GTA 6 has been delayed a couple of times already, which naturally softens the concreteness of its current release date, but publisher Take-Two Interactive has reaffirmed that the massively anticipated game is still due out on November 19 as previously revealed. That said, recent rumors that Best Buy would soon open pre-orders are reportedly false, as Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has suggested marketing for the game will begin in earnest this summer.
The latest bit of bunk churned from the rumor mill claimed GTA 6 pre-orders were going live this week at US-based retailer Best Buy, with reports citing leaked affiliate emails confirming pre-order dates between May 18 and May 21. Obviously, with today being May 21, that turned out to be untrue, but Zelnick tells Bloomberg's Jason Schreier he has no idea where the rumor even came from and suggests we're still several weeks away from pre-orders.
In Take-Two's latest presentation to shareholders, the company re-confirms GTA 6's November release date several times, with one section of the report reading: "We project Net Bookings to range from $8 to $8.2 billion, which represents 20% growth over Fiscal 2026 at the midpoint, primarily driven by the launch of Grand Theft Auto VI on November 19th, along with successful execution across our entire portfolio."
Take-Two earnings: Grand Theft Auto VI is still planned for November 19. No delay. In an interview with Bloomberg today, CEO Strauss Zelnick said he didn't know where this week's Best Buy rumors came from and that pre-orders typically start alongside marketing (which will begin this summer).
— @jasonschreier.bsky.social (@jasonschreier.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-05-21T22:49:02.668Z
In a new Variety interview, Zelnick says to expect GTA 6 marketing to really kick off in "the summertime," saying, "the next few weeks I don’t think it’ll be summertime yet, but when it’s summertime, Rockstar expects to start marketing GTA 6."
Zelnick is famously tight-lipped and media-trained not to reveal anything about a game under the Take-Two umbrella that might disrupt the company's carefully constructed marketing plan, so while these might not seem like major updates, they're significant enough in that context. That said, news coming out of the postponed earnings call was relatively light, which puts to bed previous speculation that the delay indicated something big was coming ahead of the call.
Only time will tell if GTA 6 joins the ranks of the best Rockstar games ever.
