Take-Two CEO says "we've never regretted" a delay as GTA 6 slips again, and points to companies that ignored necessary delays "at their peril"

(Image credit: Rockstar Games)

GTA 6 has been hit with yet another meaty delay, but CEO of Rockstar Games parent company Take-Two Interactive, Strauss Zelnick, says "we've never regretted" pushing a game back.

Originally slated to launch this fall, GTA 6 was delayed to May 26, 2026, earlier this year, and last night, it was further pushed back to November 19, 2026. An almost six-month delay certainly isn't insignificant, but speaking in Take-Two's latest earnings conference call following the delay announcement, Zelnick explains that the driving factors behind the move are "a desire to deliver as perfect an entertainment experience as we possibly can, and to try to live up to consumers' extraordinary expectations, and then exceed those expectations."

Zelnick continues, acknowledging that "it's always painful when we move a date," but while "we have done so occasionally in the past," ultimately "we've never regretted it in retrospect." He adds: "I would like to point out that we have some competitors that, in the event where more polish was required and it required slipping a date, they chose not to slip the date, and they did so at their peril."

The Take-Two boss doesn't elaborate on exactly which competitors he's referring to, but it's not hard to think of examples of games that would have benefited from a delay to avoid launching in a rough state. CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077 is probably one of the first to jump to mind for many – although its updates have made it a genuinely great RPG over time, it was a very different story on release. This year, we also saw the disastrous launch of MindsEye – the new GTA-esque action-adventure from former Rockstar president Leslie Benzies – which was riddled with bugs and issues.

Ultimately, the call to delay GTA 6 is almost certainly the right one to make, even if it is unfortunate news for fans. Zelnick obviously wants to make that point clear, as he separately told IGN that "there have been limited circumstances where more time was required to polish a title and make sure that it was spectacular," and that "when our competitors go to market before something was ready, bad things happen."

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I'm GamesRadar+'s Deputy News Editor, working alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.

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