Trusted industry insider Jason Schreier claims another GTA 6 delay is certainly possible sometime next year.
Here's why the rumored $1 billion budget for Rockstar Games' upcoming open world action game, Grand Theft Auto VI, doesn't quite add up.
"Or was it i̶n̶f̶o̶r̶m̶e̶d̶ guesswork from analysts?"
Video game budgets will always be fictional, just like Hollywood movies. Unless there are receipts it's all speculation.
And Take Two has a marketing department with an already approved budget (just like studios in Hollywood).
(Continue...I was in the Lincoln Tunnel)
Budgeting isn't included in the total cost because it is a separate budget. These companies intentionally inflate the numbers so they pay less in taxes.
This is not a new trend. And if you give your CEO $30 million per year and a game takes 5 years, you just add that $150million to the budget (CNN).
I don't know where they get these numbers, absolutely NO games is spending anywhere near that amount on production even including marketing. If we're talking lifetime estimates for like a 10yr plan maybe, but even that would be a very vague projection. RDR2 at the time of release cost less that GTAV did and GTAV cost about 265mil with marketing being an average of about 200-300mil each.
I believe it's somewhere around there. Cod is 700m$ to make. I think GTA could be around there if not more. The insane level of detail in the trailer says it all.
Yeah I believe it's around there personally.
The $700m cod budget is for tax purposes imho.
I also seriously doubt a game even as top notch as GTA would cost a billion to make.
Yeah, that would be tax fraud. Public companies are independenly audited. They cannot just put whatever number they want "for tax purposes".
To be fair, the $700 million in development costs were over the game’s lifecycle, not just development - Black Ops Cold War (2020) in this case. And of course, this also include their marketing campaign.
But then, you take into account Activision Blizzard's shenanigans for not paying taxes, even getting tax refunds, moving billions to tax havens, plus all the money paid by Microsawft and Sony for exclusive deals, and I bet you that figure is substantially way lower than $700 millions. And I do mean SUBSTANTIALLY lower than that.
Oh, and if you think Rockstar hasn't figure out that scheme by now, lol, they have. They all have.
Take-Two announced its financial results for the fiscal year 2025, also sharing an update on the sales of GTA5 and Red Dead Redemption 2.
The anticipation for GTA6 has reached fever pitch, with the latest trailer being the biggest video launch of all time.
Milk...get your milk...and so much more. Really when you release the same games in three editions over 15 years it's amazing how much money, and the amount of sales you earn. It's amazing how no one can compete.
To be fair, no many companies could release the same game over and over. They've earned that whether we agree or not
GTA v isn't the only game that's released three consoles generations running but nothing has sold those numbers including GTA San Andreas which is now 4 console generations deep.
Rockstar Games began development on its upcoming open world action game, GTA VI, during the year 2018, as per a former developer.
yeh i cam see that.
id expect that covid slowed things down quite alot for a long while too.
Makes sense.
By 2018, it was probably the time when Xbox and Playstation could tell publishers and studios their final next-gen specs.
I saw a youtube video where they claimed it was in development since GTAV(and that it's taking too long)and i screamed at my TV that they made RDR2 after! Do they think RDR2 was some small game that didn't require most of the studios attention?!
Probably later still. I can see them making something that isn't GTA next.
To be honest, I fully expect GTA 6 to face another delay—likely announced around February or March 2026. I can already picture Rockstar releasing a statement along the lines of: "The game is nearly finished, but we need a bit more time to bring it up to our standards." A revised launch in September or October 2026 wouldn’t surprise me at all, positioning it perfectly for the holiday season—while also clearing the field, because no other major publisher would dare to release anything substantial alongside it.
The reality is that GTA 6 is simply too big to launch with major bugs or performance issues. Rockstar and Take-Two understand the stakes. If the game isn’t polished, they'll take the hit on the timeline rather than the quality. And the truth is, GTA 6 doesn’t even need the holiday window to dominate. This is a game that could launch in January and still shatter records.
What really blew my mind was reading projections of over $1 billion in pre-orders alone. That’s more than most games make in their entire lifetime. Estimates suggest GTA 6 could generate $4–6 billion in its first month—with some analysts leaning closer to $6B. Within three months, we could be looking at $9–10 billion in revenue.
At this point, GTA 6 isn’t just a game—it’s a cultural event. And when it finally drops, expect workplaces around the world to go strangely quiet. Let’s be real: the day GTA 6 launches will probably set a global record for “calling in sick”—and we’ll all know why
My guess:
September 29th, 2026.
I really can't see how they would actually want, like truly want (!) to release their biggest game ever at end of May.
Which is about 14 days before the FIFA World Championship is about to kick off - right in the Summer time for many countries GTA is popular in.
GTA(6) is huge, massively huge.
But one of the few things that are still quite bigger than GTA is the FIFA World Cup.
If I was T2, I definitely would NOT release GTA6 two weeks before it.
They did give a release date and then delay once again red dead 2… don’t be surprised folks…
Well I don't think they will do anymore delay but I noticed alot of company been releaseing they game on the end of the month.
It will if people make enough noise about it. That's the way it is these days.