GTA VI Delay to 2026 Is Really an Interlude for $100 Games

Grand Theft Auto VI is no longer coming in 2025. If you hoped to return to the neon-streaked streets of Vice City, developer Rockstar said Friday you’ll need to wait until May 26, 2026. It’s an expensive game to make, and the people making the next GTA said they need more time. That’s fine with us, because we probably couldn’t stomach yet another price hike in a year that has already proved gaming will keep getting more and more expensive.

“We are very sorry that this is later than you expected. The interest and excitement surrounding a new Grand Theft Auto has been truly humbling for our entire team,” Rockstar wrote on its website. “With every game we have released, the goal has always been to try and exceed your expectations, and Grand Theft Auto VI is no exception. We hope you understand that we need this extra time to deliver at the level of quality you expect and deserve.”

Last December, the Financial Times cited industry analysts DFC Intelligence, who said that GTA VI’s development costs could be as high as $2 billion, though more conservative estimates put it in the high hundreds of millions. It could be the most expensive game ever produced, but that’s dwarfed by supposed sales estimates of at least $1 billion in preorders alone before release. The total revenue in the first 12 months could be as high as $3.2 billion, according to analysts.

Which is why other industry experts have been so adamant that the next Grand Theft Auto could cost more than practically any other game at launch in gaming’s history. In January, Matthew Ball of Epyllion wrote in his 229-slide presentation on the state of video games that the industry is praying Rockstar and publisher Take-Two Interactive set GTA VI’s price at $100. Gizmodo spoke to one analyst who came to the same conclusion after having conversations with Take-Two’s CEO Strauss Zelnick.

We should note that Take-Two has not offered any hint at how much GTA VI will cost . Rockstar might offer other buying incentives for prospective players to buy the game on day one, such as extra money to use in a new version of GTA Online or promises of free content updates. Players who are already steaming about DLC pricing and live service model games probably won’t find that as much of a boon as Take-Two would. No matter what, the $100 hump would be a major milestone for the entire games industry. If it sells well—there’s no reason to believe it won’t even with a higher sticker price—it will tell publishers from all ends of the games industry that players are willing to drop a Benjamin on the games they want to play.

Two of the largest video game publishers, Nintendo and Microsoft, already burst the bubble of the $80 game standard. Nintendo’s Switch 2 handheld will demand $70 for a game like Donkey Kong Bananza and the Switch 2 version of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild—an 8-year-old game. Meanwhile, Mario Kart World, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, and Mario Party Jamboree will all cost $80 on Switch 2 pre-tax. This week, Microsoft updated its suggested pricing for all of its Xbox hardware and then dropped the news that its first-party titles will start selling for $80 later this year.

Players have not responded well to the new price of games, but the mass numbers of Switch 2 preorders suggest players aren’t yet ready to quit gaming just because the latest titles cost $10 or $20 more than they’re used to. In that way, GTA VI’s new 2026 release date is a reprieve. Take-Two is simply giving players more time to adapt to the new normal before hitting us with yet one more hammer blow.