Rockstar’s extremely anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI will lastly launch on Could 26, 2026, Rockstar Video games mentioned in a Friday morning announcement.

Which means the sport will miss the “2025” launch window that the developer introduced alongside the game’s first trailer in late 2023. That delay is required, Rockstar mentioned, so the corporate can use “this additional time to ship on the degree of high quality you anticipate and deserve.”

“We’re very sorry that that is later than you anticipated,” Rockstar wrote in its announcement. “The curiosity and pleasure surrounding a brand new Grand Theft Auto has been really humbling for our complete staff. We need to thanks in your help and your endurance as we work to complete the sport.”

A protracted wait will get longer

Whereas disappointing for franchise followers, at present’s official announcement of a delay hasn’t precisely been surprising. Insider sources have been reporting that the 2025 launch goal regarded unlikely for well over a year now.

“No person I’ve talked to at Rockstar has believed Fall 2025 was an actual window for a really very long time now,” Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier wrote on Bluesky this morning. “An excessive amount of work, not sufficient time, and what seems to be an actual need from administration to keep away from brutal crunch. GTA VI slipping to 2026 has appeared inevitable for months if not longer.”

The brand new deliberate launch date of Grand Theft Auto VI now falls a full 4,634 days after the September 17, 2013, launch of Grand Theft Auto V on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Against this, there was only a 1,967-day hole between the discharge of Grand Theft Auto V and the prior launch Grand Theft Auto IV, which additionally launched on the PS3 and Xbox 360 on April 29, 2008.