GTA6’s recent postponement (currently scheduled for release in May 2026) has had a significant impact on the gaming industry, with major studios and publishers experiencing concerns (or expectations) when planning their next move, as they fear that Rockstar Games may once again postpone the release date of the almost certainly one of the most successful video games of all time.
Last week, Rockstar Games announced that GTA6 will not be launched in late 2025 as previously announced.The game will be released on May 26, 2026.Many players were upset about the delay, but Rockstar released a large new trailer and more than 70 screenshots, which regained the support of players.Meanwhile, the plans of many publishers and developers who are developing large games have been disrupted.
In a Bloomberg report on May 9, several developers said anonymously that some teams that postponed the release of the game internally in order to avoid "GTA6" will now hope that the game will not be postponed until the end of 2026, so as not to disrupt their plans again.There are also some people who want GTA6 to be postponed so they can postpone the game they are developing until 2027, thus gaining more development time.
A developer who is working on a massive multiplayer game told Bloomberg's Jason Schreier that they had previously postponed the game from fall 2025 to spring 2026.This is mainly because the game requires more development time, but it is also to avoid "GTA6".Now they are in a dilemma.Delaying again will be expensive and will make the game more profitable.But if it is not postponed, it can also be a disaster when GTA6 is released, because Rockstar's open world sequel is likely to attract all the attention in the month of release.However, they are also worried that GTA6 will be postponed again, which means that if they adjust the release time to avoid it, they may end up bumping up with it and there is no other option.
At a meeting held by major publishers and studios in the industry, business analysts were trying to figure out whether Rockstar’s big sequel will be released on time, or will be postponed again, and how that will affect the projects they are currently working on, according to Bloomberg.And that doesn't take into account the online mode of GTA6, which may be launched later.This could be a big problem for an online game that evades the initial release time but still could be snatched away by GTA6's multiplayer mode.
We know that at least one specific game, EA's upcoming Battlefield, changed its launch plan after GTA6 was postponed, with the current goal of launching sometime before March 2026.The company's CEO told investors that the release window for the new Battlefield game is "clearer than before" since the GTA6 delay.
