The Grand Theft Auto saga has become a benchmark for various genres in the world of video games. Rockstar Games' saga has managed to become one of the most successful in history, through a constant evolution that has won the favor of millions of players around the world. GTA V, the latest title to hit the market to date, has managed to sell over a whopping 190 million copies, something the American company would like to surpass with its successor.

It's worth noting that GTA V's journey on the market has been one of the longest in the industry: It’s been on the market for 11 years no less, something that GTA Online has had a lot to do with. However, the end of an era is approaching for the fifth installment of the Rockstar-developed license, as the release of the next title, GTA VI, is scheduled to arrive on PS5 and Xbox X Series X|S at some point to be determined in 2025. A release window that has begun to capsize in recent times, threatening to extend to 2026.

Rockstar strives for excellence with GTA VI

Rockstar Games is one of the most meticulous companies in the videogame industry when it comes to the development process of its works. As such, the developers have already announced that they’ll seek excellence in everything they do to bring GTA VI up to the standards that are expected of it, both internally and externally. In this way, the studio and its parent company, Take-Two Interactive, don’t want the game to be on the market until it has reached that state of perfection.

This is something they’ve demonstrated in the past with their most recent game to date, Red Dead Redemption II, which suffered a year's delay in its originally planned release. Rockstar Games' explanation at the time was that they had to polish certain details to achieve the desired quality with the title, demonstrating that for the company, it’s more important to meet the expectations generated in their work than to launch a video game with errors that could tarnish their image.

Faced with this situation and with all the problems that have arisen in recent years in relation to video game development, Rockstar could be considering the possibility of delaying the initial release of GTA VI so that it lands once and for all in 2026 with an even higher quality than it could achieve at the moment. This is a situation that could be motivated by the hybrid work that’s currently in place within the studio, which could have asked its employees to return to work in person full time to complete the last phase of development and avoid leaks and delays.

This situation is causing some concern and could lead to the compromise of the production of GTA VI in order to meet the initial plans for the title. However, the American studio has the advantage of not having provided a more concrete window for the release of its new video game.

GTA VI still scheduled for release in 2025

Although Rockstar's internal situation may be causing the latest phase of GTA VI's development to be slower than expected, plans for its release haven’t changed dramatically. By unveiling the game's first trailer to introduce the main characters, Jason and Lucia, and Vice City and to show off some of the game's world, the studio managed to generate a lot of buzz and leave the door open for a release at a time that best suits the market.

With the aforementioned case of Red Dead Redemption II, Rockstar assured that the title would be ready in autumn 2017, something that finally happened in the same season, albeit the following year. This time around, the studio is taking no chances, opening up a huge twelve-month window to put its big game on the 2025 calendar. Sources close to the company claimed that February could be the time when GTA VI would be a tangible reality in the video game industry.

Thus, should the company have to move the internal date on the calendar, GTA VI would most likely be delayed until spring or even autumn 2025, fulfilling the predictions that have been initially offered to PS5 and Xbox X Series X|S players for the title's arrival on the market. What could arrive in 2026 would be the PC version, which, as usual for Rockstar Games' video game developments, is usually available some time after its console release.

Therefore, everything seems to point towards the arrival of GTA VI in 2025, although in the video game industry, nothing is written in stone until it happens. So, Rockstar's quest for excellence with the title or internal production problems could lead to more complications than expected, causing the most anticipated game of the decade to end up delaying its release more than it should.