GTA VI has received a new delay, this time being pushed back toward the end of 2026. When the game was announced a few years ago, it was initially planned for a late 2025 launch date. The game was then delayed until the Spring of 2026, giving developers at Rockstar just a little more time to get things ready for the game’s grand debut. This was a good thing, at least for Rockstar’s development staff and for gamers. Developers would now be getting a more comfortable development window to work within, and the majority of gamers would rather wait longer for a game if it meant a more polished and finished product with fewer potential bugs.
Of course, this delay wasn’t necessarily going to benefit everyone. Any studio that had planned to launch their games in the Spring of 2026 would now be contending with GTA VI. A game that is undoubtedly going to be so massive it’s going to shoot Rockstar’s profits into the stratosphere. Now that the game has been delayed again, things are shifting for some games, while new developers are potentially starting to panic.
The GTA VI delay to November 2026 could shift other Fall game launches
According to Rockstar’s post on X, the game is now being delayed until November 19, 2026. This is more than likely going to shift the plans of any developers who were going to launch games that same month, or even within a few weeks of GTA VI’s new launch date.
One good example is Call of Duty. It tends to launch toward the end of October or the middle of November every single year. This year, the latest Call of Duty game, Black Ops 7, is launching on November 14. If Microsoft and Activision were planning to launch next year’s entry around the same time, they may want to come up with a different date. Call of Duty is a massive franchise in its own right, but GTA VI promises to be one of the most successful games of all time. Massive franchise or not, going up against it in sales isn’t exactly a smart move.
Of course, just because it would make sense for developers to be scrambling to come up with new launch dates, it doesn’t mean they will. Pushing things up means crunch for the staff and forcing longer hours, and that’s not good either. It also means more potential issues, as there would be less time for QA to fix anything that comes up. At the end of the day, the launch of GTA VI was always going to get other games caught in the crossfire. Now, that will just be happening later than expected.
No matter how sure you are, changes are always possible
Another interesting detail about this delay is that it’s happening at all. It’s surely happening for good reasons. And it’s better that Rockstar takes all the time it needs to ensure the product meets its standards, and the standards of every prospective gamer who wants to buy it.
That being said, it is in contrast to the most recent statement from Take-Two’s CEO Strauss Zelnick. Back in August, Zelnick said he had “very, very high conviction” that GTA VI was sticking with its May 2026 launch date. That is obviously not happening, and Zelnick obviously answered a question about possible delays to the best of his ability. It just goes to show that delays in the industry are inevitable these days.
