Why is GTA 6 taking so long?

It’s the question the world is asking, seemingly on a loop, and to be honest, we don’t blame them! Whether you’re a skilled developer assessing the industry, or just a gamer patiently awaiting the new release, something is going wrong. 

When a global development powerhouse continually pushes back a release that it originally previewed back in 2023 you know that something is happening. The problems are complex, highly political with warring factions within the developer, and don’t seem to be coming to a close any time soon.

To make sure you have everything you need to know, we’re going to take a closer look at what’s going on. Let’s dive in and never look back! 

The GTA backstory 

The Grand Theft Auto series is a collection of games that paint a dark picture of the underbelly of US society. Some see it as a social commentary, others nothing more than mindless violence played out in video game form. But as you are someone who no doubt appreciates the technical side of things, you see it as a masterpiece of design and development. 

Each game follows one or more main characters as they look to make their way from underling to senior figure or boss in a darker world of crime. Violence, murder, theft, and more than a few vehicle hijackings are commonplace during the rise from obscurity to notoriety. Every interaction with a non-playable character influences how the missions and tasks play out in real time, giving each GTA title a life and mind of its own. 

The team at RockStar Games has created a series of iconic titles, not least of all: 

• GTA Vice City where reformed mobster Tommy Vercetti is sent to the city to start laundering money on behalf of his boss. What should have been a simple assignment for an old friend soon turned into a power struggle with a dozen or so criminal syndicates
• GTA San Andreas follows CJ Johnson as he returns to his old neighbourhood in search of a quiet life, only to find that everyone he used to know has been swept up in a whole new world. Gang violence sits alongside corrupt cops and politicians, dragging CJ right into the heat of criminal darkness 
• GTA V follows an ex-bank robber, a street hustler, and a highly volatile drug dealer as they each weave their own narratives through the city. When the three of them fall into old habits and are forced to work together, violence and chaos soon ensue

The technical side of software development means that a constantly evolving cityscape comes to life on the screen, and it’s a place where every interaction matters. At the time of writing, GTA V alone has sold over 205 million units since it was released back in 2013, with the total sales for the entire series topping 440 million. 

And yet, despite those incredible statistics, there’s one number that developers and fans alike find increasingly troubling: 2013. With more than a decade since the last release, it feels like GTA 6 is never going to come into our lives. 

Endless delays due to the game engine 

As every skilled developer knows, games are built using engines, and if the engine isn’t right, the game won’t come out. Okay, so we don’t want to go as far as saying that RockStar has created an engine that doesn’t work, but we do want to highlight the issues they have unwittingly caused themselves. 

The RAGE 9 Engine — once championed by RockStar as a breakthrough — has become the central villain in a seemingly endless saga. While AI breakthroughs seem to be everywhere you look right now, RAGE 9 continues to drag its heels. The problem is that many of the developers RockStar has hired have told them that their engine is hopelessly out of date and behind the likes of Unreal Engine 5.5. Not wanting to feel like they have wasted millions and millions of dollars, RockStar chose to persevere with RAGE 9. 

The issue with this approach is that you end up binding yourself to an out-of-date piece of software and causing even more issues for yourself in the near future. With every week that the launch and release are pushed back, the engine becomes more and more out of date. By the time the title finally hits the shelves, many will be wondering if it will look like something that should have been released a decade earlier. 

There are so many different opinion pieces out there with ex-devs from RockStar continually leaking all sorts of information. Because we want you to be able to get everything you need from a single source, we’ve summarised the key issues in three simple points. 

RAGE 9 has the following issues and they are causing GTA 6 to be continually delayed: 

• Outdated tech that limits the scope and extent of the game compared to what would have been possible if RockStar had mothballed the engine and started from scratch
• No clear direction in terms of innovation and development has seen much of the old code reused, resulting in gameplay that just doesn’t feel like a step forward 
• Optimisation equality issues have resulted in a clunky, error-strewn development title that simply isn’t anywhere near being ready for public release and mass gameplay

Each of these issues on their own would be enough to delay the release of a title, not least of all one that is as hotly anticipated as GTA 6. 

Will the issues ever be resolved?

Many developers and ex-devs are now predicting that GTA 6 will be released in a reduced form so that it becomes more of an expansion pack title. RockStar would then put all of its resources into building a whole new engine for a future GTA 7 title that would be designed to take the gaming world by storm once more. After all, RockStar has a form for doing these types of expansions in the past, and some of them have been amazing. 

Go back to the summer of 2019 and RockStar released the Diamond Casino & Resort expansion pack for GTA Online. Renting a penthouse, meeting up with other characters online, and playing a range of mini-games that rival any of the top UAE casinos you’ll find on dedicated gaming sites is something millions of players could not resist. Add in the tension and excitement that’s always bubbling just beneath the surface in GTA and you see that sometimes expansions really are all you need for another epic gaming experience. 

Now that we have covered all of the background and brought you up to speed with the latest developments, there is only one question left to ask. 

When is the GTA 6 release date?

We still don’t know! Even though the video and images were first revealed back in December 2023, the release date has still not been confirmed. At the time of writing it is listed online by RockStar as “late 2025” although that is only for PlayStation and Xbox — a PC title remains even further away, and that’s the issue. 

The use of an outdated engine means that getting the title to work on one platform is all-consuming while getting it to work universally currently appears seemingly impossible. Gamers looking to have fun and developers looking to find a new career would be best advised to look a little further afield. Waiting indefinitely for a release, or getting stuck on a project that gains a bad reputation, is just not good for your happiness or well-being. 

GTA 6 will certainly fly off the shelves when it finally lands on them, but we are not going to advise anyone reading this to hold their breath. You should be able to find plenty of other resources on our site to entertain yourself in the meantime, so don’t feel like you have to wait this one out if you don’t want to. 

We’ll be back with more GTA 6 news when we have it! 

(Disclaimer: Devdiscourse's journalists were not involved in the production of this article. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)