- Industry whispers be damned โ the Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA 6 or GTA VI) release date isnโt being pushed back any further for the time being.
- The official launch was delayed earlier this year from 2025 to May 26th, 2026 (much to the frustration of gamers whoโve waited over a decade).
- This article will be updated as news comes to light.
There was plenty of anxious energy ahead of Take-Two Interactiveโs most recent earnings report. And not just for the usual bean counters and their meticulously formatted balance sheets.
Earlier this year, the parent company of Rockstar Games dropped a second Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer along with a revised release date, pushing what had initially been earmarked for a 2025 launch all the way to May 26th, 2026. Since then, many had been bracing for further delays.
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But thankfully, despite the assertions of โfairly reliable insiders,โ that doesnโt seem to be the case. At least according to the aforementioned quarterly earnings report. Itโs to the point where the video game publisherโs leadership has publicly expressed a uniform front of confidence about the long-gestating franchise instalment.
โMy level of conviction is very, very high, obviously,โ Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told CNBC when prompted about whether GTA 6 will make its proposed 2026 release date.
โWe try not to pump expectations. Rockstarโs whole stock and trade is to have these extraordinary expectations and still beat them. I know thatโs their goal. I know itโs going to be an amazing game.โ
โWhile I couldnโt be more optimistic than I am, all of us have to do the work. We have to deliver something great to consumers and then the consumers are going to tell us just how great it is.โ
As for the matter of a confirmed price, elsewhere, the chief exec has been quite evasive on whether consumers will need to fork out upwards of US$80 (AU$120), potentially as much as US$100 (AU$150), for GTA 6 โ something thatโs steadily becoming the norm for AAA titles in 2025.
โSo now that announcement will come from Rockstar in due time,โ Zelnick told Variety in an interview ahead of the latest quarterly earnings.
โOur goal always is to deliver more value than what we charge, so weโve had variable pricing at the company forever. As you know, the approach of the industry is to launch at a premium price, sometimes with special editions, and over time, typically to reduce the price to enhance the overall size of the market.โ
โWe do the very same thing. I think, probably more than most, weโre highly focused on making sure that the experience is great, not just because the game itself is great, but also because consumers have paid a fair price for it.โ
With an expansive open world like no other, cinematic graphics, and what promises to be a compelling Bonnie & Clyde-style storyline, the hotly anticipated titleโs budget (which is believed to factor in marketing) has reportedly ballooned from earlier estimates of US$1 billion to approximately US$2 billion.
So donโt be surprised if youโre paying an even hundred for a copy at launch.
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For context, Dubaiโs Burj Khalifa only ran the bill up to US$1.5 billion. Even more amusingly, construction on the worldโs tallest skyscraper was completed in less than half the time it took GTA VI to release (six years versus 12 years).
And for a less ridiculous reference, hereโs what every other franchise instalment cost to develop (unadjusted for inflation):
- GTA (1997) โ US$1-2 million
- GTA 2 (1999) โ US$3-4 million
- GTA 3 (2001) โ US$5 million
- GTA Vice City (2002) โ US$5 million
- GTA San Andreas (2004) โ US$10 million
- GTA 4 (2008) โ US$100 million
- GTA 5 (2013) โ US$250 million
Stay tuned for every crucial update on the forthcoming Grand Theft Auto 6 (release date, price, expansions, etc).
Grand Theft Auto 6 Synopsis
Jason Duvall and Lucia Camino have always known the deck is stacked against them. But when an easy score goes wrong, they find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, in the middle of a criminal conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida โ forced to rely on each other more than ever if they want to make it out alive.
