Vaspaan Dastoor is an Editor for TheGamer. Previously worked at IGN India and constantly tries to get people to make time for an LOTR marathon. He can be found giving hot takes for cold responses at @DastoorVaspaan
While we were hopeful that Grand Theft Auto 6 would finally arrive on May 26, 2026, we knew that there was always a big chance of a further delay. While the announcement of the new November 19 release date was disappointing, it was hardly a shock. It seems Rockstar wants to ensure that GTA 6 launches in the best possible shape.
We’ve heard many times that the folks at Rockstar and Take-Two were confident of hitting their promised launch date. CEO Strauss Zelnick has on multiple occasions ensured that there would be no more delays, only for the date to be eventually pushed back. It’s the same case again, but also noted that they have never regretted delaying a game, and other studios could learn from it.
Take-Two CEO Says More Devs Should Be Okay With Delaying Games
“It’s always painful when we slip a date, and we have done so occasionally in the past,” Zelnick said in a recent investors call (thanks, PC Gamer). “And we’ve never regretted it in retrospect. “I would like to point out that we have some competitors that in the event where more polish was required, and it required slipping a date, they chose not to slip the date. And they did so at their peril.”
We’ve been waiting for GTA 6 for over 12 years now, but most of us can agree that we’d rather let Rockstar take more time than launch an unfinished or unpolished game. The expectation is already through the roof, especially since the devs have said that GTA 6 will actually look like it does in the trailers. Undoubtedly, it’s going to take a lot of polishing.
The last time Rockstar announced that GTA 6’s release date was getting delayed, we got the second trailer to keep the hype going. Perhaps there’s a third trailer waiting in the wings somewhere? Maybe this time we’ll get to see actual gameplay of Jason and Lucia on a mission.
