Take‑Two CEO Responds To Plea For Terminally Ill Fan To Play GTA 6 Early
Life can be wildly unfair and at times immensely sad, but in a gracious act of kindness, Take-Two Interactive may be putting pieces in motion to allow a terminally ill gamer stricken with cancer to playtest Grand Theft Auto VI long before it comes out. While nothing has been confirmed, the latest update to a now-deleted LinkedIn post on behalf of the GTA fan says Take-Two's CEO reached out and delivered "great news."
The next installment in the hugely popular GTA series is one of the most anticipated game launches of all time. Rockstar's first GTA 6 trailer on YouTube is now up to 272 million views, and that doesn't count views by third-party accounts and/or other platforms. The second trailer, released eight months ago, is up to 146 million views. Our abacus tells us the combined tally is 418 million views.
Given the hype of GTA 6 and the popularity of the franchise as a whole, it's understandable that it would rank up there as a final wish for a terminally ill patient. The plea comes from Anthony Armstrong, an Ubisoft Toronto developer, on behalf of a family member who has been battling cancer for years. Here's the original post...
To any of my connections at Rockstar Games and Rockstar Toronto, or anyone else that may be able to help. A member of my family who has been battling cancer for years just recently got the worst possible news, he was given 6-12 months to live.
The reason I’m reaching out is that they are a huge GTA fan and, with this latest update, he may not be around long enough to actually get to see GTA 6 launch, best case scenario he will be leaving us the same month it does. He currently lives only a stone's throw from the Oakville studio, so it's my hope that one of you may be able to set up an exclusive playtest, so he can have a chance to experience the game, before passing.
I absolutely understand the need for secrecy at this point of development, so at the very least an NDA is probably needed.
The post was updated weeks later to say that Take-Two Interactive's CEO reached out and that he and the family member were waiting to hear from the Rockstar team. Then came the final update saying, "We spoke to them today and got great news. That's all I can really say, but thank from the bottom of my heart."
A visit to the LinkedIn page shows it's no longer available, which we're hoping means that the family member was indeed granted access to playtest GTA 6 and had to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). That's just speculation on our part, but the two updates to the original post, captured by the folks at Insider-Gaming, sound promising.
It's not clear how much of the game is playable right now. The original plan was to release GTA 6 in the fall of 2025 before it was initially delayed to May 26, 2026. A second delay pushed the release date to November 19, 2026, and as of right now, that's still the plan. We'll have to wait and see if that changes with news this morning of an explosion to Rockstar North, the developer studio working on GTA 6.
