So, one other day, one other GTA 6 delay, with the extremely anticipated recreation now set to release on November 19, 2026, although many people anticipate that date to slide once more. In spite of everything, it’s finest to organize for disappointment and never get your hopes up. At this price, I gained’t imagine GTA 6 is being launched till I’ve the sport put in on my arduous drive.
Nonetheless, regardless of my already gloomy outlook, this new delay was a blow. I’m getting on in years, and in my extra morbid moments (I’m not that outdated), I fear I’ll die earlier than enjoying the following GTA. At this price, I’m getting involved that our solar will develop and devour the Earth, adopted by the eventual heat-death of the universe, which can trigger Take-Two to additional delay the sport.
I’m sufficiently old to recollect the heady days once we acquired three GTA video games, GTA III, GTA Vice Metropolis, and GTA San Andreas in just below 4 years. Today, it appears like total civilisations rise and fall between instalments.
If I sound a bit gloomy, possibly even a little bit dramatic, then please indulge me. As you may need guessed with my reference to arduous drives, I’m primarily a PC gamer today, so even if GTA 6 launches on consoles subsequent November, folks ready for the PC model (which, let’s admit it, would be the finest) must wait even longer.
I could be waiting until 2027 for this game, making it 30 years since I first played the GTA series, which originally launched on PC before consoles.
Can’t see the forest for the trees
Joking aside, I do see the reasoning behind delaying the game. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick spoke to IGN to say that “when our opponents go to market earlier than one thing was prepared, unhealthy issues occur.”
It’s clear that individuals at Take-Two, which publishes the GTA collection, had seen the extraordinarily rocky launches of video games like No Man’s Sky, Mindseye, and Fallout 76, which had been panned on the time of their releases for seemingly launching earlier than they had been completed.
Probably the most well-known instance of this, and one that just about actually didn’t go unnoticed by anybody at Take-Two or Rockstar, was the infamous launch of Cyberpunk 2077.
A graphically formidable open-world RPG, and coming after the universally acclaimed Witcher 3, the hype earlier than its launch was large. Then, after a number of delays, Cyberpunk 2077 was seemingly pressured to launch in a really messy, unfinished state. The backlash was large and nearly single-handedly killed the developer CD Projekt Purple’s fame.
It makes excellent sense that the group behind GTA 6 doesn’t need one thing just like occur, and delaying the sport once more to keep away from that will surely be wise. Nevertheless, by additional delaying GTA 6 (it’s now been 12 years since GTA 5 launched), I fear that the sport may find yourself not changing into the following Cyberpunk 2077… however the subsequent Duke Nukem Eternally.
Present file for the longest growth interval for a videogame? 14 years and 43 days. Formally introduced on 28 April 1997 by developer 3D Realms, the FPS ‘Duke Nukem Eternally’ was lastly launched on 10 June 2011. https://t.co/8XBZGM3i98November 6, 2025
Duke Nukem Eternally was introduced in 1997, following on from the industrial and important success of Duke Nukem 3D. Following years of delays, the sport lastly launched in 2011, 14 years after first being introduced. Was it well worth the wait? Sadly, no, it simply wasn’t an excellent recreation.
Now, I don’t assume in any means that GTA 6 might be a nasty recreation, however because the delays pile up, I fear it may resemble Duke Nukem Eternally in different methods.
For a begin, over the various years of growth, 3D Realms, the builders, made quite a few guarantees concerning the recreation. And with every passing 12 months and not using a launch, hypothesis and hype grew (not less than to start with). It turned nearly legendary, and it doesn’t matter what state or high quality Duke Nukem Eternally ended up being, it was by no means going to dwell as much as most individuals’s expectations.
Was it well worth the wait? Sadly, no, it simply wasn’t an excellent recreation.
I can see the identical occurring with GTA 6. The longer we’ve to attend, the wilder the hypothesis will get – particularly as Rockstar isn’t freely giving a lot information. So, individuals are hoping the map is massive, probably being a whole state comprised of a number of large cities, all with buildings that may be entered.
Different individuals are developing with formidable theories concerning the storyline, and whereas I believe GTA 6 could have a giant map and an involving storyline, even with the lengthy growth time and big funds that the group has, it merely gained’t be capable to dwell as much as some folks’s expectations, inevitably resulting in disappointment. The longer the delays, the upper these expectations will develop.
Turning into a joke
There’s another danger as well. While Duke Nukem Forever’s lengthy development initially built hype and excitement, it eventually took so long that it became an ongoing joke. Even now, it’s often brought up (like I’m doing) when a game gets seriously delayed.
When gamers (and critics) stop being excited about your game and start to joke about it, that’s not a good sign.
Another big issue with long development times is that Duke Nukem Forever continued the bawdy and non-PC humor of Duke Nukem 3D, which was very of its time. In the more enlightened 2000s, that humor fell completely flat.
Meanwhile, in those years while we waited for Duke Nukem Forever, many landmark games were launched, particularly Half-Life and Halo, which transformed our expectations about what first-person shooter (FPS) games could be. When Duke Nukem Forever finally arrived, not only was its humor outdated, but so too was its gameplay.
The longer GTA 6 is delayed, the more work will be required to ensure the story and humor remain relevant.
This is a very real danger for GTA 6. The series has always indulged in edgy humor, but some of the things we laughed at back in 2013 with GTA 5 aren’t quite so funny anymore. The series has also taken great pride in satirizing the world, particularly the US, but that world has changed significantly since then. The longer GTA 6 is delayed, the more work will be required to ensure the story and humor remain relevant.
Gameplay-wise, Take-Two and Rockstar need to be careful as well. Since the launch of GTA 5, it has inspired a huge amount of open-world rivals, and while some of those were pale imitations, others continued to innovate the genre, including Rockstar’s own Red Dead Redemption 2. The further away we get from GTA 5’s release, the less impressed we’re going to be if GTA 6 sticks too closely to its predecessor’s gameplay.
I’ve been around long enough to see many games that get stuck in development hell, then manage to escape, such as Daikatana, another famous example, only to end up as major disappointments.
Take-Two’s fear of GTA 6 becoming the next Cyberpunk 2077 could end up damming it to an even worse fate. After all, Cyberpunk 2077 eventually found redemption after CD Projekt Red worked hard to fix its faulty launch, while Duke Nukem Forever ended up becoming both a joke and a cautionary tale.
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