The TRUTH About 'GTA 6 Delayed to 2026...'

'Cause we all just wanna be big rockstars, live in hilltop houses, driving 15 cars...

Surprising no one, Rockstar has officially delayed Grand Theft Auto VI to May 2026, pushing one of the most anticipated releases in gaming history out of its originally promised Fall 2025 window. While their delay message tries to spin it as a move to "realize their creative vision" and avoid crunch, I'd point to the more calculated motive: conditioning YOU to accept dramatically higher game prices. By the time it gets here, it may actually cost upwards of $100+ dollars for the base game. After the stunt Nintendo pulled raising prices to $80, followed by Microsoft following suit, I'm not even exaggerating when it comes to talking about how bad the impact of this games cost could get...

Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar’s parent company, expressed full support for the delay. CEO Strauss Zelnick said, “We support fully Rockstar Games taking additional time... GTA VI promises to be a ground-breaking, blockbuster entertainment experience.” Yet the delay sent Take-Two’s stock tumbling by up to 16% when markets opened, with investors reacting to the title being pushed outside of the company’s current fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2026.

During an investor call back in February of this year (2025), Take-Two stated that the game was going to still be on track to release later this year, saying specifically that it was “launching Fall of Calendar 2025”.

Despite this fairly massive financial hit on the day, Zelnick remained confident, stating that Take-Two still expects record net bookings in Fiscal 2026 and again in 2027. This optimism has some wondering: if GTA 6 isn’t launching within the fiscal year, what exactly is fueling these record projections? The answer may lie in how the industry is preparing the ground for higher consumer spending.

Earlier this year, analyst Michael Pachter predicted Take-Two may attempt to sell GTA 6 at an “unprecedented” price point of $100 or more, and it would most likely be offering bonuses like in-game currency to justify the cost... Whether that happens or even works... remains to be seen. On top of that we see Nintendo switch 2 titles, and now Microsoft confirming that first-party Xbox titles will begin hitting $80 this holiday season, aligning with the broader trend of increasing prices across the industry... Not a great sign for sustainability but hey... It's just business, right?

Combine those cost increases with the leaks that with Rockstar insiders reportedly never believing the 2025 date was realistic per Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, a different picture starts to form. “Too much work, not enough time, and a real desire to avoid brutal crunch,” said one source. On Bluesky, he elaborated:

I know I'm not the only one thinking that this delay is more strategic than anything: Rockstar and Take-Two may be buying time for the market to settle into the idea that $70 is the floor, not the ceiling. If that's the case, ironically, kicking the proverbial can down the road until next year could make them 20% or more (give or take) revenue if sales remain the same. Not the worst strategy from a business perspective but a big OOF for anyone waiting to play it.

And while Rockstar is going on an apology tour for the delays, and promises GTA 6 will “exceed expectations,” it's hard for me to ignore how this delay conveniently gives the industry more than a year to normalize premium pricing and further transition players into a monetized digital future. I keep going back to that. This isn’t just a delay... it looks more from the outside as a practice for the next era of game pricing.

With gamers everywhere already bracing for $80 games... and analysts warning of even steeper prices, GTA 6's delay might be less about polish and more about timing. Because if you're going to drop a $100 bombshell, you want to make sure everyone’s ready to pay. Time will tell if the wait... was worth it.

For now, we can have even more memes about what we got before GTA6.... Including potentially Half Life 3. Wouldn't that be something...

~Smash