Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has accepted that GTA 6 will be pirated, and says the company is ready for it. Speaking in an interview with WSJ Tech, Zelnick called piracy an unavoidable part of the entertainment business that companies have to plan around, not wish away, according to a report by iXBT.games.
It is a frank admission two weeks before launch. GTA 6 releases on November 19, 2026, for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, and Take-Two says it is prepared to add more technical protection and take legal action if piracy reaches a serious scale.
Zelnick compared games with films and music
To make his point, Zelnick looked at other industries, as reported by iXBT.games. In film, pirated copies have at times made up 10% to 20% of the market. In music, the share reportedly hit around 80% in the mid-2000s before streaming pulled it back down.
| Industry | Piracy share Zelnick cited |
|---|---|
| Film | 10% to 20% of the market |
| Music (mid-2000s) | Around 80%, since fallen sharply |
| Games | Harder to pirate, according to Zelnick |
Games, he argued, are in a stronger position than either. The figures above are as Zelnick described them in the interview, not independent data.
Why a 200GB game is hard to crack and share
Zelnick pointed to three things that make modern games harder to pirate. The first is size. GTA 6 is reported to need around 210GB on PS5, which makes it a slow and awkward file to pass around. The second is the hardware itself. Current consoles are much harder to modify than older machines. The third is updates. Regular patches from the developer can break pirated copies, and online features usually need a legitimate account.
That last point matters most for GTA. Much of the long-term value of GTA 5 came from GTA Online, and an online mode is very hard to use with a pirated copy. Our breakdown of how much space GTA 6 takes on each PS5 model shows just how big the install is.
Take-Two is ready to add protection and go to court
Zelnick did not describe a specific anti-piracy system. Instead, Take-Two says it is prepared to add more technical protection if needed and to pursue legal action against large-scale piracy. That fits Take-Two’s history. The company has taken legal action in the past to protect GTA, including against makers of GTA Online cheat tools.
The bigger worry before launch is probably not cracked copies but early leaks. Rumours of creators playing the game early have already done the rounds, as we covered in our look at the Shirrako GTA 6 early-access rumour.
Console-only launch buys Take-Two time
GTA 6 is launching only on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Rockstar has not announced a PC version. Console games are far harder to pirate than PC games, so the first months on sale should be well protected. The real test will come if and when a PC version arrives, which is where piracy has historically hit hardest.
You can watch the full conversation on the WSJ Tech YouTube channel.
