While recent reports had indicated that Grand Theft Auto 6 pre-orders would be going live this week through US retailer Best Buy, in an interview with Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has said that this is not the case. Zelnick has also recently noted that the title is still on track for its November 19th release date, and there are no more delays planned for it yet.
Mentioning that he wasn’t quite sure where the rumors about pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto 6 on Best Buy started from, Zelnick has also reiterated that the full marketing push for the highly anticipated title will begin in the summer.
Interestingly, earlier this year, there were also rumors that Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar Games might be planning to delay the physical release of Grand Theft Auto 6 to instead focus on a digital-only release. However, these rumors were debunked by Zelnick during an earnings call in February, where he said, “That’s not the plan.”
On the subject of the title’s arrival on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S and the lack of a release date for a PC version, Zelnick said that the consoles serve as the “core” audience for the upcoming game, and as such, are the primary focus for the company.
“Rockstar always starts on console because I think with regard to a release like that you’re judged by serving the core,” Zelnick said earlier this month. “Like really serving the core consumer. If your core consumer isn’t there, if they’re not served first and best, you kind of don’t hit your other consumers.” On the subject of whether a deal was signed with Sony to put off the PC release, Zelnick said, “No. I mean, historically, Rockstar’s gone to console first.”
Zelnick isn’t wrong, since Rockstar has focused on releasing its 3D Grand Theft Auto titles since GTA 3 on consoles almost a year before they were brought to PC. This trend has continued with all of the company’s games, including Red Dead Redemption 2.
Interestingly, Zelnick has been largely silent when the discussion moved to the subject of pricing for Grand Theft Auto 6. His most recent comment on the matter came during a conference for gaming industry executives, where he said that the game’s pricing is down to what consumers would be willing to pay.
“Consumers pay for the value that you bring to them, and our job is to charge way way way less of the value delivery,” Zelnick said. “How you feel about something you buy is the intersection of the thing itself and what you pay for. Consumers need to feel like the thing itself is amazing and the price they were charged was fair for what they got.”
He also brought up the subject of inflation and how gaming software has largely avoided prices going up over the decades. “If you look at it through that lens, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. But that isn’t the lens through which we look. Instead, we look at… how do we deliver something amazing, and how do we make sure that what people pay for it feels very reasonable,” he said.
Interestingly, Bank of America believes that the company should target an $80 price tag for the good of the entire industry.
Take-Two earnings: Grand Theft Auto VI is still planned for November 19. No delay. In an interview with Bloomberg today, CEO Strauss Zelnick said he didn’t know where this week’s Best Buy rumors came from and that pre-orders typically start alongside marketing (which will begin this summer).
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier.bsky.social) 2026-05-21T20:15:38.749Z
