Despite the confidence that parent company Take-Two Interactive’s CEO Strauss Zelnick might have in the November 19, 2026 release date for Grand Theft Auto 6, the title having been delayed so many times has sparked a bit of uncertainty about whether it will actually come out this time around. In a recent episode of the Button Mash podcast, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier has indicated that the delays might be because Grand Theft Auto 6 still hasn’t been considered “content complete” yet.
Commenting on the typical development cycle that Rockstar Games has gone through since the release of Grand Theft Auto 5, Schreier pointed to the number of delays seen by Red Dead Redemption 2, which was originally slated for release in 2017 before eventually coming out in 2018. “This is how Rockstar works, or at least has worked in recent decades I suppose,” he said.
“In the recent, the last decade, with Red Dead 2, if you look at the history there, they announced it for fall 2017, then it slipped to spring 2018, and then it slipped again to fall 2018, and then it landed October of that year. So I wouldn’t be super shocked if that is what happens again this time around.”
While Schreier didn’t reveal when he last got word of GTA 6 not yet being content complete, he described it as still being under the part of game development where people were still working on its various aspects. These include things like levels and missions, as well as general game polish. Despite this, he did refer to the currently-planned November 2026 release date as feeling “more real” than last year’s Fall 2025 launch window.
“This is a big and complicated game,” he said. “The last I heard it was still not content complete. That is to say that people were still finishing things up, still finalizing levels and missions and seeing what’s going to make it into the game.”
“It’s really hard to say [what the release date will be] right now,” he continued. “I don’t think anyone at Rockstar could tell you with 100% certainty that they will make it out in November. But I think it feels a little more real than fall 2025 did.”
Aside from this uncertainty about Grand Theft Auto 6’s launch, Schreier noted that Rockstar Games’ parent company Take-Two Interactive is hoping to release it before March 2027, which would mark the end of the financial year. While there might be quite a bit of shareholder pressure for this launch window, the company is apparently still making the quality of the game its top priority.
“With a game like this the stakes are so high right?” said Schreier. “They really can’t settle for anything less than perfection with this release because there’s so much riding on it. The entire like, the stock of Take-Two lives or dies on this game. Every time this game slips, their shares drop 10%. It’s not something that they will release in any sort of compromised state. So if it comes to, even if it comes to October, and they’re like, you know, the game is not 100% ready, I suspect they would rather slip than release it.”
Grand Theft Auto 6 is being developed for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out what a former animator from the studio has to say about the possibility of more delays.
