A former Rockstar employee finally reveals why GTA VI is taking forever, and it might be your favorite game's fault

Even if you’ve never picked up a video game in your life, I wouldn’t believe you if you said you haven’t heard of GTA VI. After all the memes surrounding the game’s impending release, it’s practically become a running joke on the internet at this point. The game was initially set to launch in the fall of this year but was pushed back to May 26, 2026, just a week ago.

Rockstar figured there was no better way to cheer up fans disappointed by the delay than by dropping the second official trailer for the crime-based adventure game on a random Tuesday. While the trailer did exactly what Rockstar intended and threw fans into a frenzy (again), a reaction video to it ended up giving us some insider scoop, and it turns out a fan-favorite game is one of the reasons behind the game’s continuous delays.

GTA VI’s development started four years later than believed

A former 3D environment artist at Rockstar Games, David O’Reily, posted a twenty-eight-minute-long video on his YouTube channel, Game World Art, reacting to Grand Theft Auto VI’s second official trailer’s screenshots.

Before diving into the agenda of the video, he shared a bit of his background at the beginning, mentioning that he worked at Rockstar for 12 years and left the company in 2023. Here’s the interesting tidbit — he worked on GTA VI from 2018 to 2023.

He also revealed that development only started after they wrapped up one of the most well-known games of all time, Red Dead Redemption 2. O’Reily’s statement debunks many rumors and reports that previously suggested the game’s development began in 2014, a year after GTA V’s release. If development had indeed begun in 2014, it would mean Rockstar had been working on the game for over a decade. Though there were likely other factors that slowed them down, like the Covid-19 pandemic, a decade was still a long time. However, given that development only began in 2018, and it’s been seven years since then, the timeline suddenly feels a lot more reasonable, especially for a title as massive and ambitious as GTA VI.

While we might have had the game today if Rockstar worked on multiple titles simultaneously, it’s clear the studio chose to go all-in on Red Dead Redemption 2 first. Ironically, Red Dead Redemption 2’s fate ended up being similar to GTA VI’s, with multiple delays before its official release. It seems this is a pattern the gaming giant has. Nonetheless, with the game’s development starting in 2018 rather than 2014, the long wait for GTA VI actually feels justified. Rockstar clearly values quality over rushing a release, and when the game finally drops, it’ll likely be worth every bit of the wait. Though it’s best to keep your fingers crossed that it won’t be delayed again.