A new report indicates that the recent delay of Grand Theft Auto 6, now scheduled to launch in May of 2026, has had a big impact across the gaming industry as studios and publishers try to plan their next moves fearing (or hoping) that Rockstar Games might push the release date back again for what is almost guaranteed to be one of the most successful video games in history.
Last week, Rockstar Games announced that GTA 6 wouldn’t arrive in late 2025 as previously announced. Instead the open-world sequel to one of the best-selling games of all time, GTA V, would launch on May 26, 2026. Many fans weren’t happy about the delay, but Rockstar was able to win them back with a massive new trailer and over 70 screenshots. Meanwhile, a lot of publishers and developers working on big games just had a wrench thrown in their plans.
In a May 9 Bloomberg report, multiple devs anonymously talked about how the teams making some games that pushed their releases back internally to avoid GTA 6 are now hoping the game doesn’t slip again into late 2026 and screw up their plans all over again. Others are hoping for a delay so that they can push their own in-development games back into 2027 and get more time.
One developer working on a big multiplayer game told Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier that they had previously delayed their game from fall 2025 to spring 2026. This was mostly done because the title needed more time, but it also was done to avoid GTA 6. Now they’re in a tough spot. Delaying again would be very expensive and make it harder for the game to be profitable. But not delaying and landing right next to GTA 6 could be a disaster, as Rockstar’s open-world sequel is likely to suck up all the oxygen in the room the month it launches. However, there’s also the fear GTA 6 gets delayed again, meaning that if they move their release window to avoid it, they might land right next to it with no options to escape.
Bloomberg reports that in meetings happening at major publishers and studios across the industry, business analysts are trying to figure out if Rockstar’s big sequel will arrive on time or get delayed again, and how that will affect their current in-development projects. And none of this factors in GTA 6‘s online mode, which might launch later. (In 2013, GTA Online’s release followed that of GTA V by a few weeks.) That could prove to be a huge problem for an online game that avoids the initial launch, but still gets devoured by GTA 6‘s multiplayer mode.
We know of at least one specific game, EA’s upcoming Battlefield, that has changed its release plans since the delay of GTA 6 and is now aiming for sometime before March 2026. The company’s CEO told investors that he believed that “the window is clearer than it was before” for a new Battlefield game since the delay.
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