Take-Two Interactive chief executive Strauss Zelnick has signalled that players will not wait another 13 years for the Grand Theft Auto game that follows GTA 6. Speaking to IGN after Take-Two’s second-quarter results on 9 November, he was asked whether the next GTA would take as long as GTA 6 did. He replied that “the nature and velocity of the content we’ll see from our iconic franchises, including GTA” would “look dramatically different over the next decade”. Zelnick did not use the name GTA 7, and he gave no release window for any future Rockstar game.
The comments spread quickly after Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson shared them on X at 00:26 UTC on 10 November, under the headline “GTA 7 Won’t Take as Long as GTA 6, Says Take-Two CEO”. His post passed 228,000 views within ten hours. According to reports of the interview, Zelnick linked the change to three aims: releasing high-quality entertainment, reaching players in new ways and places, and keeping them engaged after launch. Rockstar Games itself has not announced its next project.
What Take-Two said about GTA 6 on 9 November
The interview came on the day Take-Two reported results for the three months to 30 September. According to the company’s earnings release, GAAP net revenue fell to $1.50 billion from $1.77 billion a year earlier, while Net Bookings dropped 18% to $1.60 billion. Take-Two kept its full-year forecast of $8.0 billion to $8.2 billion in Net Bookings, which covers the GTA 6 launch because its financial year runs until the end of March 2027. Recurrent consumer spending, which includes GTA Online, made up 81% of Net Bookings in the quarter, and the results call was webcast through Take-Two’s investor relations site at 4:30pm in New York.
Zelnick’s statement in the release looked at the next ten days rather than the next decade. “The launch of Grand Theft Auto VI is ten days away,” he said, adding that pre-orders were “continuing to reach unprecedented levels”. Take-Two did not publish a pre-order figure, although estimates have circulated for weeks, as our round-up of GTA 6 pre-order estimates shows. Grand Theft Auto VI launches on 19 November on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, and Rockstar opened digital pre-loading on 10 November.
Why GTA 6 took more than 13 years to arrive
The gap Zelnick was asked about is the longest in the history of the series. GTA 5 launched in September 2013, and Rockstar did not confirm that a new Grand Theft Auto was in development until February 2022. GTA 6 was first due in autumn 2025, before Rockstar delayed it to 26 May 2026 and then, in November 2025, to 19 November 2026. Our GTA 6 timeline sets out every step, while GTA Online, which launched in October 2013, kept the older game earning money throughout.
Rockstar’s own leaders have made a similar point. In a Bloomberg feature by Jason Schreier published on 14 October, development heads Phil Hooker and Aaron Garbut said the studio’s next game would not take another eight years to make. Hooker said the engine, tools and team built for GTA 6 would let Rockstar “do things more quickly”, and Garbut indicated that the studio has no plans to tear that work down. According to Bloomberg, early work began with a 2015 research trip to Miami under the codename Project Americas, and full production started in 2018.
The studio is also far bigger than it used to be. Reports on the Bloomberg feature put Rockstar’s headcount at 4,711 people across 12 offices, up from 2,441 when Red Dead Redemption 2 launched in October 2018. Analysts have estimated GTA 6’s budget at $1 billion to $1.5 billion, as covered in our look at GTA 6’s development cost, although Take-Two has never confirmed a figure. That scale is part of why Rockstar’s leaders say they want to build on GTA 6’s foundations rather than start again.
What Zelnick has and has not said about GTA 7
This is not the first time the subject has come up with Zelnick. At a TD Cowen investor conference in 2024, an analyst began a question about life after GTA 6, and Zelnick cut in with “GTA 7?”, a reply widely reported as a joke rather than a confirmation. His latest answer is the closest Take-Two has come to discussing the timing of the next game, but it still sets no date. His wording also referred to “content” from Take-Two’s “iconic franchises” in general, rather than to a single new game.
Beyond GTA 6 itself, very little about Rockstar’s plans has been confirmed. A new version of GTA Online has not been announced, as our look at the leaked PS5 data explains. A PC version has been reported but not announced, with one report pointing to the first quarter of 2027. Zelnick has also said Take-Two is ready for piracy, as covered in our report on his GTA 6 piracy comments. Rockstar’s next confirmed date after launch is Grand Theft Auto VI: The Festival, a live event at Mana Wynwood in Miami on 21 November.
