The gaming giant Postpones GTA VI Again, Pushing Release to the End of 2026
Rockstar Games's long-awaited GTA VI, initially scheduled to arrive on May 26 the coming year, has been delayed again – now to the end of 2026. This marks nearly two years since the title's announcement, and more than 12 years since Grand Theft Auto V was released on the market.
“Grand Theft Auto VI will now release on November 19, 2026, a Thursday,” reads Rockstar Games's official statement on X. “We apologize for adding extra months to what we realize has been a long wait, but these additional months will allow us to finish the game with the level of polish you have come to expect and deserve.”
The long-anticipated game stars a intimately linked pair of criminals named Jason and Lucia in Rockstar’s sun-drenched version of Miami, Vice City, and the broader Florida-like state of Leonida. Development has been in progress at the Edinburgh studio in Scotland, with support from the company’s other studios in New York and worldwide, since the year 2018. Its original release window was late 2025.
It has been hoped that GTA VI would revive an struggling gaming sector, which has experienced a decline after a pandemic-driven surge. Based on publishing giant Take-Two’s most recent earnings statements, its forerunner Grand Theft Auto V has generated $8.6bn since its debut in 2013. The studio's last game, the critically acclaimed Red Dead Redemption II, was launched in 2018 and achieved $725m in revenue over its first weekend.
Players, meanwhile, have had a exceptionally lengthy period to anticipate the developer's newest release: even by the standards of the video games industry, where half-decade long developments for major titles are not unusual, the over twelve-year anticipation for GTA VI has been extensive.
