GTA 6 boss defends delays with nod to Cyberpunk 2077’s launch

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick referenced Cyberpunk 2077’s launch as a reason why GTA 6 has needed to be delayed. 

With the clock quickly ticking towards November 19, Grand Theft Auto fans are closer than ever to getting their hands on GTA 6. The day seemed like it would never come, especially after two initial delays.  

Rockstar Games stated that those delays were necessary to release the game in the state that fans “deserve” and “expect” from them. The second delay did come as a surprise to Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick, who was eventually won over by Rockstar’s reasoning.

The delays came up during his chat with the Wall Street Journal, with Zelnick making a nod towards Cyberpunk 2077’s fated launch.

Strauss Zelnick reminds GTA 6 fans how bad launches can go

"There are a lot of companies who have a great mission statement, a stated strategy, and a culture, but then when push comes to shove, you know, they do something that's at odds with that,” he said. 

Zelnick noted that some developers choose to be “slavishly devoted to a schedule” and ship games regardless. That led to his Cyberpunk and CD Projekt Red nod.

"I'm not going to throw any competitors under the bus, but if you know anything about the video game business, in the past few years, there was a very high-profile release that fell into this category, and they shipped, and they had to pull the title after shipping because it didn’t work.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7BWW8gvxRw

As Zelnick notes, Cyberpunk 2077 was removed from stores, including Sony’s PlayStation marketplace, with refunds being offered to players as well. 

CD Projekt Red’s long-awaited title eventually took off after a number of patches and relaunches, overcoming that rocky 2020 launch period. 

As for GTA 6, the game is currently slated to launch on console first, with it taking up around 212GB of space on hard drives.

A PC port has been rumored for the early part of 2027, which would represent a massive difference from the year-long wait that GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 players had. 

There have also been claims that new version GTA Online could might take a little longer. The initial GTA Online launch in GTA 5 was pretty rocky, with some players unable to access it for the first few days.