Could GTA 6 Delay Actually Lead To A Bigger Launch?

Ever since the delay of GTA 6 yesterday, people have not only been trying to figure out how the game’s push to November 2026 will impact the gaming industry as a whole, but how it’ll affect Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive. It’s also given rise to many other people who believe that this might not be the last delay, and that the game might not arrive until 2027. But let’s try to focus on the “positive” right now, as there are some out there who think that the delay could actually help Rockstar and Take-Two in the long run. How does that work? It all has to do with the holiday season.

As we’ve talked about, the game is now coming out on November 19th, which is over a year away from where we are right now. However, that change in date from May to November gives Rockstar Games a simple advantage in that the game is now releasing around the holiday season. Black Friday is often a big selling period for the industry, as well as many other industries, of course. That goes double when you consider how many companies and online stores try to do “4-day weekend events” that connect Black Friday with Cyber Monday to ensure that people by their stuff.

So, with the new release date, GTA 6 can capitalize fully on that, which could make its launch even bigger. Then, there are the thoughts of Joost van Dreunen, games professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business. He talked with Reuters and noted:

“Releasing it closer to the holiday season allows for more opportunities to bundle with the tail end of current-gen consoles, making it more valuable to Take-Two because of the marketing dollars the console makers will be willing to invest.”

That’s fair, too, as the belief is that the PS6, and whatever the next Xbox console may or may not be, will be released in 2027. So, the game itself can release on the PS5 and Xbox Series X, bank on all the sales there, and then they make the “next-gen versions” and then make a lot selling on them. If that sounds familiar, it’s pretty much what has happened with the last entry in this franchise, which allowed it to sell over 215 million copies in 12 years!

The burden, though, is now on Rockstar, as this is the second significant delay the game has had. If it doesn’t turn out to be exactly what they’ve promised, it will backfire on them.