Rockstar Games parent Take-Two has said Grand Theft Auto 6 has been in development for at least five years and claimed that its recent delay will be “a worthy investment”.
It was assumed that GTA 6 entered full production following the release of Rockstar’s last title, Red Dead Redemption 2, in 2018. However, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick suggested in the company’s earnings release on Thursday that it wasn’t until the pandemic that development ramped up.
“Grand Theft Auto VI began development in earnest in 2020 following the massive success of Red Dead Redemption 2, and the title is now the most anticipated entertainment property of all time,” he said.
Commenting on the decision to delay GTA 6 out of 2025, until May 2026, Zelnick said he believed it would be worth it.
“Rockstar expects to release Grand Theft Auto VI on May 26, 2026, which is in our Fiscal Year 2027. I believe affording Rockstar additional time for such a groundbreaking project is a worthy investment,” he added.
“The ambition and complexity of Grand Theft Auto VI is greater than any previous Rockstar title, and the team is poised to release another astonishing entertainment experience that will exceed players’ expectations.”
Speaking in a separate interview with IGN, Zelnick claimed that as GTA 6 got closer to release, the need for more polish “became clear” to the publisher, and suggested that he was confident there would be no further slips.
“I think historically when we set a specific date, generally speaking, we’ve been very good about reaching it,” he said.
“As we get closer to completion of a title that’s seeking perfection, 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.”
GTA 6 Trailer 2 was dropped last week in a surprise release, and according to Rockstar, it received over 475 million views across all platforms in its first day.
Soon after its debut, Rockstar released a statement reiterating that the latest trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6 was captured on PS5 hardware, “comprised of equal parts gameplay and cutscenes”.
The new trailer introduces GTA 6’s protagonists, Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos, and was followed by a large update on the game’s official website giving biographies of the two playable characters, among others.
