Hours after allegations of union busting led to a protest outside its U.K. game studios, Rockstar Games has announced Grand Theft Auto 6 won’t be recklessly careening into an app store near you for another six months. Presuming the company doesn’t hit any more hiccups, as it has since the 2013 release of Grand Theft Auto V, the game will now launch on consoles on November 19, 2026. Per Variety, Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar’s parent company, announced the delay in its quarterly earnings report today. Rockstar last delayed the game earlier this summer, pushing the long-delayed sequel’s 2025 release to May 2026.
“Hi everyone, Grand Theft Auto VI will now release on Thursday, November 19, 2026,” read a statement on the Rockstar Games X account. “We are sorry for adding additional time to what we realize has been a long wait, but these extra months will allow us to finish the game with the level of polish you have come to expect and deserve. We want to thank you again for your patience and support. While the wait is a little longer, we are incredibly excited for players to experience the sprawling state of Leonida and a return to modern day Vice City. Sincerely, Rockstar Games.”
The news arrives hours after protests erupted outside Rockstar North’s Edinburgh studio and Take-Two Interactive’s London headquarters, according to Dextero. The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain organized actions against the company following the October 30 firings of 31 employees. The union accused Rockstar Games of attempting to quell organizing efforts. During the protests in London, a speaker read testimonies from anonymous dismissed workers, one of whom claims, “I was dismissed without warning, without evidence, and without a chance to speak for myself. All because I talked with colleagues in a private union chat. We weren’t leaking anything or trying to harm the company.”
Take-Two and Rockstar denied the allegations of union-busting. “Last week, we took action against a small number of individuals who were found to be distributing and discussing confidential information in a public forum, a violation of our company policies,” a spokesperson told Bloomberg. “This was in no way related to people’s right to join a union or engage in union activities.”
Activists and workers disagree. IWGB President Alex Marshall told the BBC that the company was “afraid of hard-working staff privately discussing exercising their rights for a fairer workplace and a collective voice.”
