GTA 6 Officially Facing One Final Delay, Brace Yourselves

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A close-up on Lucia holding a full martini glass and eating the olive garnish off a skewer.

Published Jul 16, 2026, 5:55 AM EDT

James is a gaming writer from London who has spent thousands of hours exploring titles from every genre. Though he has a particular affinity for multiplayer titles like World of Warcraft, Destiny 2 and League of Legends, he has also put thousands of hours into single-player experiences, from deep RPGs to epic PC strategies. When he's not playing or writing, he can usually be found supporting his beloved Brentford FC.

It really does feel a little difficult to believe just how close we are to the upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto VI, given how long it has been since the last game, and the rigmarole of the last few years. That said, the road does now look relatively clear to the big day in November, with pre-orders now open and doing very well, by most accounts.

That said, there is a glaring group of players who won't be able to get in on the action on launch day, with the PC release not scheduled to arrive for at least a year after. Now, we have some insight into why from an individual close to the project, and it does make a lot of sense to ensure that all versions of the game are as good as they can be when they go live.

As first reported by IGN, former Rockstar Games producer John Ricchio sat down on the KiwiTalkz podcast to discuss his work, and why the PC version of GTA VI won't be getting a simultaneous release this time either.

"It's always better to start with the constraints and then extend, because shrinking is a lot harder than extending. It's way harder to make your game performant than it is to just be like 'Oh, we've got extra room? Cool, we can de-optimize or make things more shiny.'

"It’s always those conversations," he said. "It’s never any specific, you know, anti-any platform. It’s just, is it worth spending the time and effort to get something running on Switch, or something like that, or Wii, who knows? And I think you have to make those calls per game, and in a lot of cases there are legitimate hardware limitations, right?

"But as time has gone on, I feel like the consoles are definitely closer, so it doesn’t quite feel as bad, but it just becomes about, ‘If you’re working on that, you’re not working on something else,' usually. And so if you’re spending money on that, you’re not spending money on something else. And so that’s where the business case has to be there."

While it is obviously frustrating for the huge number of players who only have access to a PC for their gaming, it does make technological sense overall. There's also the very open nature of the platform to consider with the PC in 2026, with far more infrastructure required for all of the multiplayer elements, whenever those arrive.

The unfortunate reality is that GTA VI fans simply have no way around the problem other than to take the leap and buy a console, both of which have seen significant price rises in recent times. It's either that or sit it out and wait for a PC release, but all of that jealousy might be too much to bear for many.