GTA 6 Gets Official Release Date Update From Rockstar Games

Published Sep 25, 2026, 5:03 AM EDT

James is a gaming writer from London who has spent thousands of hours exploring titles from every genre. Though he has a particular affinity for multiplayer titles like World of Warcraft, Destiny 2 and League of Legends, he has also put thousands of hours into single-player experiences, from deep RPGs to epic PC strategies. When he's not playing or writing, he can usually be found supporting his beloved Brentford FC.

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The upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto VI really is going to be a monumental moment for the world of video games, whether you count yourself as particularly interested in it or not. Rockstar's hugely ambitious narrative release has been well over ten years coming at this point, and that alone has been enough to turn it into arguably the most hyped game of all time.

Taking players back to Vice City for the first time since the titular game, it's set to be a very different proposition from the original. The biggest differences are the timeline being moved forward to the present day (giving them a ton of fodder for their inimitable style of satire), and the dual protagonists, which falls much more into line with the experience we got in GTA V.

All of that said, the journey to launch has been far from smooth, but we are about to reach a very important milestone that should serve as a bit of a point of no return.

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In case you are one of the relatively few people who hasn't been following along with GTA VI's development journey closely, things have been a little bumpy. The game has officially been delayed twice (along with a rumored third delay behind the scenes), before the current big day of Thursday, November 19 was settled upon.

As first reported by GameRant, that means that September 30 is officially T-minus 50 days out from launch day, and while that is an arbitrary milestone in many senses, it is actually quite important in others. The biggest element is that it really marks the final point where a genuine delay is feasible. Obviously, they could push it back by a day, or a week, for last-minute unforeseen issues, but a big delay is basically impossible at that point.

That crossing point also comes at a time when Rockstar are really dialing up their marketing efforts around the game, and reveal a lot more about what we can expect as players. They simply wouldn't have broken cover in such a significant way if they weren't confident they could deliver the game on time, and that should serve as another mark that the 50 days out from launch marker will be just that.

At the same time, the developer recently revealed the $400 Grand Theft Auto VI: The Goodtime State - Vice City Collection, a collectible's set that features many of the designs from the upcoming game. Bizarrely, it doesn't include the actual game, which inevitably went down fairly poorly with the assembled masses.

In any case, it really feels like we don't have too long to wait to find out exactly what Rockstar have been cooking up with GTA VI, and it's safe to say that expectations are sky-high. Let's just hope they manage to deliver, or things might get quite toxic online very quickly indeed.

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