There’s another world where Grand Theft Auto 6 has already been out for nearly a year. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick referenced that alternate timeline in a recent interview looking back at his career, in which he confirmed that Rockstar Games’ latest sequel was at one point supposed to come out 18 months before its current release date.
“I think we’re about 18 months behind the original date,” he told podcaster David Senra in a video published over the weekend. This would put GTA 6’s original launch at May 2025 alongside Doom: The Dark Ages and Elden Ring: Nightreign. The executive was asked about the pressure that comes with making those calls to delay a massive moneymaker, but he deflected instead to talking about GTA Online‘s continued popularity and how the power of social gaming (Zelnick’s mother plays Bridge online with people she’s never met).
But GTA 6 didn’t come out in May 2025. Instead, it was slated for fall of that year, then delayed to May 2026, and finally delayed to November 19, 2026. The first trailer for the game was released back in December 2023, and we didn’t get a new trailer until May 2025, which, based on Zelnick’s latest comments, would have been when the game was supposed to be out.
While it’s anyone’s guess whether that means we’ll get a third GTA 6 trailer this month ahead of Take-Two’s earnings call, that’s certainly every fan’s hope at the moment. While Rockstar Games’ marketing for the sequel is expected to ramp up over the summer and into the fall, there’s also fear that GTA 6 could still get delayed a third time (or fourth, based on Zelnick’s math).
“You’re sitting on the most valuable media property in the world and everybody online is just like, ‘When’s GTA 6 coming out?’ How do you deal with the timelines? The answer to that question is just, ‘I don’t know,’ right?” Senra said on the podcast. But Zelnick held firm. “Well, no. November 19. I do know.” Fans are hoping that confidence means things are as locked in as they’ll ever be for what might be the biggest video game launch ever.
