Take-Two CEO Confirms Third GTA 6 Delay That Nobody Knew About

Strauss Zelnick appeared on the Founders podcast with David Senra on May 17, 2026, and when asked about the Grand Theft Auto 6 timeline, he revealed how many times the game has failed to meet its internal release date. Apparently there is one more delay in the game's history than we know about, but luckily it isn't one we need to be worried about anymore.

I think we're about 18 months behind the original date. Not much more than that.

Eighteen months. That's a year and a half behind where Rockstar Games originally planned to be, which means there's one delay that no one knew about.

Trailer 1, released in December 2023, said GTA 6 was coming in 2025. Take-Two Interactive narrowed that to Fall 2025 during the May 2024 earnings call. The first public delay, announced in May 2025, pushed the date to May 26, 2026. The second public delay, announced in November 2025, pushed it to November 19, 2026. From Fall 2025 to November 2026 is approximately 12-14 months, and Zelnick said 18 months.

Doing some quick maffs, this means that Zelnick revealed there's four to six more months of delay that we know nothing about, revealing that either the internal target was earlier than Fall 2025, or there was a delay before the first trailer that the public never knew about.

If the original internal target was May 2025, which is what 18 months back from November 2026 produces, then the game had already slipped internally before Trailer 1 even said "2025." The trailer's vague "2025" framing was itself a softened version of a date that had already moved. The public never saw the first delay because it happened before any date was publicly committed to, which actually isn't unusual for Rockstar - or big projects in general.

Red Dead Redemption 2 went through a similar pattern. The game was announced in October 2016 for Fall 2017, delayed to Spring 2018, then delayed again to October 2018. However, the original internal target was reportedly earlier than the announced Fall 2017 window. Internal slippage before a public announcement is standard operating procedure for a studio that routinely underestimates how long its own ambitions will take.

Zelnick's candor about the 18-month figure is notable because he has never publicly addressed the total number of times GTA 6 has been delayed before. At earnings calls, he discussed each delay individually. At iicon, he focused on the game's quality and Take-Two's ambitions. On the Founders podcast, he stepped back and gave the full number. Eighteen months. A year and a half. Three separate pushbacks totaling half the lifespan of a typical AAA development cycle.

The good news embedded in the same interview is the date reaffirmation. When Senra asked about the release date, Zelnick cut him off before the question was finished.

It's November 19th. I do know. No, it's been announced.

That is the fifth time Zelnick has publicly reaffirmed the November 19 date in 2026 alone. At the February earnings call. At iicon. In the Bloomberg interview. At iicon again. Now on Founders.

Zelnick also used the interview to call Grand Theft Auto the most valuable entertainment IP ever created, though he hedged by noting it "depends on how you count" and acknowledged that multi-game franchises like Mario Kart and Call of Duty could be in contention when measured across dozens of installments. That hedging says much by itself.

Grand Theft Auto V alone has generated over $8 billion in lifetime revenue across unit sales and Grand Theft Auto Online microtransactions. As a single title, it is the most profitable entertainment product in history. As a franchise competing against Mario Kart's 40-year, 20-game catalog, the comparison gets murkier. Zelnick chose not to oversell, which is unusual for a CEO whose job it is to sell everyone on their product. Perhaps he really is terrified of the sky-high expectations for GTA 6.

The timing of this interview is not accidental with the May 21 earnings call just four days away. The Best Buy pre-order speculation has added $2 billion to Take-Two's market cap, and the community is in a state of maximum anticipation. Zelnick going on a podcast with 15 million listeners to say "It's November 19th. I do know" is pre-earnings-call positioning. He is locking the narrative before Wednesday.

The 18-month number will dominate the headlines, but the date reaffirmation is what actually matters. The ghost delay, the four to six months of internal slippage that happened before the world ever saw a trailer, is the detail that tells you how long this game has actually been in the making and how much longer it took than even Rockstar expected.