Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has shared an interesting new insight on Grand Theft Auto 6’s development.
As you should know by now, Rockstar Games announced that Grand Theft Auto 6 would be delayed to May 26, 2026. Some analysts refer to the delay as a huge blow to PlayStation 5, in particular because there was hope that it’s success could lead to a resurgence in Sony’s business.
In a new interview with CNBC, Zelnick was asked about the delay. He said this in response:
Well it’s a pretty short delay. It’s less than six months. And generally, when we announce a date we’re certain we’re able to hit that date. But the key thing is Rockstar Games is trying to create the best thing anyone’s ever seen in entertainment. Not just interactive entertainment.
That’s a tall order, and I think consumers have huge hopes for the title. We just launched the second trailer for 475 million views in 24 hours, setting a new record.
This statement is interesting in itself, as Zelnick has low key shut down speculation of trouble development. The prevailing assumption was that it would be released in the middle of the year, even possibly this month. And so, it looked like Grand Theft Auto 6 was delayed for yet another year.
But based on Zelnick’s statement, they actually planned to release the game around the tail end of 2025, between November to December. If Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive hadn’t decided to delay the game, it would still have not released this month, and gamers would actually be waiting for a little bit.
It’s also possible that other Take-Two published games for this year are also a factor. Mafia: The Old Country is releasing on August 2025, and Borderlands 4 a month after that, in September. If Rockstar had released Grand Theft Auto 6 before either title, there is a huge likelihood it would have cannibalized their potential sales. There are also rumors that Red Dead Redemption 2 will get upgrades for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, and will debut on a Nintendo platform for the Switch 2.
These are not to question Rockstar’s discretion on whether they have decided if the game will be good enough to release or not, but they could have certainly seen that other Take-Two titles could have given them leeway. In any case, maybe this delay isn’t as catastrophic as many assume, and the game will turn out to meet even our elevated expectations in the end.
