second trailer for its epic new crime-caper, Rockstar Games shared a brief summary of the plotline for Grand Theft Auto VI. It reads: "Jason and Lucia have always known the deck is stacked against them. But when an easy score goes wrong, they find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, in the middle of a conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida — forced to rely on each other more than ever if they want to make it out alive."
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