GTA 6 faces fresh delay fears as development reportedly still unfinished

GTA VI

• GTA 6 could face a third delay; development is still in content creation stage.
• Current release date is November 19, 2026, but risk of further delay remains
• Rockstar values quality over speed, similar to Red Dead Redemption 2's approach.

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Grand Theft Auto VI could be delayed once again, raising the prospect of a third postponement for one of the most anticipated games of the decade. According to Jason Schreier, development on Grand Theft Auto VI is still ongoing at a fundamental level, with teams finalising levels, missions, and deciding which features will ultimately make it into the finished product. That situation suggests the game is not yet content complete, a key milestone typically reached well before release.

Speaking on the Ringer-Verse Button Mash podcast, Schreier said the current state of GTA 6 mirrors the prolonged and complex development cycle seen with Rockstar’s previous blockbuster. He described the game as exceptionally large and complicated, adding that he would not be surprised if Rockstar opts to delay it again to meet its quality standards. In his words, work is still actively underway on core elements, rather than the project being in a late-stage polish or bug-fixing phase.

GTA 6 has already experienced multiple delays since its record-breaking first trailer appeared in late 2023. Initially, Rockstar confirmed a broad 2025 release window in December 2023. That plan changed in May 2025, when the company pushed the launch to May 26, 2026. A second delay followed in November 2025, setting the current target date at November 19, 2026. Each shift has been closely watched by fans and investors alike, given the game’s outsized importance to its publisher.

Schreier drew a clear parallel with Red Dead Redemption 2, which also suffered a string of delays before eventually launching in October 2018. That title moved from an initial Fall 2017 window to Spring 2018, before being delayed again. In hindsight, the extended timeline was widely credited with contributing to its critical and commercial success, reinforcing Rockstar’s reputation for prioritising polish over punctuality.

The stakes this time are arguably even higher. Rockstar’s parent company, Take-Two Interactive, is heavily reliant on GTA 6 as a future revenue driver. Schreier noted that Take-Two’s share price often reacts sharply to news around the game, with past delays reportedly triggering drops of around 10 percent. That sensitivity underscores how central GTA 6 is to investor expectations.

Despite that pressure, Take-Two chief executive Strauss Zelnick and the team at Rockstar Games have repeatedly signalled that they are willing to absorb short-term financial pain rather than release a compromised product. Zelnick has previously said the company would rather endure a temporary stock dip than damage a franchise that has defined the open-world genre for more than two decades.

Schreier also offered insight into why timelines remain fluid. He explained that game development rarely follows clean, linear phases. Feature completion, content completion, and bug testing often overlap, with boundaries between stages becoming blurred. Even during late phases, developers frequently push to add last-minute ideas or refinements. In the case of GTA 6, he suggested that teams are still firmly in the content creation stage, even if progress is moving towards completion.

That said, Schreier struck a cautiously optimistic note. While acknowledging the risk of another delay, he said the November 19, 2026, release date feels more solid and realistic than previous targets. Zelnick has also expressed strong confidence in that window, suggesting internal expectations may now be better aligned with the scope of the project.