It seems like Rockstar Games cannot escape issues related to their major 2025 release, GTA 6. According to reports from Kotaku, GTA 6 could miss its 2025 release window and slip into 2026. This news comes months after Rockstar asked its employees to return to the office for faster production of the game.
The long-anticipated GTA 6 was finally revealed in the first GTA 6 trailer in December 2023 for a 2025 release window. Since then, numerous reports have claimed the game for an early 2025 release. Kotaku reports further say that Rockstar Games’ internal team thinks “early 2025” is currently the goal for the game’s release.
Reasons Behind GTA 6 Release Delay
Although the game was revealed, it seems it is still not completed. As there might be a lot of production pending for the game, employees not coming back to the office could potentially delay the release further. According to the Kotaku reports, GTA 6 could be released in late 2025 or possibly even slip into 2026.
From the earlier reports of Bloomberg, Rockstar Games asking their employees to return to office was more security related. However, an undisclosed Rockstar source, while talking to Kotaku, revealed the reasons might be different after soon:
While security and quality are reportedly the main reasons Rockstar is instituting the mandate to return to the office… the game’s production is “falling behind.”
This could lead to the company forcing employees back to the office to deal with the delay of the release window. Earlier, one employee from Rockstar talked about the company’s employee culture. Talking to Aftermath, the employee said:
“I’ve been through a couple of projects, both of which had crunch. The first one was extremely difficult. I had way less gray hair back then. … We want to continue the strides we’ve made as a company to remove that toxic culture.”
This could lead to another dev crunch as the company plans on an early 2025 release. Reports also claim that delaying the game to 2026 is on the table as a sort of “fallback plan” or “emergency” option if needed. So Rockstar will not disclose whether the game is coming in the fall of 2025 or the following year.
Although Rockstar Games might experience a lot of end-year crunch, remember that they recently changed the Rockstar website’s GTA 6 trailer tab to a videos tab. Despite the crunch, Rockstar may continue developing the game to ensure it releases on the projected release date.
Whatever the case, it seems that Rockstar Games is busy behind the scenes. Would you be fine with the game’s 2026 release? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
