GTA 6 release date confirmed amid concerns over pricing

Its predecessor came out 12 years ago

Despite a leaked release window of Autumn 2025, Rockstar Games will officially unleash its golden goose on May 26, 2026 - 13 years since GTA 5 hit the shelves (per The Gamer).

A synopsis for the open-world action-adventure title - which has been in development since 2014 - reads: "Vice City, USA. Jason and Lucia have always known the deck is stacked against them.

But when an easy score goes wrong, they find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, in the middle of a conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida — forced to rely on each other more than ever if they want to make it out alive."

It'll be released on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S consoles.

Despite this mouthwatering news, there's one niggling aspect of the release fans can't seem to shrug off: what it's going to cost them.

Rumours circling the project suggest conversations inside Take-Two Interactive (Rockstar's parent company) pointed towards a $100 price tag for GTA 6, with CEO Straus Zelnick doing nothing to quash concerns during his interview with Variety this week.

"Our goal always is to deliver more value than what we charge, so we've had variable pricing at the company forever," he told the publication.

"As you know, the approach of the industry is to launch at a premium price, sometimes with special editions, and over time, typically to reduce the price to enhance the overall size of the market. We do the very same thing."

This comes as $80-priced video games are becoming the norm for AAA titles (demonstrating higher budgets and distributed by larger firms), so there's every chance fans are going to have to really shell out if they want to return to Vice City next year.