GTA 6 release date delay looks inevitable after latest statement from Rockstar employee

While no exact release date is confirmed, a former Rockstar Games employee has theorized that GTA 6 will likely experience a delay.

Perhaps the most anticipated game release in recent memory, the sixth installment of Grand Theft Auto is taking us back to Vice City where the original game was set in 1986.

The game's trailer released toward the end of last year, also teased a new female lead named Lucia, a bigger map of the fictional state Leonida inspired by Florida, and perhaps some of the most impressive graphics for a GTA game yet with many fans noting how the game already looks straight out of a film.

"Grand Theft Auto VI heads to the state of Leonida, home to the neon-soaked streets of Vice City and beyond in the biggest, most immersive evolution of the Grand Theft Auto series yet," Rockstar said in a statement upon GTA 6's announcement.

Although the game's trailer initially confirmed a 2025 window for its release, the date was eventually narrowed down to a fall release date per a Take-Two financial report shared in May — meaning that we can expect GTA 6 to drop anytime between September to even December 2025.

GTA 6 will have a female lead. (Rockstar Games)

However, former Rockstar Games technical director Obbe Vermeij has taken to Twitter to weigh in on why he thinks the game might actually be delayed past that.

"The decision to delay GTA IV was made 4 months or so before the original release date," Vermeij wrote. "Any further and it's hard to make the call. [Rockstar] is probably not in a position to determine whether they will hit 2025 until May-ish [of next year]."

"Also: GTA VI will sell for 10+ years and there is no competition to worry about," he noted. "They are not going to release the game until they're 100% happy with it. No matter what it said in the trailer."

"I have no inside info," Vermeij importantly noted. "Didn't talk to anyone."

GTA 6 will take us back to Vice City. (Rockstar Games)

Although Vermeij's speculation means we would not find out about potential delays until next May or June, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick previously told investors that he was confident GTA 6 would be able to meet its target release date in fall 2025.

Rumors of a potential GTA 6 delay first sparked in early 2024 when Rockstar reportedly moved all its employees back to full-time in-office work for five days a week.

While speculation on all things GTA 6 are rampant, what we do know is that the release date for fall 2025 is still confirmed for now and that the game will be coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.