A Reported Reason Why ‘GTA 6’ Has Been Delayed So Long

It was shocking but not surprising when Rockstar announced yesterday that Grand Theft Auto 6 would be delayed out of its fall 2025 release window and instead be out 6+ months later on May 26, 2026.

The stated reasons Rockstar gave were the usual things like “we want to exceed your expectations” and “deliver the level of quality you deserve,” but behind the scenes, a new report from the ever-reliable Jason Schreier gets into specifics.

And it actually makes Rockstar look…good?

Schreier claims that a part of the reason for this delay is to purposefully avoid the kinds of brutal crunch in races to the finish line that the studio has suffered before. Schreier previously covered this in a 2018 story about Red Dead Redemption 2, and he says he’s been keeping an eye on things since. This seems to have resulted in at some positive changes, and that it’s factoring into the GTA 6 delay decision. Here’s Schreier on BlueSky:

“Nobody I’ve talked to at Rockstar has believed Fall 2025 was a real window for a very long time now. Too much work, not enough time, and what appears to be a real desire from management to avoid brutal crunch. GTA VI slipping to 2026 has seemed inevitable for months if not longer.”

Then, responding to pushback about the crunch issue, he continues:

“Skepticism is always healthy, but I've been keeping tabs on this for years (since my big 2018 story about Red Dead 2's crunch). They certainly haven't eliminated *all* overtime but everyone I've talked to at Rockstar says it's night and day from previous projects. If that changes, I'll report on it.”

A Reported Reason Why ‘GTA 6’ Has Been Delayed So Long
ByPaul Tassi, Senior Contributor. News and opinion about video games, television, movies and the internet.


but not surprising when Rockstar announced yesterday that Grand Theft Auto 6 would be delayed out of its fall 2025 release window and instead be out 6+ months later on May 26, 2026.

The stated reasons Rockstar gave were the usual things like “we want to exceed your expectations” and “deliver the level of quality you deserve,” but behind the scenes, a new report from the ever-reliable Jason Schreier gets into specifics.

And it actually makes Rockstar look…good?

Schreier claims that a part of the reason for this delay is to purposefully avoid the kinds of brutal crunch in races to the finish line that the studio has suffered before. Schreier previously covered this in a 2018 story about Red Dead Redemption 2, and he says he’s been keeping an eye on things since. This seems to have resulted in at some positive changes, and that it’s factoring into the GTA 6 delay decision. Here’s Schreier on BlueSky:

“Nobody I’ve talked to at Rockstar has believed Fall 2025 was a real window for a very long time now. Too much work, not enough time, and what appears to be a real desire from management to avoid brutal crunch. GTA VI slipping to 2026 has seemed inevitable for months if not longer.”

Then, responding to pushback about the crunch issue, he continues:

“Skepticism is always healthy, but I've been keeping tabs on this for years (since my big 2018 story about Red Dead 2's crunch). They certainly haven't eliminated *all* overtime but everyone I've talked to at Rockstar says it's night and day from previous projects. If that changes, I'll report on it.”

This not been without pain on Rockstar’s end, as this announcement to push GTA 6 out of the fiscal year after repeated assurances to investors it would be out this fall, has resulted in a nearly 7% stock drop in the past day, albeit Take-Two has avoided the crushing declines in other areas of the market, with its stock up 50% over the course of the past year. It is currently in the highest window it’s ever been, so investors can’t be too upset.

There are no real downsides to the GTA 6 delay. Players will get to play a better game. Rockstar employees will hopefully not be worked quite as relentlessly. Other developers can now breathe a sigh of relief that it’s not out this fall. And we finally have an actual release date.

But still, how about another trailer? Eh