We hope you weren’t holding your breath for a promised release date; Rockstar’s latest statement confirmed GTA 6 won’t be out for at least another year, pushing the new deadline to November 19, 2026.

Released on November 6, the succinct statement read that the date was pushed back to late next year as they “finish the game with the level of polish [players] have come to expect and deserve.” The news undoubtedly comes as an unsurprising blow to some gamers, but the statement reiterated that Rockstar’s excited for everyone to “experience the sprawling state of Leonida and a return to modern-day Vice City.” 

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

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This isn’t the first time Rockstar has postponed their latest creation. Just about every previous GTA instalment suffered a delay, whether from the company ironing out bugs or the developers working overtime to cater to new consoles. Heck, even GTA V seemed like a pipe dream for the longest time. It took five years for us to squeeze out another instalment, and though the game was initially prepped for the spring of 2013, Rockstar announced it needed a few months of prep. What we got was easily one of the best open-world games—right up until they topped themselves again with Red Dead Redemption 2.  

No one understands the woes of a new game better than eager players, but sometimes, it’s better to wait for perfection than dive controller-first into a buggy experience. It’s a sentiment shared by Take-Two's CEO Strauss Zelnick, who spoke with IGN about the latest delay. He expressed confidence in the new date, saying, “[...] there have been limited circumstances where more time was required to polish a title and make sure that it was spectacular and that time has been well-spent, when our competitors go to market before something was ready, bad things happen.”

It's hard to argue with the logic. One has to ask: would we rather wait another year for perfection or shell out 80 bucks for something like Cyberpunk 2077? 

What We Know So Far

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The more you think about it, the less surprising their move actually is. Unlike previous instalments, GTA 6 is among their most ambitious, stretching across the fictional state of Leonida and includes three major areas to explore. We’re also getting two playable protagonists, far more detailed graphics, and a ton of areas to wreak havoc in. 

They then have themselves to compete with. After the success of GTA V, it’s hard to envision an interactive open-world game that somehow offers even more. But after nearly ten years on the sidelines, you bet would-be players have started asking. More exploration! More satire! More Kenny Loggins! It’s coming, we just need to be patient. 

If Rockstar needs a little more time, who can blame them? And heaven knows we still have all kinds of carnage available in GTA V. (Yeah, we could play GTA IV, but we’d sooner drive an 18-wheeler and blast “Convoy” over playing The Snow Storm again.)