Take-Two Interactive on Friday pushed the discharge of Grand Theft Auto VI to Might 26, 2026, extending the watch for one of many most hotly anticipated titles in video-gaming historical past and sending its shares tumbling 9 per cent in pre-market buying and selling.
The title, developed by Rockstar Video games, was beforehand slated for a fall 2025 launch. The franchise is the crown jewel in Take-Two’s portfolio, accounting for a major share of income and participant engagement, and expectations for the upcoming title have been baked into Wall Road forecasts for months.
The sport is anticipated to be an immediate hit, with billions of {dollars} in gross sales every year, in accordance with a number of analysts. The earlier entry, Grand Theft Auto V, launched in 2013, has offered greater than 200 million copies, making it one of many best-selling video video games of all time.
“We assist absolutely Rockstar Video games taking extra time to notice their inventive imaginative and prescient for Grand Theft Auto VI, which guarantees to be a groundbreaking blockbuster leisure expertise,” Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick mentioned.
Delays have turn out to be commonplace in trendy recreation improvement as studios grapple with rising manufacturing prices and rising strain from gamers to ship polished experiences at launch.
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The delay now pushes the sport out of Take-Two’s fiscal 2026 launch window and into 2027, which is able to doubtless carry down reserving expectations for the subsequent fiscal 12 months. The corporate additionally reiterated its expectations for sequential will increase in web bookings for fiscal 2026 and 2027.
Regardless of the postponement, Take-Two has quite a lot of titles lined up for the subsequent fiscal 12 months, together with Borderlands 4 and Mafia: The Outdated Nation, that are anticipated to be massive launches in their very own proper.
“On condition that Take-Two reiterated expectations of file degree web bookings in each FY [financial year] ’26 and FY ’27, we expect this alleviates a number of the potential issues round gross sales cannibalization in FY ’26,” D.A. Davidson & Co. analyst Wyatt Swanson mentioned.
Rockstar Video games unveiled the primary trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI in December 2023, set to Tom Petty’s Love Is a Lengthy Street.
The teaser confirmed the sport’s return to Vice Metropolis, a fictional tackle Miami, and launched Lucia, the franchise’s first feminine lead. It hinted at a modern-day Bonnie-and-Clyde duo and drew greater than 100 million views inside 24 hours.
The sport was additionally anticipated to be a serious driver of total online game business development this 12 months after the market underwent a downturn following pandemic highs.
The delay additionally comes amid a interval of financial uncertainty within the business as sweeping U.S. tariffs have led to a surge in gaming console costs and a pullback in client spending, denting gross sales prospects for a lot of recreation publishers.
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