Grand Theft Auto VI Delayed to November 19, 2026 - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 06 November 2025 / 4,803 Views
Rockstar Games announced it has once again delayed Grand Theft Auto VI. The game will now launch for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 19, 2026.
"Grand Theft Auto VI will now release on Thursday, November 19, 2026," reads the update from Rockstar Games.
We are sorry for adding additional time to what we realize has been a long wait, but these extra months will allow us to finish the game with the level of polish you have come to expect and deserve.
"We want to thank you again for your patience and support. While the wait is a little longer, we are incredibly excited for players to experience the sprawling state of Leonida and a return to modern day Vice City."
The first time the game was delayed it went from a Fall 2025 release window to May 26, 2026. The game has now been delayed an entire year with the new release date of May 26, 2026.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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See you guys in 2027.
And the crowd pretends to be shocked.
Once again by half a year, and still no PC on day one... Unfuckingbeliveable.
"We delayed it so we have more time to not make the PC version"
Saw this coming miles away. November 2026 will make 8 years in active development. It had 4 years of pre-production, 2014-2018, and then entered active development almost immediately after RDR2 released in October 2018. AAA development is so long these days. Admittedly Rockstar Games are really more AAAA than AAA, but even normal AAA's are taking 5 or more years this generation in most cases.
To put into perspective just how much longer Rockstar's development cycles have gotten:
GTA 4- 1 year pre-production, 3 years active development
RDR- 1 year pre-production, 3.4 years active development
GTA 5- 2 years pre-production, 3 years active development
RDR2- 3 years pre-production, 5 years active development
GTA 6- 4 years pre-production, 8 years active development
None of this matters to gamers. For us, it's 16 years.
Expected!
Will be on PS5 and PS6 and PS7
Yes.
switch 3 also
I hate to say it, but here comes Summer 2027
They've had since 2013. That's thirteen YEARS. Modern AAA gaming is a joke.
Red Dead Redemption 2 released after GTA 5. It's 8 years. Still bad, but not as bad.
You know we are in a sorry state when eight years development seems quick lol
I thought RDR2 was mainly the San Diego team and GTA Rockstar North? With them supporting each other? This is what it used to be. Why would they stop this and just have 2 massively spread out teams working on one title at a time instead of making 2 games at once?
This is how it has been since GTA V. All hands on deck.
They now operate as one giant super studio, from like a dozen different locations around the world.
RDR1 was developed that way, Rockstar San Diego leading development with their 180 developers, with an additional 820+ devs conscripted from Rockstar's Leeds, New England, North, and Toronto, for a total dev team size of 1000+ devs. GTA V was also developed that way, certain studios assisting lead dev Rockstar North for 1000+ devs total. Starting with RDR2, Rockstar pretty much decided they wanted to make the first AAAA game. They put every studio they have on RDR2, with roughly 1600 devs working on the game at any one time, and 2000+ total devs working on the game. GTA 6 is being developed with the same every studio approach, but they've also been on a hiring spree since RDR2 released, they seem to be over 4,000 employees now at Rockstar Games. Between the larger dev team and the longer development time of 8 years, the budget for GTA 6 has been estimated to be well over $1 billion, well above the $250m estimate for GTA 5 ($348m adjusted for inflation) and the $370-550m estimates for RDR2 ($470-711m adjusted for inflation).
I understand the scope of GTA 6 but since Red Dead released smaller studios like Insomniac released Spider Miles Morales, Ratchet and Clank, Spiderman 2 and even could be releasing Wolverine before GTA6. I really hope Rockstar in the future can spawn a separate team to again innovate in smaller projects. Because (not financially but consumer wise) this 8-9 years between games are unsustainable.
Yeah, it's absurd how they only make one game at a time, it's a huge company with more than 2000 employees.
Until GTA 5 they released a game every year because it was all different studios developing them.
But I guess it's more lucrative to pump endless content to GTA Online nowadays than release anything.
I really loved Rockstar cadence from 2008 to 2013. We saw GTA 4, and two expansions, Red Dead, L.A Noire, Max Payne 3 and GTA V all back to back. I would much rather see something like that than 500 updates to GTA online.
That's longer than most console generations, I can't help but wonder what is the point? I'll still go back to GTA 3, Vice City, San Andreas and IV after this one comes out and beaten it, probably have more fun with the older games too.
I go back to the first four games way more than I do the fifth. I played GTA5 when it came out, and I loved it. But unlike the first four, I didn't really go back to it. I can't explain why that is, either. I just find the first four games more enjoyable.
With PS6 rumored to released in 2027 - They may very well delay it again to release it as a PS6 launch title.
Gta v released a couple of months before the release of the ps4/xbone and didn't get an updated version till a year after tge release of those consoles. I'd say they'll release it on the current gen first then charge for a next gen update later on.
Yeah but even this generation we have seen re releases of PS4 games with better frames and little more and have been selling good. Rockstar would still release a new gen version (like GTA V for PS5 even tough you could already played it it PS4 natively).
At this point they may as well delay till 2027 and get a PC and NS2 port ready for launch as well
it would be something else if they could get this on the switch2
Sorry but it's hard to stay interested in something when it takes THIS long to be released. Everything from GTA 3 to GTA V including all the spin offs and a bunch of other Rockstar IPs, came out in 12 years, since then only Red Dead 2! I'm sure GTA VI will be great but some smaller games from these big studios would be nice!
You look at something like Capcom. I know their games don´t have the same scope of development of a GTA but since red dead released (from the top of my head) they released Monster Hunter Rise, Sunbreak, Wilds; Street Fighter 6; Devil May Cry 5; Resident Evil 8; 2,3 and 4 remakes, and next RE9.
Rockstar´s approach to all in on a single project is depressing. Not because it doesn't pan out quality wise, but because this obsession with its live service elements has deprived us of real talent on display on new project.s
I just think back to PS3 with Rockstar, GTA IV (+DLC!), Midnight Club Los Angeles, Red Dead Redemption, LA Noire, Max Payne 3 and GTA V, all within 5 years! Bully on Wii and Xbox 360 too. At least 1 new game a year from them! PSP got different games from them too, didn't realise how lucky we were back then. Far from the only studio where there's a total lack of releases these days. I don't know what would do without the Japanese companies and indies if I'm honest. Sega and Atlus seem to be good like Capcom with new releases too and thank god Nintendo aren't like Sony and actually release new games!
I guess we now know when the next xbox pc and ps6 will be announced for release lol. Oh well, not that it bothers me. I have plenty of games in my backlog to keep me going for atleast another 2 or 3 years. But i have to laugh at those who are glued to the gta 6 news everyday and dying inside, instead of focusing on other great games to play through
And with that don't expect a busy November 2026 game release wise...bar maybe Nintendo
These GTA6 delays are probably hell for developers/publishers who are trying to avoid competing with it. There are probably a bunch of games that are now going to be delayed to 2027.
In addition to all the games that were already avoiding summer 2026 and now are in limbo because I imagine is not as easy as saying "we will release 3 months earlier than planned".
Better to delay than to fck up and destroy the fanbase like CD project red
Release a new trailer to compensate for the delay!
Recently, there have been a lot of improvements in the field of AI in games most especially clothing. I don't think Rockstar wants GTA6 to be left out on this and so would like to have them in their games. Looking at the scale of the game it demands time to finish it up.
I can imagine SIE being quite positive about this news.
Last fiscal's Q3 record, this year's Q3 likely pretty strong thanks to DS2, BF6, Yōtei & Portal update too - and next year with Wolverine & GTA6 in November. Let alone first current-gen-only CoD 7.
Backed up by an overwhelming hardware ratio in the current-gen in favour of PS5.
PS5 overtaking PS4 highly likely incoming.
I hope this GTA news make both Sony and Xbox release their big games before November and not delay them. For sony Wolverine in early-mid October doesn't sound like something impossible. I don´t know how microsoft will juggle Forza, Gears and Halo at the same time. I suppose they can release Forza in the summer and Halo in October. But Gears, without any gameplay shown seems more likely for a delay, unfortunately.
So far as GTA5 continues to sell they will keep prolonging the launch date.
Has always been their secretly determined release date in the first place.
I never believed they would let GTA6 compete against the FIFA World Cup '26 only two weeks after release.
When people around the globe would start enjoying the early Summer outside again and watch their football teams play.
