GTA 6 Release Date Rumours, News, And Speculation - PCGamesN

February 4, 2026: GTA 6 is still on track to meet its target release date following the Take-Two earnings call.

When is GTA 6 coming out? Given how many years it takes to create open worlds of the same caliber as GTA 5, it's no surprise that Rockstar Games has already spent years developing GTA 6. Rockstar prefers to keep its secrets close to its chest until close to the end of development, but Take-Two has now confirmed when exactly we can expect it to arrive.

The Grand Theft Auto 6 release date has certainly been a long time coming. Early gameplay leaks of GTA 6 surfaced online last year, along with lines of source code and development footage for the open-world game. There have been plenty of rumors and speculation surrounding the release date since then, but we finally have confirmation of the GTA 6 release date, story, and setting. Here's all the latest on GTA 6, including trailers and news, right here on PCGamesN.

• Release date
• Delay
• Price
• Game Pass
• Trailers
• Leaks
• News
• Story
• Gameplay

GTA 6 release date

The GTA 6 release date is Thursday, November 19, 2026. This is the launch date for Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5, while the GTA 6 PC release is likely to arrive by the end of that year.

According to the official PlayStation Store listing, GTA 6 will release at midnight across all time zones. This staggered release means that New Zealand will have access to GTA 6 first, while the rest of the world will have to wait until it hits midnight in their time zone. Regions with multiple time zones will see a full release when their earliest time zone hits midnight.

GTA 6 is now available to wishlist on the Xbox and PlayStation stores. Recent claims that Rockstar is deliberately holding back the GTA 6 physical edition to reduce the chances of leaks were quashed by Take-Two during the Q3 earnings call.

Of course, we don't expect it to arrive on PC digital storefronts until after its console launch, but we do have the latest news on whether GTA 6 will be on Steam for devotees to Valve's platform.

GTA 6 PC release date estimate

Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick addressed the GTA 6 PC release date directly during the TD Cowen 52nd Annual Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference. "Rockstar has an approach to platforms which we've seen before, and they will make more announcements in due time," Zelnick said.

We expect the GTA 6 PC release date window to be between six months to a year after the console launch due in November 2026.

GTA 6 delay

The next Take-Two quarterly earnings call will go ahead on Tuesday, February 3, 2026. Given that GTA 6 delays have been disclosed on these investor calls before, if another one is imminent, it's almost certain to be announced on this date. But how likely is another delay?

Recent comments from Jason Schreier have given way to fresh GTA 6 delay concerns in 2026. "This is a big and complicated game and the last I heard it was still not content complete," Schrierer said on the Button Mash podcast. "I don't think anyone in Rockstar could tell you with 100% certainty that they will make it out in November."

If GTA 6 is still not content complete, then it suggests that it still has a while to go until it reaches the final testing stages ahead of launch, but it's not all doom and gloom. Schreier provided further clarification on Reddit: "It's me saying that I think fall 2026 is a more real release window than fall 2025 was."

Schreier's follow-up comments were echoed by Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson: "I think Rockstar is confident enough now it will release this year." Henderson's optimism is in stark contrast to his scepticism for the previous launch date. He was also quick to point out that Red Dead Redemption 2 wasn't content complete until four months prior to its release.

Former Rockstar developer Mike York is in agreement. "I think the game will be released in November 2026," York told Esports Insider. "There's a point to where you delay something so much that you start to make people angry."

Following GTA 6's most recent delay, it was notably absent from Sony's trailer for upcoming games in 2026, spelling fresh speculation that console companies aren't convinced that GTA 6 will meet its latest launch window. Given the multiple delays it's seen already, it seems Sony's current stance is to exercise caution.

The Take-Two quarterly earnings call held in November 2025 confirmed that the release date would slip from May to November 2026. This latest GTA 6 delay took the release date from May to November 2026. According to Rockstar, this six-month slip ensures "the level of polish you have come to expect and deserve." Zelnick also assured investors that this delay would allow Rockstar to produce "the best possible version" of GTA 6.

We are grateful that [the new release date] is still within the same fiscal year," Zelnick told IGN ahead of the delay announcement. "And mostly we're grateful to Rockstar for constantly seeking perfection." This echoes Zelnick's support of the studio throughout earlier delays. However, it does indicate some pressure from Rockstar to deliver within that fiscal year.

While fans initially attributed the delay to the ongoing conflict between Rockstar and the IWGB in London, this has been widely refuted.

While the six-month delay comes as a blow to fans, fresh speculation of a second GTA 6 delay kicked off ahead of the earnings call. This includes remarks made by Henderson. "I don't think that it is going to release in May," he said on his podcast. "All the rumblings and so on just doesn't seem to suggest it."

Henderson offered no supporting evidence, but various sources were in agreement with this claim. Prominent leaker Millie A claimed that "internal talks suggest a possible slip to Sep[tember]," while GTA forums user GameRoll reports that "Chapter 5 is in development hell." Both leakers have a proven track record, which remains unblemished following the release date slip.

Of course, this isn't the first delay we've seen from GTA 6. Even the May launch came following the initial GTA 6 launch date delay earlier this year. Rockstar Games confirmed the delay via the official X account. "We are very sorry that this is later than you expected," it stated. "We hope you understand that we need this extra time to deliver at the level of quality you expect and deserve."

Publisher Take-Two also weighed in on the launch delay. "We support fully Rockstar Games taking additional time to realize their creative vision for Grand Theft Auto VI," Zelnick said in an official statement. Clearly, this is an ongoing priority for the developer and publisher.

GTA 6 was originally scheduled for 2025 by Take-Two during its quarterly earnings call for fiscal year 2024. The official announcement included a statement from Rockstar Games founder Sam Houser: "Grand Theft Auto 6 continues our efforts to push the limits of what's possible in highly immersive, story-driven open-world experiences. We're thrilled to be able to share this new vision with players everywhere."

The first GTA 6 trailer set the release year for 2025, and a follow-up press release from Rockstar PR clarified that this is a console-specific release date. It's likely that this remains the case for the revised November 2026 date, and we expect the GTA 6 PC release date will fall in 2027.

GTA 6 price

Take-Two has yet to confirm how much GTA 6 will cost, but Strauss Zelnick assured investors that the price would be "fair." The GTA 6 price has become a hot-button issue as more publishers shoot for an $80 price tag. "Our goal always is to deliver more value than what we charge," Zelnick said.

Still, a $100 price tag isn't beyond the realms of possibility. "We've had variable pricing forever," Zelnick noted. "We've had special editions that offer consumers much more value - those can be priced up."

Insider Gaming's Mike Straw chipped in on GTA 6's price during the weekly podcast. "I think $80," he speculates. "There will be a $100, there will be a $130 version but I think the base game will be $80. There will be a $300 collector's edition - we know that they're going to do something." However, it's important to bear in mind this is just a prediction.

Industry analyst Matthew Ball has forecast that GTA 6 could cost $100 in a report titled The State of Video Gaming in 2025. This potential price hike would break the "$70 barrier" and pave the way for publishers and developers to correct industry deflation.

Take-Two's stock received a massive jump in share price as a result of the GTA 6 launch announcement, and we expect that trend to continue as more is revealed. Industry analysts claim that GTA 6 is projected to generate over $1 billion in pre-order sales alone. The crime game is unquestionably the property that will allow Take-Two to meet its target of "over $8 billion in net bookings and over $1 billion in adjusted unrestricted operating cash flow."

GTA 6 Game Pass

Whether we're talking about the console or PC release, there is some certainty that Grand Theft Auto 6 won't be coming to Game Pass on day one. In a recent interview, Zelnick confirmed that a GTA 6 Game Pass day one launch will not be happening.

There have been ongoing rumors of a GTA 6 marketing exclusivity agreement between Rockstar and Sony for many months now, and the release of trailer 2 lends credence to that speculation. Not only was this trailer captured on PS5, but the appearance of a Dualshock-like controller on Jason and Lucia's coffee table leaves us confident that Rockstar is not actively courting Xbox Game Pass.

GTA 6 trailers

GTA 6 trailer 2 dropped on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, less than a week after the initial release date confirmation. It introduces our two protagonists, Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos, reuniting after Lucia gets out of prison. Together, they embark on a Bonnie-and-Clyde-style crime spree across Vice City songs, with some choice songs from the GTA 6 soundtrack peppered throughout.

The trailer 2 description includes a full synopsis of the GTA 6 story: "Jason and Lucia have always known the deck is stacked against them. But when an easy score goes wrong, they find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, in the middle of a conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida - forced to rely on each other more than ever if they want to make it out alive."

The first GTA 6 trailer was released earlier than anticipated due to widespread leaks. It was originally scheduled to drop on Tuesday, December 5, 2023, but Rockstar Games made it available to view a day earlier due to the breach. Trailer 1 is approximately 91 seconds long and verifies rumors that the series is returning to Vice City. It features several prominent GTA 6 locations, including the Malibu Club and Ocean Drive.

The surprise release of trailer 2 follows months of heavy speculation. One GTA 6 trailer 2 release date theory convinced some fans that a surprise trailer drop was due seven months prior. While this theory has since been debunked, it's worth bearing in mind that Rockstar has hidden easter eggs for GTA 6 in previous GTA Online updates.

Rumors that GTA 6 would have a surprise appearance at Gamescom 2025 took flight since eagle-eyed attendees spotted Rockstar's logo on a booth facade. However, Rockstar's presence was in the form of closed-door business meetings rather than GTA 6 trailers or announcements

The Golden Joystick Awards 2025 proved that GTA 6 doesn't need to be on store shelves to scoop up accolades. It took home the awards forBest Game Trailer and Most Anticipated Game, going two-for-two on nominations.

GTA 6 leaks

Rockstar has worked hard to keep its GTA 6 leaks to a minimum following the spate of leaks in 2022, but the most recent one occurred in December 2025. A showreel, allegedly posted by a Senior Rockstar animator, was uploaded to Vimeo and depicts placeholder character models using a bicycle-scheme dock and hopping off a truck.

Following the release of the second trailer, several leaks came to light from GameRoll. The GTA Base staffer clarified on X/Twitter that a source that had provided Jason and Lucia's surnames well before they became public knowledge had returned with new information. This extensive list of leaks is unverified but contains some significant claims that are worth going over.

According to GameRoll's source, GTA 6's story is split into five chapters, with all cutscenes in trailer 2 limited to the first three. The six-star wanted level is set to return, along with limited carry capacity. Instead, the trunk of Jason's car serving as storage space for additional equipment, which tracks with those repeated shots in the trailer.

Rockstar is purported to have taken inspiration from Red Dead Redemption 2, incorporating an honor-style relationship system and a dead-eye ability that Jason and Lucia can use to varying effect. As for our protagonists, it's reportedly possible to play each one solo or opt for a dual system where both can be controlled at the same time. Presumably, this would only work in certain situations.

GTA 6 leaks are tough to verify, but some are more convincing than others. In September 2022, 90 videos showing off 53 minutes and 26 seconds' worth of test footage were leaked in one of the biggest data breaches in history. In the early test footage, we could see the player taking the role of a male and a female character, as reported by Bloomberg earlier that year.

One of the standout clips shows the player controlling Lucia as she and Jason hold up a diner, like the couple at the end of Pulp Fiction. Other videos show Lucia standing on a street corner, watching the traffic go by in broad daylight, while Jason visits a nightclub. Since the footage became public, the GTA 6 leaker has been arrested.

A further GTA 6 leak occurred on TikTok just days before the GTA 6 trailer release date, which included a brief glimpse of the map. However, this leak was quickly overshadowed by the GTA 6 trailer itself, which leaked on X less than 24 hours before the official release. Rockstar Games responded by releasing the trailer wholesale shortly after the discovery of the leak, stating, "Our trailer has leaked, so please watch the real thing."

GTA 6 news

Despite the major setback of leaked game footage, Rockstar released a statement to clarify that while it was "extremely disappointed" that early footage had leaked, work on "the next Grand Theft Auto will continue as planned."

Rockstar later confirmed that "active development for the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series was well underway" in a community update on February 4, 2022. As part of the studio's announcement that it was winding down support for Red Dead Online, Rockstar confirmed that more resources were being diverted to "the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series."

Former Rockstar environmental artist David O'Reilly stated that he worked on GTA 6 for five years prior to his departure from the company in 2023, which places GTA 6's development timeline at eight years all told.

A recent leak posits that GTA 6 will be around 75 hours long, including five chapters and a prologue, but this cannot be verified. Zelnick suggested in a 2019 interview with GamesIndustry.biz that better development tools and bigger teams could shorten the gaps between game releases. It could also mean that "games may be a bit shorter" while still being robustly supported post-launch.

Mitigating GTA 6 crunch time is another reason the next GTA 6 could be shorter. As Kotaku says in its report in 2020: "One plan that management has laid out for the next game, a new entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, is to start with a moderately sized release (which, by Rockstar's standards, would still be a large game) that is then expanded with regular updates over time, which may help mitigate stress and crunch."

GTA 6 story

Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser outlined his involvement - or lack thereof - in GTA 6's story during a conversation with IGN at LA Comic Con. "I wrote the last ten or 11 of them so I think the world has probably had enough GTA from me," he confirmed. "There's always a new story. It's not going to be a story I've written or character set that I've developed."

In a conversation with Lex Fridman, Houser says stepping away from GTA "is a big change" but that it would be "sadder" to miss out on RDR3 than GTA 6. Given Houser's extensive involvement in the GTA series, his omission from GTA 6 might spell a different tone for its story.

The GTA 6 trailer gave us concrete details surrounding the GTA 6 story. It's quickly apparent that GTA 6 is set in modern-day Vice City and not the '80s. The proliferation of social media posts provides quick snapshots of everyday life in Rockstar's exaggerated version of Miami, including alligator-wrangling, drive-by twerking, and a middle-aged woman in a nightie and slippers wielding two hammers.

We also get our first proper introduction to Lucia, the first of GTA 6's two main protagonists. She appears in orange prison garb, conversing with a prison counselor. When asked why she ended up in prison, she shrugs: "Bad luck, I guess." It's unclear whether this cutscene takes place at the beginning or the end of her story, but the GTA 6 story is set to chart the course of her time on the wrong side of the law.

We also get a glimpse of Jason, the second GTA 6 protagonist and Lucia's partner-in-crime, although he appears to be a less prominent figure than Lucia. The two have an intimate relationship, though their romantic feelings for one another will surely be put to the test.

In a brief voiceover, Lucia appears to be addressing Jason as she declares, "The only way that we get through this is by sticking together. Being a team." This teamwork is reflected in a fraught cutscene as they flee the cops in a getaway car, dollar bills clutched in Lucia's hand. We also see multiple instances of them storming into convenience stores and other buildings, faces obscured and guns raised. One thing's for sure: this is one crime spree we don't want to miss.

Trailer 2 introduced a slew of new GTA 6 characters, including Jason's friend and full-time conspiracy theorist Cal Hampton, club legend and drug kingpin Boobie Ike, and viral rapper duo Real Dimez. Each of these characters has its own part to play in Jason and Lucia's story, though they all ultimately serve their own interests.

In terms of cast, we might see a GTA 6 John Cena character join the story. This follows a cryptic Instagram post from the actor and professional wrestler himself, whose credits extend to videogames as well as film and TV. While this could just be an expression of excitement for the release date, it's not beyond the realms of possibility that we'll encounter Cena on the mean streets of Vice City in the future.

More recently, rapper Skrilla has claimed that his viral song "Doot Doot (6 7)" will make an appearance on the GTA 6 soundtrack. Definitely going to be me and my own person [GTA character] on there, playing my own music," he said. This joins T-Pain's claim that he's also working on GTA 6, plus ongoing speculation that Floridian artists DJ Khaled and Pitbull are collaborating with Rockstar, too.

GTA 6 gameplay

As for what GTA 6 gameplay we can see from the leaks, there's not much that's different from GTA 5. Ex-Rockstar developer Obbe Vermeij predicts that "people might be a little disappointed" on the GTA 6 release date in an interview with creator SanInPlay, though he maintained it will still "be the best game out there."

In terms of the GTA 6 map itself, some fans speculate that if the calculations from the GTA 6 leak were true, this version of Vice City and the surrounding areas could be twice as large as GTA 5's Los Santos.A former dev has suggested that the GTA 6 map should be smaller and more densely packed.

As leaks have continued to trickle out of Rockstar, modders have recreated the GTA 6 map in GTA 5's engine, which provides a sense of its massive scale. A recent version of the mapping project incorporates key locations outside of Vice City itself such as Leonida Keys, Port Gellhorn, and Grassrivers.

Rumors also suggest that the campaign's map will change through DLC to include new areas or updates to existing ones based on whatever theme the DLC has. The GTA Online mission creator tools are proof of how malleable the sandbox can be, and we expect them to follow through into GTA 6's online mode as well.

As you might expect, drivable vehicles include GTA 6 cars and boats, while public transportation lets players fast travel across the city. In addition, the cars seem to allow players to adjust the wheel's position, chair angles, and other controls. However you choose to get around, ex-Rockstar developer Ben Hinchcliffe asserts that creative freedom will be a priority, to "still allow the player to do […] weird things."

Some raw test footage shows more about the movement mechanics, including a cover system, crouching, and crawling. The playable character can also cover their face with their hands or GTA 6 weapons to prevent headshots. At one point in the footage, we see Jason looking in a convenience store while using a new vision ability. It looks similar to how Deadeye in Red Dead Redemption works, but right now, we only see it adjust the color of the footage.

A recent report suggests a GTA 6 metaverse is in the works, similar to Fortnite and Roblox. This would be powered by user-generated content, allowing creators to "modify the game's environment and assets to bring their own intellectual property - and potentially their brand sponsors - into GTA's virtual sandbox." This comes after rumors that Rockstar Games has reached out to Roblox and Fortnite creators to discuss how they might create in-game custom content for GTA 6.

Is generative AI in GTA 6?

The rise of generative AI has fueled fears that dev teams could instead be cut in favor of the new technology. Fortunately, in October 2025, Zelnick made it very clear that a game like GTA 6 could never be made using AI.

"The team's creativity is extraordinary," Zelnick says, "and what Rockstar Games tries to do, and so far has done over and over again, is create something that approaches perfection. There is no creativity that can exist by definition in any AI model, because it is data-driven."

Zelnick went on to confirm that GTA 6 will have no generative AI in the Take-Two earnings call held in February 2026. "[GTA is] built from the ground up, building by building, street by street, neighbourhood by neighbourhood," he said. "They're not procedurally generated; they shouldn't be. That's what makes great entertainment."

Rockstar's anti-AI stance was reaffirmed by Dan Houser in an appearance during the Chris Evans Breakfast Show on Virgin Radio UK. "AI is gonna eventually eat itself," Houser says. "The models scour the internet for information, but the internet's going to get more and more full of information made by the models. So it's sort of like when we fed cows with cows and got Mad Cow Disease."

And that's our roundup of the GTA 6 release date news. We still have a long time to wait until the sequel to one of the best PC games arrives. In the meantime, check out Grand Taking Ages, a management game that parodies GTA 6's development, or try your hand at the predicted Grand Theft Auto 6 requirements over on PCGameBenchmark to answer the question… "Can I run GTA 6?"