The delay heard round the world has finally dropped for Grand Theft Auto 6. Once set to release vaguely in 2025, the game has been pushed back to Spring 2026, which should surprise no one. While waiting even longer for the sequel to 2013’s GTA 5 is disappointing, this delay is setting a fantastic standard for AAA games and the studios that develop them. That standard avoids crunch time and allows developers the time they need to create the best game possible.

Grand Theft Auto 6 has been in development for almost a decade, and while it has never been in development hell, progress has seemingly been slow due to the massive requirements a title like this has. Not only must the game incorporate cutting-edge graphics to a massive map, but it has to provide compelling gameplay and stories for fans who have occupied the cities of Los Santos, Liberty City, and Vice City for years.

This mammoth task has, reasonably, taken a long time, and now it needs just a little longer. Rockstar’s decision to delay the game is a great one, as not only will GTA 6 likely be a better product than if it was pushed early, but it will hopefully encourage other studios to avoid overworking their employees.

Grand Theft Auto 6’s Delay Is For A Really Good Reason

A More Polished Final Product Is Always Better

Grand Theft Auto 6 is the most anticipated game of the decade and, until recently, was supposed to come out in late 2025. Rockstar Games, the studio behind the long-running crime-based series, has officially confirmed that the gamefan theories got increasingly deranged over time.

First and foremost, Grand Theft Auto 6 has been delayed simply because the game isn’t ready. Rockstar doesn’t want to launch a half-baked product, which, with higher fan expectations than ever before, is a very wise decision. With these high expectations, any flaws in the final product will be far more scrutinized than in any other similar AAA release. AAA games have had a habit lately of releasing before they’re fully ready, and with rising costs, this habit is becoming less and less forgivable.

GTA 6 has been delayed by a full year because the company wants to avoid crunch time. Crunch time is a common problem in video game development, where employees are expected to put in unreasonable hours near the end of a game’s development cycle. This can sometimes mean weeks to months of strain on employees in the pursuit of avoiding a game delay.

Rockstar Is Avoiding Crunch Time After Past Mistakes

Poor Work Culture Is Finally Being Avoided

Crunch time has always been a major problem for all big video game developers. Horror stories from burnt-out employees have plagued titans of the gaming industry for years, especially for major releases. Rockstar drew a fair amount of backlash after the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018 when reports of 100-hour work weeks came out and Rockstar employees came out to tell their own stories about crunch time, though some then-current employees did vouch for the fact that they had never been pressured to work excessive hours.

With the backlash from RDR2’s release in 2018, the last major release from Rockstar, it makes sense that the studio would want to avoid similar criticism. While it is disappointing that everyone has to wait another year for Grand Theft Auto 6 rather than just a couple more months, this is actually a great sign for the entire gaming industry. Giving employees a collaborative environment alongside the time they need to do their jobs will lead to better games.

Allowing developers to work through issues and bugs without the immense pressure of an impending deadline will always lead to a more polished product, which is especially important for a game that has been in development for close to a decade. Giving developers breathing room to finalize GTA 6 means only adding a small fraction of the time that fans have already waited. While the last few months might feel agonizingly slow, the more polished version of the game will be well worth it.

Rockstar Prioritizing Their Employees Is Important

The Company Is Setting An Industry-Wide Standard

Rockstar Games are a leader in the gaming industry, which means that anything they do will set the standard for most other companies. This type of standard setting has its pros and cons, as it can be related to pricing, like with Nintendo and Xbox increasing their first-party game prices to $80, or it can spread to the type of culture companies have internally, like when both Rockstar and Blizzard were heavily criticized for their internal “frat bro” cultures.

This Rockstar delay is, hopefully, a sign that the company is prioritizing its employees above an unrealistic 2025 release date and avoiding a multiple-month-long crunch period before release. Rockstar’s position as a leader in the industry and the importance of a game like Grand Theft Auto 6 to the entire gaming ecosystem make the decision to delay even more important.

The delay to Spring 2026 will hopefully signal to other companies that avoiding crunch time and giving developers the tools and time they need to make a polished game is the best path forward, as Rockstar leads by example. If GTA 6 is meant to revitalize the entire gaming industry, as many experts are predicting, then its delay and eventual success should send the right message to other companies about treating employees well and getting more successful games in return.

Source: Bloomberg, Vulture