Grand Theft Auto VI delayed again - "When we set a date, we really do believe in it"

The Rockstar game is now coming November 19, 2026. We speak to Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick

Grand Theft Auto 6 will now launch on November 19, 2026, publisher Take-Two has announced.

It represents another six-month delay for the highly anticipated open world action game. The Rockstar title was scheduled for May 26, 2026, which itself was a delay from Holiday 2025.

In an interview with The Game Business, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said: “When we set a date, we really do believe in it. We said when we set the last date, if a game requires more polish to be the best possible version of itself, then we will give that game more time. And that’s exactly what happened. We feel really good about this release date. It’s in the same fiscal year, it happens to be a great release window, and naturally we’re really supportive of Rockstar’s approach.”

The new release date is still over a year away, and we asked Zelnick why set a date so far in advance when it’s clearly a complicated project to accurately predict.

“It’s not that far in advance if you look at when you need to deliver a game to get it out,” Zelnick said. “Also, we have to start marketing activities in a significant amount of time ahead of release. What we want to do is give consumers as much certainty as possible. And again, we feel quite good about this date.”

In the meantime, Zelnick says Rockstar will continue to support Grand Theft Auto Online, which continues to deliver better-than-expected results.

“We continue to supply content to GTA Online, and in fact we’ve had terrific results there. And GTA+ continues to grow its membership. In fact, it’s had 20% growth year-over-year. And GTA 5 has sold in more than 220 million units.”

NBA shines, but Borderlands 4 ‘softer’ than expected

The GTA delay came as part of Take-Two’s Q2 financial results, where net bookings reached $1.96 billion, a growth of 33% over the year before and ahead of the company’s guidance. The firm has now increased its bookings guidance to between $6.4 billion and $6.5 billion, a 14% growth over the previous financial year.

This has been driven by continued growth in the firm’s mobile business, and strong sales of its new NBA 2K26 game. The basketball title has sold-in over five million units, which is ‘double digit’ growth over NBA 2K25.

“And that was also a huge title, so to do that year-over-year is great,” Zelnick said. “Recurrent consumer spending is also up 45% year-over-year. It’s a tremendous result.”

However, Zelnick believes there’s still more to come from NBA. “I think there’s wonderful opportunity for international growth. We are a lot bigger than American football, but we’re certainly not as big as soccer. So, there’s room to grow.”

What was a little disappointing, at least commercially, was the launch of Borderlands 4 in September, which Zelnick says was “softer” than expected. He puts that down to the technical issues suffered by the PC version of the game.

“The critical acclaim [for Borderlands 4] was superb, and we’re really happy with the release,” he told us. “Equally, as you know, there were some challenges with the Steam release. [Developer] Gearbox has been addressing those challenges and will continue to do so. So, in terms of units sold out of the gate, the numbers were a little softer than we would have liked. In the fullness of time, we think it’s going to do great.”

The other big game of the quarter was Mafia: The Old Country, which beat the firm’s internal expectations and Zelnick says proves there’s a market for narrative games done well.

“What we suspected was confirmed,” he said. “Which is just… if you give consumers a great narrative experience that’s a lot of fun, somewhat contained, and at a fair price, then you can have the perfect result.”

What does EA going private mean for Take-Two?

Take-Two big US publishing rival EA is set to go private next year, following a planned $55 billion acquisition by an investment group. It will make Take-Two the last major US public games publisher (at least in the traditional sense). We were interested to hear how Zelnick felt this might impact Take-Two.

“It’s hard to know,” he admitted. “No-longer having a big direct competitor that’s also a public company may give us a bit of room from a competitive point-of-view. On the other hand, we never take anything for granted. Arrogance is the enemy of continued success. We are always looking over our shoulders. We are always scared… so I’m not sure that’s really a difference that makes a difference.

“We wish our competitors well. A good business is well served by having powerful players, not just one powerful player. So, it’s possible that the competitor landscape shifts a bit, it’s also possible nothing changes at all. Either way, we have to do our job, which is make the very best entertainment on earth.”