GTA 6 delay is a "bummer," former Rockstar technical lead says, but the release date announcement shows the devs are "clearly confident" in the new deadline

We now have over a year to wait to finally play GTA 6, with Rockstar officially confirming that its new Grand Theft Auto installment is set to arrive on May 26, 2026 instead of this fall, and one former technical director agrees that it's a "bummer."

Reacting to the GTA 6 delay on Twitter, Obbe Vermeij, who worked on GTA 3, 4, Vice City, and San Andreas in his time at Rockstar before departing the company in 2009, does think that there's a positive to take from this latest announcement, at least. "The good news is that they are clearly confident they are going to make May," he argues. "Otherwise they wouldn't have given a date."

Further down in the thread, he agrees that it was "absolutely" a brave decision for the company to make, adding: "I remember when we made the call for GTA 4. It's not an easy decision to make. You don't want to disappoint the fans."

Vermeij also walks back slightly on previous comments he made a few days ago, when he stated that if it was his decision, he "wouldn't release any additional trailers" for GTA 6, reasoning that "there is more than enough hype around 6, and the element of surprise is going to make the release only bigger as an event." Today, he suggests: "A second trailer would be nice now to wash away the disappointment."

While it sounds like the delay has potentially been inevitable for a while, with Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier reporting that "nobody I've talked to at Rockstar has believed fall 2025 was a real window for a very long time now," from the outside, Vermeij "thought it was 50/50" that GTA 6 would actually be released this year.

Not only are we now faced with a longer wait for the game, but the potential impact the delay could have on the industry might also be pretty bad. One veteran analyst, Circana's Mat Piscatella, told us that he doesn't think "anyone benefits in 2025 from this," while other analysts have suggested to us that "the double whammy that was supposed to revitalize the game industry overall is now called off," and that "without GTA 6 to boost momentum, 2025 will be a cautious, quiet year."

Take-Two CEO "fully" supports Rockstar's GTA 6 delay, promises "a groundbreaking, blockbuster entertainment experience that exceeds audience expectations."