Grand Theft Auto 6 Delay Sparks Debate Over Rockstar's Priorities

Grand Theft Auto 6 Delay Sparks Debate Over Rockstar's Priorities

Grand Theft Auto 6 has been delayed to late 2026, sparking discussions about Rockstar's development practices and workplace issues. The delay follows reports of unionization efforts and concerns over crunch culture. Take-Two's stock dropped after the announcement. Comparisons are drawn to other delayed games like Duke Nukem Forever and Cyberpunk 2077.

Rockstar CAN'T Keep Getting Away With This. | Transcript:

Well, who could have seen this coming? Ladies and gentlemen, Grand Theft Auto 6 has been delayed for another 6 months. Please, just hear ME OUT. PLEASE. [screaming] IT'S HARD TO ENCAPSULATE just how much of a meme the release of this game has been. To all you Rockstar and GTA fans, you're going to have to wait just a little bit longer. WAIT, I DID MY WAITING. 12 YEARS OF IT. IF YOU WANT some comfort food, you can watch that South Park episode where Cartman can't wait for the Wii to come out. That does it.

I AM NOT WAITING 3 WEEKS. WELL, YES, GTA 6 has been delayed to Thursday, November 19th, 2026. 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. And that's it. We want to thank you again for your patience and support. While the wait is a little longer, we are incredibly for players to experience the sprawling state of Lenode Lenaida and return to modern-day Vice City. Directly under this post is the Cyberpunk account retweeting no more delays are happening. And I said, I respect you for posting this. To own that kind of disastrous launch is It's better to own it, but I

mean I mean it says something like, "What if?" Imagine the disaster. Remember how [__] bad the Cyberpunk launch was? They did end up recovering, and I still have yet to play Phantom City, Phantom Pain, Phantom Edition. Whatever. But imagine the [__] show that would happen if they delay GTA 6 and it's and it ends up kind of like Cyberpunk. I don't think it will. I hope it doesn't, but just imagine if it does. So, today, yeah, we're talking about GTA 6, and it's not just the delay that is part of the story here. Obviously, that's big, big news, but there's something else that's been going on at Rockstar that maybe inspired this announcement. Or perhaps is a diversion.

GTA 6 has been in development for so long. It brought the [__] Guinness World Records account out of retirement. I don't know if it was in retirement, I just said that. But the current record for the longest development period for a video game, 14 years and 43 days. Officially announced on the 28th of April, 1997 by 3D Realms, the FPS Duke Nukem Forever was finally released on June 10th, 2011. Now, let's just do some quick math. GTA 6 has been in development since 2014, so it'll be 12 years later. We're only 2 years off of Duke Nukem if this new timeline ranks up, which is wild to think about. There is definitely some drama over at Rockstar. GTA 6 studio says devs were fired for leaking secrets. A labor group

claims Rockstar Games is union busting. So, this was posted as a recording just yesterday. Last week, over 30 developers were fired from Rockstar Games. A trade labor group claims the GTA 6 studio was union busting, but Rockstar now claims the employees were leaking sensitive information. Last week, we took action against the small number of individuals who were found to be distributing and discussing confidential information in a public forum, a violation of our company policies. This was in no way related to people's rights to join a union or engage in union activities. Rockstar did not respond to a request for comment clarifying the nature of the confidential information that was allegedly disclosed. Yeah, so if it has

been disclosed, like if it was those leaks before, don't you think you would say like we found the people responsible for those leaks? I don't know, the idea of union busting and like a bunch of former employees being fired last week and then they're there at Rockstar protesting. Not the best of signs. But also, like if you were to announce a delay, that's the perfect time to distract people. I'll tell you what, that's the perfect time. The ex-Rockstar developers were in a private message group on Twitter with the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain when they were fired last week for what parent company Take-Two called at the time gross misconduct. The IG The IWG B has been seeking to organize developers

across UK-based gaming studios. So, is this union busting or is this just a coincidence? Um But as one trained in the force, you know that true coincidences are rare. I wonder how all these pieces of GTA 6 fit together. You have union busting, you have all those leaks that came out, and then you've got this announcement of a delay. As I'm sure many other things are going on. I guess people are starting to worry a little bit about GTA 6 and the state of it and how it's going to come out and if it will live up to expectations. Like dog, we just want a good game. And it feels like the game development process has become so complicated, so like cutthroat, like this industry truly

does not value the creative geniuses behind people that built the foundation for some of these multi-billion dollar franchises. That's how it feels to me. It feels like upper management at some of these video game developers and publishers has gotten to the point where they don't they can't relate to the creative driving forces of these games. They've become so detached from that, they just like they're just trying to make money and dollar value go up. So, the president of this workers union said, "Management are showing that they don't care about delays to GTA 6 and

that they're prioritizing union busting by targeting the very people who make the game." This president said he maintained that the fired employees were only discussing issues related to, quote, "exercising their rights for a fairer workplace and a collective voice." You can't have that. You can't have that, you're fired. I don't know, it's really not clear who's in the right or the wrong here. I mean, like objectively, could go either way. I'm leaning towards they probably were union busting, but uh that's just my gut feeling. The game has had one of the most secretive development cycles of any major blockbuster outside of the details leaked in an unprecedented hack back in 2022. Since then, Rockstar has only

released two official trailers. So, it sounds like union busting. If these were the developers that had leaked that [__] 3 years ago, you only just now caught them as they were in a Discord call talking about how they wanted a better workplace environment? Sounds like union busting, okay? Not a good look, Rockstar. Just What? Just make a good video game and treat your employees well. Ah, here we go. GTA delay fears rise as fired employees protest outside Rockstar office. They're protesting at the Like this is today. They're doing this today. Union wanted? So, these employees are asking to be reinstated and compensated as they did nothing wrong. Again, saying they were fired for

gross misconduct. Yeah, it's certainly not a good look when you say they were fired for leaking information and gross misconduct, but you just don't elaborate on what that is. Like what are they actually being accused of doing? And where is the evidence for that? I'm sorry if my phone keeps going off. I'm lazy and I didn't silence it. So, there's protests in Rockstar's Scotland office and their London office at Take-Two. God, can we just have a good video game? Why does there have to be so much drama? Why does the budget have to be so big? Why does development have to take so long? Why can't you just Why do you have to treat your employees like [__] Why do you have to do Just make a

good video game, we'll buy it. In recent years, Rockstar executives have benefited from 443 million pounds in tax relief while showing total disregard for the law or the livelihoods of their staff. At every turn, they've chosen profits over both workers and fans of their games. Wouldn't be a first for the gaming industry. And I think, honestly, like it's just my gut feeling, man. This is just a gut feeling I have. I don't necessarily have the evidence to back it up, but I feel like I just seen this pattern so many times. Those games that start out small, humble, the games from our youth. Once these franchises and IPs balloon and grow to such an extreme size where they're making like billions and

billions of dollars, I feel like it corrupts the intellectual process and the passionate process that is supposed to be game development. Because there's so much money in the mix now, it complicates everything. Mo' money, mo' problems. Biggie Smalls was a prophet. And it sucks to say, but I would have loved to have think that Rockstar would be above this kind of like Valve. Valve has done some shitty greedy things, but for the most part, you know, Valve is pretty pro-consumer, and I always kind of hope that Rockstar would be, too. I don't know how much more benefit of the doubt I can give them. I'm just saying, GTA is a massive

[__] franchise. There's so much money invested and surrounding it that one has to wonder how much that complicates the creative process. It has been 13 years. I've been waiting half my [__] life. And I was in the kitchen eating dinner with my family. I'm like, "Motherfucker!" I looked at the phone, and my parents are like, "What?" I'm like, "GTA 6 got delayed again." And they're like, "So?" And I'm like, "Dad, do you remember when you got me Grand Theft Auto?" And he's like, "Yeah, you were a kid." I'm like, "THAT'S THE LAST ONE!"

IT WAS THE LAST ONE! AS [snorts] TO WHAT THIS MEANS for GTA 6 remains unclear. It is unknown in what capacity these fired employees were involved with the game and if these protests and discussions will eventually lead to a delay. Uh this was posted today. There was a delay. For now, Rockstar and Take-Two have not commented on the situation. The game is slated for May 2026 release, and there have been several reports of possible delays in the past. Yeah, so these are not isolated events. This these protests, this union busting, alleged union busting, this like profits over people type of mentality, the delay, it's it's all connected. And I wonder what is like the root cause.

What's What caused both these protests and the delay? Couldn't have been gross misconduct or leaking information. Like 30 people 30 employees were all leaking stuff. You think 30 people were taking that risk? I find that hard to believe. Here's what the executives love to see. GTA 6 delayed to November 2026. Take two stock tanks. This delay is 5 months and 24 days from its originally previously scheduled May 26, 2026 release date. Take two stock price took a beating after the news was announced falling by nearly $30 per share. That is a lot. Let's see. That is a drop. That is a dip. Speaking to the game business, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick spoke to

the game business and said, "When we set a date, we really do believe in it. We said when we set the last date, if a game requires more polish to be the best possible version of itself, then we will give that game more time, and that's exactly what happened." See, I want to trust their words on that. I want to believe that, and you know, a delay did help out Halo Infinite. A delay would have helped out 2042. Would have helped out Cyberpunk. I personally am willing to wait longer for an overall better product that needs more time. Red Dead 2 review anyone? But it's just a combination of this with like the protest and the union busting that casts doubt on this when you don't really need to have that doubt. And again, this

could just be, you know, telling the fans what they want to hear. On Take-Two's quarterly earnings call, Zelnick suggested that pushing Rockstar to hit GTA 6's previously announced release date could be bad for the game and therefore bad for the company. This is at least an attitude I wish we saw more of, specifically with Halo. If it's bad for the game, it might be bad for the company. Again, they could just be telling us what we want to hear, but "It's always painful when we move a date," he said. "We have done so occasionally in the past, and we've never regretted it in retrospect." I would like to point out that we've had some competitors in the event where more polish was required, and it required a

slipping a date, they chose not to slip the date, and they did so at their peril. But so that's just casting shade straight at Cyberpunk. That's kind of wild, dog. GTA 6 has been called the single most important game release in history. It's the first new entry in the series since 2013's GTA 5, and is predicted to sell more than 40 million units in its first year alone. There is almost too much hype around GTA 6. It's kind of like when there's that much hype, that much time that passes, you can understand why Valve never made Half-Life 3 because it would have been impossible at this point to live up to those expectations in that long timeframe. It's just not possible. Cuz if you [__] that up, it's almost better

as if you would just never released it. There's also been concerns that GTA 6 could come to market at Think of how [__] if they do that, it will be disastrous for the game industry. We beat microtransactions and loot boxes. We beat loot boxes specifically, but a $100 price tag Good god, I just want good video games at a reasonable price. Yeah, so that's that's the latest. That's what's happening with GTA 6. I wanted to make a quick video and talk about it cuz it is a pretty big deal. What do you think? I mean, how does all this shape up in your mind? Cuz me, I'm like I'm seeing all these pieces kind of moving at the same time, and I'm like, "That's kind of concerning." A game like GTA 6

simply cannot flop. It cannot. I don't think our society is prepared for the repercussions of that. But yeah, leave a like if you enjoyed the video. All right, some big news just dropped. I was about to go for a run, but we got to cover this. An anonymous Rockstar employee has made a post on GTA forums with the ongoing situation at Rockstar Games. This has been verified by GTA forum staff. Interesting. TLDR, morale at Rockstar North is an all-time low. HR didn't let the devs have a union present aside. HR hung up on devs who were on leave. One had a panic attack. Basically, one big mess, and Rockstar needs to fix this, and once again, weed out the managers. Sigh. Weed out the

managers. Man, if I had a dollar for every time I felt like that's what a company needed to do, I would have $800 I think Steven Ford here puts it best. GTA, the most successful gaming franchise of all time, but they can't make sure their employees feel taken care of while they create what will be the biggest game of all time. Yeah, not really a good sign, especially when people are getting fired leading up to a game's release. I just feel like if your team is working really well together, then everyone's keeping their job. Also, after a game is released, that's usually when people leave, move on to another

project. You know, they've been working on this for I don't know, 7 years. Maybe they want to go to a different company after the game is released. That's usually, I think, when you see the most developers leave or layoffs or get fired or whatever. This is all happening right before, and then Well, let's read the post. Rockstar employee of many years here. I want to remain anonymous due to retaliation from the company. I've been reading a lot of the discussion on here and elsewhere about the firing of more than 34 of my colleagues last week, and I've seen a lot of disinformation and lies that are really concerning.

Particularly concerning how so many folks are willing to believe the company's excuses. What do you mean billion-dollar company wasn't honest? What? You mean to tell me that some massive corporation would just lie? This is This has shaken my FAITH IN CAPITALISM. LIAR! OKAY, THIS. Last week, my colleagues were in the studio were each individually messaged by HR for a short friendly meeting under the friendly guise of, "Hey, are you free for a quick chat?" Upon attending this meeting, they were handed an envelope with a short letter stating that their employment had been terminated for gross misconduct regarding posts made in

Discord. Bro, getting fired because you posted a [__] meme on Discord? Lord knows what goes on in the boys' Discord server. How dare you? I like how vague this is. Posts made in Discord could be [__] anything. Rockstar failed to provide any evidence when asked. Oh, that's a good sign. Hey, can you prove this thing? Nope, sorry. Just No, just my source? I made it the [__] up. Nor was there any evidence stated in the letter, and did not divulge any other information or reasoning. They refused their right to union representation in the disciplinary meeting, which is against UK employment law. Okay, okay. See, see, they're just violating the law now. That's okay, right? Clearly, Rockstar is in the right. I mean, they Imagine how much

money it costs to pay, you know, the salaries of 34 people. Man, it's but that's my money. What about the All the money must be mine. I can't afford that. I'm I can't afford to pay my editor. Get back into the dungeon, paragon. Back into the dungeon now. I can't Take it up with HR. No, you can't do this to me. Dog, what the [__] Like seriously, yeah, multi-billion-dollar company, biggest video game launch ever. It's best I can do is no union, no salary, nothing. Best I can do is fire you. For colleagues who were not in the studio that day, they received a phone call from HR that lasted less than 2 minutes telling them they were fired, and that they'd receive

the same letter as above. I'm aware of one employee who had a panic attack at this moment, and HR hung up on them during this panic attack, not caring at all about their well-being. Jesus Christ, man. What the [__] Yeah, you're fired. Oh my god, I think I'm having a panic attack. Then die. That's [__] Dog, why are people so evil? Why are you so evil? Evil! How do they make game development such a ridiculously complex task? These people deserve to be fired, I'm sure, right? No, these colleagues of mine were hard workers who spent many, many years at Rockstar in critical roles with

colleagues who have been at Rockstar for more than 18 years. Oh, they were just veterans? Oh, yeah, you can get rid of that. You can always pick up another Larry Fitzgerald. You can always get one of those. They're all around the place. Yeah, yeah. Nah. Oh, and in those 18 years, none of them have ever had a disciplinary in that time. So, they were well-behaved, too. Oh. If this is to be believed, dog, Rockstar is [__] up. It's And it's not even like a battle worth fighting for if you're Rockstar. Like in my mind, let them make a union. You're making You're making GTA 6, dog. I don't get it. They are not easily replaced and will certainly affect us in making our project deadlines. Well,

uh that turned out to be true cuz the game was So, wait. They got rid of the these people, and then the game's delayed six What are you doing? Making a mistake. Just make the game. Just pay people to make the video game. These are very senior artists, animators, QA testers, designers, programmers, and producers. So, wow, that's like every department that makes a video game, including leads. All super talented people were proud of their work over multiple Rockstar titles. So, they worked on multiple Rockstar titles, too. These employees are sounding more and more like the biggest leeches and pieces of

[__] Like how dare they leech off of Rockstar and contribute to its global success? How could they? How could they expect anything in return? Give your slime to the company and get out of my sight. All they wanted was the best for Rockstar and their fellow colleagues, and that's where you went wrong. Some of these members were sick, recovering from surgery, or on paternity leave. You're not even allowed to have children, or you'll be fired. Fired without pay, losing their careers, and putting them into hardship in the lead up to Christmas, dog. Wow, this is God, Rockstar [__] sucks.

Holy [__] Oh my god, they're evil. Why are you so evil? And even potentially losing their visas to work in the UK. You're fired, go back to your kid, get out of the country. What the [__] dog? By the way, I'm not laughing at people's suffering. I'm laughing at how comically evil this sounds. Let me be clear, I never saw any discussion/leaking of Rockstar projects in the union discord. By the way, that [__] that did get leaked about GTA 6, didn't they find the guy already? So, where is this leaked material didn't actually leak because nobody has seen it? Nobody knows what it is. You think I'm going to bite on that hook?

You think you're going to get me with that bait? Come on. Oh, the evidence is out there somewhere. Oh, yeah. The only ever discussion was around unionization efforts and the working conditions at Rockstar. You can't even discuss your working conditions and try to make your life better. Company X will not allow it, okay? Give your skin in your bones to the company. The discord wasn't public. It was a private discord group that only contained Rockstar employees and the international something union officials. This was union busting and nothing else.

Everyone fired was a union member. They were also predominantly for those who were on the union organizing committees of each UK studio. Yeah, yeah. You guys stand up to this kind of [__] man. You got to stand up to this kind of stuff. You put your heart and soul into a place, you know, trying to make the best product and they try to steal the life out from you. They try to steal your soul. And if you dare fight back for a slice of it, then they get rid of you. Just one week before the union had reached 200 members, taking us over the 10% threshold required to seek recognition and begin engaging in collective bargaining. Oh, so right before you could bargain, right before.

Allowing us to negotiate directly with management on the key issues that affect us, worsening crunch, inadequate pay, and inflexible working hours arrangements, they have fired over 34 of us. There will be no negotiations. Corporation X will not allow it. We here at Corporation X would like to collect your blood and spine. The company needs it. They have fired over 34 of us now. There were over 250 of us in that union employee discord group. There's the fear that if they get away with this, they'll have nothing stopping them from doing this AGAIN AND AGAIN. AGAIN!

THOSE OF US WHO ARE LUCKY AND remain for now work in fear. Oh, that's a wonderful working condition. I'm scared for my job. I'll surely do the best work I'm capable of now. Rockstar, what are you doing? What the [__] do you pay the people? Pay the man. Just pay the man and make a good video game. Just sell a good video game. Just make a video game and pay the people to make it and then sell it. Why is this so hard? I don't know about you, but I always work best under extreme fear and threats of ruining my life. Yeah, so we can't let Rockstar get away with this. Those of us who are lucky and remain now work in fear.

Fearful when talking to each other at the tea prep. Fearful that we're next in line and are easily got rid of. Too scared to go outside the studio and talk to or even acknowledge our colleagues outside protesting in fear of reprisals. Morale in the studio is at rock bottom. We should be excited about what's to come over the next year. We are now totally deflated and our trust and confidence in others is totally shot. Rockstar, fix your You just [__] the bed. Put on the gloves, get the [__] off of the bed, put the sheets in the wash or get new sheets, and clean up the mess you made. You just made a big ass Why would you do this? You already have a If you're greedy, you already have the Just make GTA 6. If you're like if

you're the greediest person in the world, which it sounds like you are, just make Grand Theft Auto 6. You will get so I trust me, you'll get a lot of money. I'm a market analyst. Just How can you be so greedy, dog? I just don't I don't get it. Don't get you no more. Which is the truly heartbreaking part. As for us in the union, all of our ambition was to make Rockstar a happier, fairer, safer, and more equitable place. That's all. Sounds like a hellscape you want to turn it into. What has happened clearly shows that we care more about the well-being of our colleagues at Rockstar than the company does. Yes. Bravo, bravo. You have finally figured it out what Corporation X is all about.

We don't care about you. The union remains unbowed and is fighting to win the reinstatement of every dismissed member of staff at Rockstar through legal means and campaigning. And I for one support them. Give them back their jobs. Just make a [__] video game. Rockstar, you cannot just move past this and ignore it and pretend it didn't happen. You just delayed the game. Reinstate these people. Just fix your mistakes. Stop being so [__] greedy. Just wait. You're going to make billions of dollars with GTA 6. Just [__] wait it out. Just make the game. This fight is critical. If Rockstar can get away with this, they will keep treating their workers with disdain, disrespect, and subjugating them to continued illegal treatment. And

there is a link we can put in the description to if you would like to support their efforts, here you are. Before anyone piles on them, this has been confirmed with me. So, this is the admin of the GTA forums. Uh who's who's only been around since 2006. So, you know, what does he know? What does he know about Grand Theft Auto, okay? That's uh That's [__] man. I kind of said all I felt I needed to say, which is like dog, just I don't know how many times this lesson has to be learned. It's like be nice to the goose that lays the golden egg. Just treat Look at Nintendo. Look at what Nintendo has always done, okay? They always treat their employees well and they make good games that sell. That's a

good business model. Whatever the [__] we're doing over here where you just like try to leech every single diamond, penny, and nickel out of every single human being, it's just not sustainable. It's not a sustainable business. You already made billions and billions of dollars. You're projected to make billions and billions more. Just focus on the [__] game instead of trying to like prevent people from unionizing. Just make the game. Happy workers make a happy product. All right, everyone, that's all I got. Okay. Now, go Now, back to whatever I was saying. Leave a like if you enjoyed the video. And if you love what I do here, feel free to subscribe to Act Man TV.

Stay tuned for more awesome content. Let me know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below. All right, everyone, that's all I got for today. This is the Act Man signing out. Peace.

More Entertainment Transcript