Those looking for Grand Theft Auto 6 have been left wanting for the past, oh, one year, two months, and about three days (at the time of recording). After a veritable bombshell of a trailer highlighting modern-day Vice City, new protagonists, and the everyday insanity that Grand Theft Auto is known for, Rockstar Games has been rather quiet on new details. One developer showed up during the Golden Joystick Awards last November to say that the team is working on “absolutely mind-blowing” things, but that’s pretty much it.
The only real “news” – you can call them that, I won’t – is Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick reaffirming the Fall 2025 release window. It makes sense why he would do so – responsibilities to shareholders and whatnot – hence the multiple reassurances last year. Take-Two’s latest financial results are available, and once again, Zelnick reaffirmed a Fall 2025 release window, even going as far as to specify that it’s out in the “Fall of calendar 2025,” as if there was any doubt.
He even went on to call this year an “inflection point” for the company, “from the groundbreaking release of Grand Theft Auto 6 to the unmatched pipeline that 2K is set to deliver.” With a lineup that includes other big releases like WWE 2K25, Mafia: The Old Country, Borderlands 4, and an unannounced but undoubtedly new addition to the NBA 2K lineup, it’s hard to argue about 2025’s importance.
However, for the first time since GTA 6 was revealed, something a bit odd has occurred. For the first time, both officially and unofficially, Zelnick has hinted that a delay is possible. “Look, there’s always a risk of slippage, and I think as soon as you say words like absolutely, you jinx things. So we feel really good about it,” he told IGN regarding how confident the company is in the release window.
Speaking to VentureBeat, he further added, “It’s always the possibilities in our business. However, we’ve given the narrow window for upcoming titles. After all, it is February, and we’ve outlined the release schedule through calendar year-end.”
As for how development is currently panning out, Zelnick said, “We know that Rockstar seeks perfection. I never claim success before it occurs. I’m fond of saying arrogance is the enemy of continued success, so we’re all running scared and looking over our shoulders and we know that the competition is not asleep. Our whole organization is super excited.” This is all well and good, even if doesn’t actually say anything about the state of development, but hey, welcome to the world of PR speak.
One could dismiss the statement about a “risk of slippage” as a general statement. After all, even if it has roughly nine months until launch (assuming Grand Theft Auto 6 launches in November), it’s technically in the end game. Perhaps it’s better to throw the possibility out there now while still reaffirming that a Fall 2025 window is happening than not.
Of course, it’s always good to take any words of assurance at face value. Remember when Roll7 and Intercept Games, developers of OlliOlli World and Kerbal Space Program 2, reportedly shuttered back in May 2024? When asked about those closures, Zelnick told IGN that “to be clear,” they weren’t shuttered. Fast-forward to the sale of Private Division, which both studios were owned by, and a Take-Two representative confirmed that, yes, they were indeed shut down.
Am I saying you should completely disregard any assurance of Grand Theft Auto 6 launching this year? Not at all – just as there’s always a “risk of slippage,” there’s also the possibility of Rockstar meeting its deadlines and releasing it on time. But forget about the timing of Zelnick, who’s done nothing but reassure a Fall 2025 release window since the game’s reveal – Rockstar’s own history creates enough doubt.
After all, this is a company which announced Red Dead Redemption 2 in October 2016, and delayed it not once but twice, from 2017’s latter half to the first half of 2018 and finally launching on October 2018. Grand Theft Auto 5 was originally set to launch in Spring 2013 and was subsequently delayed to September. That’s not counting all the delays to the PC version or PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions.
As a result, there was always this nagging feeling that Grand Theft Auto 6 could see a delay. It’s simply something that Rockstar Games, in its pursuit of perfection (if not happiness), has inculcated in your average fan. However, there are also rumors regarding rebooted development in 2020, not to mention all the alleged gameplay changes since 2019 (with principal development kicking off in 2018). Even if you don’t believe those rumors, a report from Axios in 2022 revealed that there were allegedly meant to be multiple cities and more than two protagonists.
This would be “scaled down” to reduce crunch, but you have to wonder how far along the development was and how many resources were committed. Of course, it’s always possible this rumored content could become available post-launch, but for now, it’s another story in a long chain regarding GTA 6’s development challenges.
Even with all this in mind, it’s not strange to hope it meets its launch window. If it is delayed, perhaps out of 2025, it may not be for more than a few months, which probably wouldn’t be that big a deal for most players. Between all the other big titles this year – from Ghost of Yotei and Fable to Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater and Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (never mind the Switch 2’s launch) – it may even be a blessing in disguise.
The knock-on effects for Take-Two and the industry as a whole are a different matter. It would definitely be a major setback for the former which has recorded extensive losses over the years. And with analysts pinning their hopes on the game to generate momentum for what’s been a relatively stagnant market in the past two years despite so many huge releases, there’s no telling what could happen.
Would it be worse than Grand Theft Auto 6 launching in a less-than-ideal state, a growing problem among triple-A projects? Most likely not, but it all once again goes back to the fact that Take-Two and Rockstar Games have kept players in the dark for too long.
It’s one thing to reveal a trailer and generate hype, boasting that you’re “highly confident” of a Fall 2025 launch, and another to go for more than a year without any updates and suddenly shift to “risk of slippage.” Rockstar may very well chase “perfection”, and settle for something close by the time it’s ready to show more, but what it’s planning to do is a question that it needs to answer sooner rather than later.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.