Grand Theft Auto 6 is now set to release exactly one year from today.
It has only been a few days since Take-Two announced that Grand Theft Auto 6 would be getting delayed to November 19, 2026.
The delay is certainly disappointing for everyone now. But one can also argue that fans have been waiting on this game for much longer than when Rockstar made its first official announcement.
Why We Expected To Get The Game By Now
Grand Theft Auto V released all the way back in 2013. Fans thought that Grand Theft Auto 6 could have been ready after it as easily as 2018.
As we now know, Rockstar actually started early development in 2018. So the game is running late in 2025, but it hasn’t been that long.
This is relevant because the long wait for the game should not be taken as a sign that it is in development hell. And that is confirmed by the rumors going around.
Should We Be Worried That Grand Theft Auto 6 Is In Dev Hell?
Multiple sources corroborated that Grand Theft Auto 6 is content complete. What this means is that all the assets, story campaign, are all finished being created.
So what we’re really waiting on is for Rockstar’s developers to finish that creative process by applying these concepts onto the game.
Rockstar is also using this extra time to polish the game up. As we’ve heard before, the industry has become wary of releasing their games in a broken or incomplete state.
Many AAAs have gotten away with releasing games that needed day one patches, or worse, had technical issues at launch.
To some degree, that still happens to this day. But the backlash CD Projekt RED received over Cyberpunk 2077’s botched launch is what changed everything.
Can This Delay Ultimately Benefit Rockstar Games?
Take-Two has now made a promise that they will release Grand Theft Auto 6 when the game is at a state where it is not only content complete, but it meets fans’ expectations for quality and excellence.
So we now expect it to have no performance issues or technical bugs. We know Rockstar always pushes technology to make the best looking games for each generation, and this game is no different.
If Rockstar can deliver on these promises, that will make this game even more successful and important than it was already expected to be.
