The developer's long-awaited GTA VI, initially set to launch on the 26th of May the coming year, has been postponed once more – this time to the conclusion of 2026. This marks close to 24 months since the title's announcement, and over a dozen years since GTA V first hit the market.
“GTA VI will now release on November 19, 2026, a Thursday,” states the company's official statement on X. “We apologize for adding extra months to what we recognize has been a long wait, but these extra months will enable us to complete the game with the quality you have grown accustomed to and rightly merit.”
The eagerly awaited title stars a romantically entwined duo of criminals named Jason and Lucia in Rockstar’s sun-bleached version of Miami, Vice City, and the wider Florida-like state of Leonida. Work has been in progress at Rockstar North in Scotland, with assistance from the developer's additional teams in New York and globally, since the year 2018. Its initial launch timeframe was late 2025.
It has been hoped that Grand Theft Auto VI would reinvigorate an struggling games industry, which has experienced a contraction after a pandemic-driven surge. Based on publishing giant Take-Two’s latest financial reports, its predecessor Grand Theft Auto V has generated $8.6 billion since its debut in 2013. Rockstar’s previous title, the highly praised Red Dead Redemption 2, was released in 2018 and reached $725 million in sales over its opening weekend.
Players, in the meantime, have had a exceptionally lengthy period to look forward to the developer's newest release: even by the standards of the video games industry, where half-decade long developments for major titles are commonplace, the more than 12-year wait for GTA VI has been extensive.
