Take Two Interactive has delayed GTA 6 for a second time, moving next year’s biggest release back six months to November 19, 2026. The news was revealed in the company’s earnings release, which said this was “giving the team some additional time to finish the game with the high level of polish players expect and deserve. Rockstar has our full support of course, and we are confident they will deliver an unrivalled blockbuster entertainment experience.”

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick would not commit to this being the final delay but said he was “confident in the date, that’s why we set it”.

“We are trying very hard to deliver the most extraordinary interactive entertainment experience ever created. Rockstar and we are aligned on that, we’re feeling really good about it,” he said.

“As you know, occasionally across our entire company, including 2K and our mobile business, at times more time is required to polish a title to ensure that it’s released in its best possible form. And of course it’ll release in the same fiscal year as the prior date.”

This is the second official delay to the game, which was originally announced in December 2023 for release in 2025. In May, Rockstar delayed release until 26 May 2026, with Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick telling IGN at the time that “I think historically when we set a specific date, generally speaking, we’ve been very good about reaching it.”

Assuming it hits the latest date, GTA 6 will arrive a full thirteen years after its predecessor, which launched in September 2013.

Other developers and publishers who’d previously planned to move key releases away from GTA will now have to do it again – and in the potentially much more significant Q4 period.

Gamesindustry.biz has conducted an interview with Zelnick covering the delay and other news in the company’s financial results, which will be published shortly.

This article has been amended to correct the date of GTA 6’s release from November 26 to November 19.