Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Rockstar’s parent company Take-Two Interactive, says GTA 6 got extra time that at least one other studio didn’t. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, reported by GameSpot on November 5, 2026, he recalled an executive asking for more time on a different Take-Two project, and he turned that request down: “Actually, we’re shipping.”
He didn’t say which game it was. He did add a line that sounds less like a boast than a confession: “Thankfully, I was right, but imagine if I had been wrong?”
Two calls, two different answers
The other call came from Rockstar. Grand Theft Auto VI was first aimed at fall 2025, then moved to May 26, 2026, and finally to November 19, 2026, on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Zelnick has said the game ended up about 18 months behind its original date.
He called the latest slip “expensive and inconvenient,” but still the right decision. His explanation was about culture more than money. Plenty of companies have a mission statement, he said, and then do something else when push comes to shove. In his words, culture “is tested in the breach.”
So why say yes to Rockstar and no to someone else? Zelnick didn’t spell it out, but the way he framed both calls points to one idea: a delay is a judgment call, not a policy.
The game he wouldn’t name
Zelnick also pointed at the opposite mistake: studios so attached to a schedule that they ship anyway. Without naming names, he described a recent “very high-profile release” that had to be pulled after launch “because it didn’t work.”
GameSpot noted that the description fits Cyberpunk 2077, which was pulled from the PlayStation Store after its rough debut. The comparison cuts both ways. Cyberpunk still sold nearly 14 million copies in its first three weeks and has since passed 40 million, according to GameSpot, after years of updates.
What the extra time is worth
Zelnick told the Journal that GTA 6 “was expensive and it took a long time,” without sharing a budget. GameSpot cites a Sensor Tower estimate that the game could reach 25 million pre-purchases by launch, or around $2 billion.
He isn’t celebrating yet. “Arrogance is the enemy of continued success,” he said, adding that, like everyone else, he’ll wait and see how the game is received.
The standard edition is listed at $79.99 as of November 2026, and if you’re lining up your purchase around holiday sales, we broke down how the launch overlaps with PlayStation Store Black Friday deals.
Two weeks from today, you’ll find out whether those extra months were worth it.
