GRAND THEFT AUTO VI delayed to May 2026, as was foretold in the ancient texts

Surprising exactly nobody, the most eagerly-awaited video game of the year (if not all time), Grand Theft Auto VI, has been delayed until 26 May 2026. Developers Rockstar Games and publisher Take Two Interactive confirmed the game needed more time in the oven to ensure a smooth release.

The Grand Theft Auto series is one of the most successful in all of video gaming. Since its launch in 1997, the series has sold just under half a billion copies, almost half of those coming from its previous instalment, Grand Theft Auto V, released in 2013, by itself. The series has been consistently praised for its sprawling, crime-fuelled narratives, action and player freedom. Its early years were blighted by controversies over its depiction of violence, drug use, prostitution and swearing, at a time when video games were believed to only played by children.

Grand Theft Auto V has sold over 210 million copies, making it the second-biggest-selling video game in history (behind only Minecraft). The game was packaged with Grand Theft Auto Online, and it's the latter mode which has helped propel the game's longevity (and immense revenues). However, Rockstar were criticised for not releasing further single-player story expansions to the game, as they had originally promised. The company was also fiercely criticised for not developing Grand Theft Auto VI with greater speed, instead focusing on Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018) first. RDR2's overwhelmingly impressive quality did alleviate some of those concerns, however.

Grand Theft Auto VI will be the fourth game in the series to be set in the city of Vice City, Leonida, based on Miami, Florida. The player will control two characters in a Bonnie-and-Clyde-inspired tale of crime, revenge and mayhem. This will also be the first game in the series since the original to feature a female protagonist. Relatively little other information about the game has been provided. This will also be the first game in the series without long-time producer Leslie Benzies (who left before development began) and writer-producer Dan Houser (who left in 2020, early in development); his brother Sam Houser remains in charge of Rockstar and the game overall.

Rockstar unveils the first trailer for GRAND THEFT AUTO VI

Rockstar Games have (somewhat ahead of schedule) dropped the trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI, the latest game in the mega-popular crime/action series.

Thanks to a plethora of leaks over the years, much of the game's premise and story was already known. The game opens with new protagonist Lucia in prison, but apparently about to get out. When released, she reconnects with partner Jason and immediately embarks on/is forced back into a life of crime.

The setting this time is Vice City, Florida (or a GTA-ised version of Florida). Previously appearing in Grand Theft Auto (1997), Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (2006), Vice City is loosely based on Miami and is a den of crime, corruption, drugs, glitz and sleaze. With latest-generation tech, Vice City is considerably larger than its previous incarnations and the game expands beyond the city limits to take in offshore islands (including its own version of the Florida Keys) and surrounding countryside.

As expected, the game's satirical streak sees it tackling phenomena like "Florida Man" and alligators wandering into civilised areas and wreaking havoc. The game will also feature street races, speedboats, shoot-outs, robberies and, apparently, an in-game version of TikTok.

Other details remain to be confirmed, such as if both Lucia and Jason are playable or just Lucia. Lucia is already notable as the first female protagonist of a mainline, single-player Grand Theft Auto game since the original, although characters in the original were tiny blobs in the centre of the screen and had no discernible personality, so that's not saying much.

Also, the game looks amazing. The RAGE Engine - Rockstar's inhouse engine they have been using since 2005 - has been upgraded yet again and Grand Theft Auto VI's in-engine graphics look better than most of their competitor's pre-rendered cutscenes. Given that their previous game Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018) is still one of the best-looking games in existence, and even Grand Theft Auto V (2013) looks incredible after its latest update, GTAVI being a huge improvement over them is quite an achievement. The character animation in particular is phenomenal.

Rockstar are keeping a lot of other details to their chest. There's no indication of how the new game will integrate the uber-lucrative Grand Theft Auto Online, which has generated literally billions of dollars of profit for Rockstar and publisher Take Two since 2013, and a lot of details on the story, characters and factions remain unknown. Rockstar may reveal more information tomorrow (when the trailer was originally supposed to drop).

The trailer confirms that the game is coming out in 2025 (possibly spring 2025, given Take Two's previous marketing spend projections). Platforms are not mentioned, but we can assume that PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S will be the initial launch platforms, either alongside PC or with that version following some months later.

Biggest video game leak for 20 years sees GRAND THEFT AUTO VI and DIABLO IV secrets unveiled

In possibly the worst day for video game developers since the infamous Half-Life 2 source code leak of 2003, two of the most eagerly-awaited video games of all time have had their secrets spilled all over the internet.

This morning, more than 90 development videos and a ton of screenshots were released from Grand Theft Auto VI. The sequel to Grand Theft Auto V (2013), one of the biggest-selling individual video games of all time, the status of GTA6 was a mystery until Rockstar Games confirmed earlier this year they were working on it, and had been for some years. The new leak confirms that the game is in a relatively advanced state of development, although the images and videos seem to run the gamut from very early development (with untextured characters running and jumping against a bare background) to high-quality, finished scenes with dialogue.

Although Rockstar and publisher Take Two Interactive had not commented on a potential launch window for the game, Take Two had allocated a large marketing spend for financial year 2023-24, later delaying that to 2024-25, suggesting they envisage a mid-to-late 2024 release for the game. Whether the leak delays that remains to be seen. Famously, when Half-Life 2 was leaked, Valve delayed the release of the game and reworked a huge amount of the source code from scratch, but that's really not viable with the scale and scope of modern games. It's also unclear if the GTA6's source code has been compromised in the same way as Half-Life 2's was.

This afternoon, an hour-long video of beta gameplay footage for Diablo IV was also leaked. Diablo III was released in 2012 and sold over 30 million copies, so anticipation for the sequel is also very high. Diablo IV is also closer to release, with the game tentatively scheduled for release before the end of 2023, with the video more likely to show things as they will be in the final release.

Leaks of this scale are almost unheard of in the video game industry, and both Rockstar and Activision-Blizzard will be looking closely to see how this happened and how to stop it happening again. Other video game companies may also be wondering nervously if any of their forthcoming high-profile releases have also been compromised.

Rockstar shelves GTA4 and RED DEAD REDEMPTION remakes

Various insiders have confirmed that Rockstar Games has shelved all plans for additional remasters of their games following the poor reception to the infamously disastrous Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy Definitive Edition.

Rockstar made their name with the mega-selling Grand Theft Auto franchise, which has now shifted over a quarter of a billion copies globally. The last game in the series, Grand Theft Auto V, was released in 2013 (with several remasters for newer hardware since then). Rockstar's last full game was Red Dead Redemption 2, release in 2018. The company have confirmed they are working on Grand Theft Auto VI, but the game still appears to be a couple of years off at best.

To ensure goodwill and deliver some product in the meantime, the company out remastered versions of Grand Theft Auto III (2001), Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004) last year. However, the remaster was heavily criticised on release due to a vast number of bugs and poor to non-existent quality control. Some of these problems have since been fixed through updates, but many have not. Rockstar were accused of throwing out a quickie remaster to make money rather than taking their time and showing more respect for their fans.

Rumours have been swirling that Rockstar were also planning remasters of Grand Theft Auto IV (2008) and Red Dead Redemption (2010). Both of these games were built on early versions of Rockstar's RAGE Engine (more recently used for GTA5 and RDR2) and also used much more "modern" control schemes, so remastering them would likely be much easier. Indeed, the PC version of GTA4 has plenty of quality-of-life and graphics/lighting mods available that make it look like a dramatically better game. Remastering them should be far easier than the older games, which had to be ported into a new engine to be even viable.

In addition, Red Dead Redemption was never ported to PC, reportedly due to its source code being in a very poor state and Rockstar considering a port not worth the cost. Remastering the game would allow Rockstar to finally port the game to PC and modern consoles.

Indeed, it's long been speculated that Rockstar had more ambitious plans for the original Red Dead Redemption. Otherwise inexplicably, the entire Red Dead Redemption map can be found in RDR2 (even the bit in Mexico, although you need to use bugs and exploits to cross a river to get there), although there's no quests or mission set down there but there are complete towns and farms, and working trains. It looked like Rockstar were doing groundwork to allow them to make a full RDR1 remake in the RDR2 engine, maybe even as an expansion or DLC for RDR2 (RDR2 is also prequel to RDR1, and has a 10-hour epilogue acting as a bridge into the opening of RDR1's story). For whatever reason - certainly not low sales since RDR2 has sold over 44 million copies to date - they decided not to proceed with such a plan.

Rockstar are reportedly now fully fixed on bringing out Grand Theft Auto VI in the foreseeable future.

Rockstar confirm a new GRAND THEFT AUTO game is on its way

Rockstar Games have confirmed that they are developing a new title in their mega-successful Grand Theft Auto series and work is "well underway" on the project. However, more specific information was not provided.

Rockstar Games - formerly DMA Design - kicked the franchise off with Grand Theft Auto in 1997. A 2D crime game viewed from an overhead perspective, it was hugely successful on PC and the original PlayStation. A similar sequel, Grand Theft Auto 2, was released in 1999, along with expansions to the original game set in London. The franchise went nuclear with the release of Grand Theft Auto III in 2001. Two sequels, each larger and more elaborate than the last, followed with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City in 2002 and San Andreas in 2004, the last of which became the biggest-selling ever game on the PlayStation 2 console. The company also expanded the franchise with multiple mobile games.

The series' popularity continued to grow with Grand Theft Auto IV (2008) on the PlayStation 3, PC and Xbox 360, something of a reboot of the series and the first to use full HD graphics. However, the game attracted criticism for being smaller than San Andreas in size and scope, and for featuring more gritty realism in lieu of the fun mayhem of the earlier games. Rockstar corrected the error with Grand Theft Auto V, released in 2013 on the same formats but also featuring substantial upgrades for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game.

Grand Theft Auto V, which also includes the phenomenally successful multiplayer game Grand Theft Auto Online, has become the second-biggest-selling individual video game of all time, with almost 160 million copies sold on multiple platforms. The game has generated over $6 billion in revenue since its release just over eight years ago. The game also attracted significant critical acclaim for perceived improvements to the GTA formula. However, fans have sharply criticised the absence of any sequel, and the perceived disregarding of the single-player campaign part of the franchise by Rockstar in favour of the monetisation of the multiplayer mode. Rockstar confirmed they would be continuing to develop single-player games with the release of the hugely-acclaimed Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018.

Rockstar have, presumably been working on Grand Theft Auto VI since the release of Red Dead Redemption 2, with likely over three and maybe closer to four years on the clock on the project. Some reports previously suggested they were only "early in development" on the game in April 2020. However, the franchise publishers, Take-Two, confirmed last year that they are planning a major marketing spend for financial year 2023-24, of the level usually only associated with a Rockstar franchise title. This suggests that GTAVI might still be two years away, and certainly no less than eighteen months.

Even that might be generous: Rockstar announced GTAV with a teaser trailer in late 2011, two years before release, and it sounds like Rockstar are still some time away from even releasing a formal trailer for the game. Certainly don't expect this too soon.

The game's setting and time period will be a source of speculation for fans. It is worth noting that Rockstar usually rotate their games between the fictional cities of Liberty City and Vice City, and the state of San Andreas. The current "HD Era" of the franchise has seen the revisiting of Liberty City (in Grand Theft Auto IV) and San Andreas (in Grand Theft Auto V and Online), so a reasonably popular guess is that GTAVI will be set in Vice City. The likely "VI" part of the title could be used to feed into the word "VICE" in that case. All of the games in the current era of the franchise have been set in the present day, so that will presumably still be the case.

There will be a big difference with the game and its forebears, however. It will be the first game in the series since GTAIII not to be directed by long-term designer Leslie Benzies or written by Dan Houser. Benzies left Rockstar in 2016, and Houser in 2020.