Take-Two CEO Reveals Real Reason For Its Painful GTA 6 Delay
Has there ever been a video game more anticipated than Grand Theft Auto VI? Probably not, but even if you want to make an argument for a different title, GTA 6 is at least in the discussion. Given the immense hype surrounding the next major GTA installment, it's no surprise that Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick found the decision to delay the game until next year to be a painful one.
Strauss revealed as much in an interview with IGN, in which he discussed why the decision was made to delay one of the most (if not THE most) eagerly anticipated game of all time, and how he feels about the progress being made.
"I feel really good about how Fiscal 26 looks sitting here today. And while of course, delays pain me—how could they not?—the most important thing to do is to support your teams in their search for perfection," Strauss said.
It's that search for perfection that led to Take-Two and Rockstar Games pushing the release from this fall to May 26, 2026. History tells us that perfection is not truly possible in game development—it's why patches exist, sometimes even on the day of release—but in this case, it's probably fair to assume that the scrutiny will be higher than is typical for a game launch, even a triple-A title.
While the prospect of waiting a little over a year (or longer, if there are any additional delays) is disappointing from a fan perspective, Strauss did share some promising tidbits. For one, it sounds like the game is nearly complete and just is in need of some polish at this point. And secondly, the added development time means Rockstar can focus on releasing GTA 6 with "no limitations."
"As we get closer to completion of a title that’s seeking perfection, the needs or lack thereof, for continued polish become clear," Zelnick said. "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."
Zelnick also stated in the interview that he's confident Rockstar will hit its May 26, 2026 release date. What he did not say, however, is when there will be a PC port. If we had to guess, we'd say sometime in 2027 at the earliest, but that's just speculation on our part.
Why is he so confident on no further delays? During a recent earnings call to discuss Take-Two's latest earnings report, Strauss revealed (PDF) that GTA 6 "began development in earnest in 2020" after Red Dead Redemption 2 became such a "massive success." He also suggested that despite all the hype surrounding GTA 6, the final result will astonish gamers.
"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," Strauss said.
We can hardly wait (and neither can Sony, apparently).
