According to a report from Kotaku, one of the most highly anticipated game releases ever, Grand Theft Auto VI, could potentially slip to 2026. The site initially reported that Rockstar Games is currently planning to release the game in "early 2025." However, the site reported that it's "becoming more and more likely" that the game could slip to late 2025 or 2026. On March 26, Kotaku updated its report to say "Fall 2025" is the new target date for GTA VI's release.

"The majority of sources were certain that early 2025 is no longer possible. Instead, the target is firmly Fall 2025 and while most seem confident of hitting that date, I'm still told there is a possibility of a delay, as previously reported," Kotaku reported.

Kotaku said this is happening "as production reportedly falls behind."

The site further reported that Rockstar management is feeling "nervous" about GTA VI hitting its official date in 2025, and this is part of the reason why the company is mandating staffers return to the office five days per week to finish the game. Rockstar has also said bringing people back to the office should help improve productivity and mitigate leaks. Anonymous Rockstar staffers told Aftermath that security concerns are significant. "We need to do as much as we can to make it harder for attackers to get into our systems," a staffer said.

But mandating a return to office could have the opposite effect of what's intended in terms of productivity, as some see it. A source told Aftermath that when the policy goes into effect in April, workers won't be able to respond to Slack messages and email offsite. Rockstar is already a remote studio, in a way, the source said, because a big game like GTA VI is developed intercontinentally across Rockstar's studios around the world.

"If we look at our previous project, [Red Dead Redemption 2], where we were working five days in the office, we're still working remotely with all of these other studios," a Rockstar employee said. "So whether you were in the office or not, you were still doing remote work. ... You work with so many people on so many different teams. A good majority of them will not be at the place where you work."

The Kotaku report went on to say that GTA VI releasing in Fall 2025 now seems "more plausible and feasible." Regarding a potential shift to 2026, the site said this would be a "fallback plan" or an "emergency" contingency.

The final stages of a game's development is often when the core experience is finished and the team works on refinements and polishing, among other things. Developers say this is a crucial element of a game's development and that it takes time to execute properly.

GameSpot has contacted Rockstar Games in an attempt to get more information.

History suggests that GTA VI will be delayed. After all, nearly every Rockstar Games release in the past 10 years has been delayed beyond its originally announced date or window.

The head of Rockstar's parent company, Strauss Zelnick, has said Rockstar is aiming for "perfection" with GTA VI, and that process could take time. "When we feel we've optimized creatively, that's the time to release," he said. "There's inherent tension, potentially, between getting something to market and creating perfection. But this company errs on the side of perfection."

GTA VI has enormous shoes to fill, of course, as GTA V has sold more than 195 million copies and stands as one of the most commercially successful videos games of all time based on unit sales alone. This says nothing of GTA V's multiplayer mode, GTA Online, which rakes in untold fortunes from its microtransactions. It remains to be seen what the plan is for GTA Online when GTA VI comes out, or what kind of online mode GTA VI itself might have.