Just minutes ago, Rockstar Games confirmed that Grand Theft Auto 6 is now delayed until May 26, 2026. While the reasons for the delay currently remain unclear, the outcome remains the same for fans of the franchise, who will need to wait just a while longer. In its official communications, Rockstar Games said, “We are very sorry that this is later than you expected. 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.”
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Rockstar also stated, “With every game we have released, the goal has always been to try and exceed your expectations, and Grand Theft Auto 6 is no exception. We hope you understand that we need this extra time to deliver at the level of quality you expect and deserve.”
Rumors of the Grand Theft Auto 6 delay have been circulating and anticipated, but Rockstar has now confirmed that the speculation is true and that fans will have to wait another year.
Take-Two Interactive is expected to release its next earnings report on May 15th. This news also follows other major news from Take-Two Interactive’s other major AAA label, 2K, which revealed the Borderlands 4 official Gameplay trailer during the recent State of Play hosted by PlayStation on April 29th.
[Related: GTA 6 Projected to Make Over $3 Billion in Its First Year]
The campaign for Grand Theft Auto 6 has been plagued with issues throughout the campaign thus far. The first issues arose with a hack and leaked footage of GTA 6 in September 2022 by teapotuberhacker, who took to social media with ninety minutes of alpha footage.
Later on, a major reveal with the Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer dropped earlier than the planned December 5th premiere due to another online leak. Rockstar ended up posting the trailer 16 hours earlier. However, the trailer still amassed over 250 million views since going live, despite the flubbed rollout.
Fans of the series will now also need to contend with and wait for the official news on the pricing of Grand Theft Auto 6. With the reveal of Nintendo’s $80 pricing for some titles on the Nintendo Switch 2, like Mario Kart World, and Microsoft confirming the price increase for “some of our new, first-party games,” it would be seems unlikely that Take-Two Interactive wouldn’t also plan for price increases on this main AAA title and others within both Rockstar and 2K’s portfolio.
On the pricing of Grand Theft Auto 6, Take-Two Interactive’s CEO Strauss Zelnick previously stated, “By that standard, our frontline prices are still very, very low because we offer many hours of engagement. The value of the engagement is very high. So, I think the industry, as a whole, offers a terrific price-to-value opportunity for consumers. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the industry has pricing power or wants to have pricing power. However, there is a great deal of value offered. And look, it’s our strategy here to deliver much more value than what we charge consumers. It’s always been our strategy here. We want to make sure the experience is first-class, and the nature of the experience is not just the quality of what we offer, it’s also what you pay for it, everyone knows that anecdotally.”
The argument from AAA publishers remains that video game prices have remained fairly immune to inflation for a long period of time. Gamers would have experienced a state where gaming prices stayed fairly consistent at $60 from 2005 to about 2020, when the $70 price tag took over. Now, gamers across most major platforms, and likely major AAA publishers, will soon need to contend with the $80 price point.
However, with the delay of Grand Theft Auto 6 until May 2026, it may still be some time before more information comes on what players can expect for this next installment and what price point they will need to prepare for.
