Speaking at the TD Cowen 54th Annual Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in May 2026, Take-Two Interactive chief executive Strauss Zelnick explained why Rockstar Games has taken more than 13 years to develop Grand Theft Auto 6, which is due to launch on November 19.
The long-awaited title will arrive more than a decade after Grand Theft Auto 5 was first released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2013.
Addressing the lengthy gap between the two games, Zelnick said Rockstar had remained active throughout the period by continually expanding and updating the Grand Theft Auto franchise.
“In the case of Grand Theft Auto, it was not a simple story of ‘wow guys, it took you a long time to [release a new game]’ because look at what Rockstar launched [with GTA 5],” he said.
“They relaunched and remade the title for PC, they launched and remade the title for each new generation [of consoles] and they launched GTA Online. They’ve been up to quite a lot [over the last 13 years]. One of the reasons why GTA 6 is so widely anticipated is because we have that GTA ecosystem that Rockstar built.”
Zelnick also defended Take-Two’s decision not to pursue annual releases for its major franchises.
“We’re not a cadence-driven company,” he said. “[When I joined Take-Two in 2007], I said the only [games] we are going to [release annually] are sports entertainment properties. We’re not going to do it with everything else.
“[We didn’t want to] burn off our intellectual property, because you’re in the market too often [and] you can’t possibly deliver the quality you need to deliver.” He added that some rival franchises had struggled to maintain consistent standards with yearly releases.
“We set a new standard. You have to make stuff that’s great and creating some anticipation on the part of the consumer is a good thing. We didn’t say ‘there should be an X year gap’ between releases. What has driven the gap is the amount of time it takes to do something that is as good as it can possibly be for that intellectual property.”
The comments come after fans recently marked May 26, the date on which Grand Theft Auto 6 had originally been expected to launch before being delayed.
Rockstar Games postponed the release to allow additional time to polish the title ahead of its November debut.
