When Rockstar moves, everyone else shuffles to make room.
Pity the poor studio who dares release day-and-date with Grand Theft Auto 6. If you thought the countless indies who scrambled out of the way of Silksong’s launch in August was eye-opening, imagine the feeling of doom that would arise from having GTA 6 suddenly land in your release window. For studios planning a November 2026 launch, that nightmare became reality today when Take-Two announced a new delay.
GTA 6 was originally slated to release on consoles in Fall 2025—around now!—before its initial delay to May 2026. If you look at the major games releasing in May 2026 as of now, you’ll notice there’s basically nothing because everything is shambling to escape Rockstar’s orbit. And while it’s true that May isn’t usually a busy month for blockbuster game releases, in 2025 we saw Doom: The Dark Ages and Revenge of the Savage Planet hit PC, both of which would be cremated alive in a battle against GTA.
Speaking anonymously to The Game Business on the announcement of GTA 6’s first delay, the « boss of one of the world’s biggest game publishers » admitted that Rockstar sucks a lot of money and time out of the market and that « we don’t want to be anywhere near that. »
Another anonymous studio boss speaking to the same outlet described the futility of the scenario: « GTA 6 is basically a huge meteor and we will just stay clear of the blast zone », they said. « We will nudge our releases back or forward three weeks to avoid it.
