Take-Two stock dips after Rockstar Games says 'Grand Theft Auto 6' will be delayed yet again
It turns out those pernicious rumors were true: "Grand Theft Auto 6" is not coming out this year.
On Friday, "GTA" maker Rockstar Games announced that the company now plans to release the game in May 2026. Shares of Rockstar's parent company, Take-Two Interactive, tumbled by as much as 8% on Friday morning.
"Grand Theft Auto 6," which has been years in the making, is one of the most anticipated games of all time. An early trailer for the game, released in 2023, broke the record for most views on YouTube by a non-music video in one day with more than 93 million, Variety reported at the time. It now has more than 251 million views and ranks second among video game trailers behind mobile game 'Subway Surfers,' which has more than 361 million views.
The game's release will mark the first release of a main series "GTA" game since "Grand Theft Auto V" in 2013. The unusually long time between releases has even inspired a popular meme: "We got (insert long-awaited thing) before GTA 6."
The Empire State Building even got in on the meme after Friday's announcement.
We got a dragon on top of the Empire State Building before we got GTA 6 https://t.co/5tqHgaIxj3 pic.twitter.com/3MCOdqHmSS
— Empire State Building (@EmpireStateBldg) May 2, 2025
In a statement, Rockstar said that the "interest and excitement surrounding a new Grand Theft Auto has been truly humbling for our entire team."
"With every game we have released, the goal has always been to try and exceed your expectations, and Grand Theft Auto VI is no exception," the company said. "We hope you understand that we need this extra time to deliver at the level of quality you expect and deserve."
In March 2024, Kotaku reported that sources close to the game's development said its release could "slip" into 2026 after reports of slowed progress and return-to-office mandates for Rockstar employees. This sparked speculation that Rockstar was behind schedule and trying to increase productivity.
In a Q3 earnings call in February, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said the company expected calendar year 2025 to be an "inflection point" for the company thanks to "Grand Theft Auto 6."
"From the groundbreaking release of 'Grand Theft Auto 6' to the unmatched pipeline that 2K is set to deliver, as we introduce hit products to our passionate communities of fans, we're confident that we'll usher in a new period of growth and returns for our shareholders," he said on that call.
When asked about how Take-Two plans to reactivate the player base for "GTA" after so much time, Zelnick said Rockstar "seeks perfection in everything they do."
"We believe that if we do that right and we focus on delivering for consumers, that's our best opportunity to succeed," Zelnick told investors.
In a statement on Friday, Take-Two said it still expected to see "record levels of net bookings" in fiscal years 2026 and 2027, despite the "Grand Theft Auto 6" delay.
"We support fully Rockstar Games taking additional time to realize their creative vision for Grand Theft Auto VI, which promises to be a groundbreaking, blockbuster entertainment experience that exceeds audience expectations," Zelnick said in the statement. "While we take the movement of our titles seriously and appreciate the vast and deep global anticipation for Grand Theft Auto VI, we remain steadfast in our commitment to excellence."
Some of Take-Two's biggest releases still scheduled for 2025 include "Borderlands 4" and "Mafia: The Old Country," which are sequels to popular game franchises.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Buzz Feed
2 hours ago
- Buzz Feed
12 MAGA Celebs Who Have A LOT Of Feelings Over Trump And Elon's Breakup
Rob Schneider He wrote what appears to be a little poem for Elon telling him he is loved: "Dear @elonmusk The Sun will still rise tomorrow. The moon will not be moved by anything that anyone says. Breath. You are loved." Jake Paul He criticized alpha male egos and the maturity of 50+ year-olds: "One of the problems with the Republican Party is on display today (As a current Republican) We unfortunately have these Alpha male egos and leaders who aren't mature enough sometimes. They're 50+ years old and diss tweeting each other Elon and Trump are great but they need to work together and not make America look bad." Roseanne Roseanne responded to Elon's (now deleted) Epstein tweet: "MAGA went down faster than AOC at a Hamas blow bang. We had a good run at least." Lil Pump He said, "We got trump & elon beefing before gta 6." Kevin Sorbo He asked, "So will the Dems go back to buying Teslas now?" Kanye West He sent his love, "Broooos please nooooo. We love you both so much." Robert Davi He retweeted this message about having Trump's back: "Pay close attention to all the people who don't have President Trump's back right now." Logan Paul He suggested the two wrestle it out: Antonio Sabato Jr He said he was staying out of the political drama, "Seeing people lose it over political drama is wild—like they can change a system that owns them. The truth? You can only change yourself. Invest your energy in what truly improves your life. I find peace by not giving my time to this chaos. Focus on you!" Megyn Kelly She retweeted a bunch of the popular memes of the moment: And then asked, "Remember this morning when the big story was Dems piling on Karine Jean-Pierre*?" *Jean-Pierre released a book saying she's an independent. Randy Quaid He said we welcomed Elon and Trump's transparency and then went on to explain that he doesn't have a relationship with his brother, Dennis Quaid: "I welcome @realDonaldTrump & @elonmusk transparency it's very cool. Nothing worse than public people faking a relationship because they're 2 afraid of public opinion. Allow me to use this opening to once again state Dennis and I have no relationship and Evi & I have not spoken to him for close to 30 years and will never again speak to him. My bio is not his bio. He is a very bad person and a liar. So when you see him faking a relationship with me or Evi know he's a fraud! He's a pedestrian actor who is good at playing word games on Google [Yawn]. I for one appreciate Trump & Elon's transparency to express their destain for each other and why. Keeping it real." And lastly, Ryan Garcia He tweeted "Elon crashed out." He went on to say, "If it's true what Elon said then this is extremely disturbing and needs to be exposed out to the world The truth needs to come out but needs to come out with integrity not some drama shit."
Gizmodo
3 hours ago
- Gizmodo
Bad News: Google's Veo 3 Can Make VR Slop, Too
Just when we thought the AI slop fest was over, Google pulls us right back in. First, we had YouTube slop, then video game slop, and then we had Michael Bay slop. And just in case you weren't already slopped full of slop juice squeezed straight from the slop teat of Veo 3, Google's latest AI video generator model, you all had to go ahead and invent new kinds of AI slop that make Sloppy Joe himself say, 'I think that's too much slop for me, fam.' Introducing: 360-degree video slop made by Google Veo 3. Here's a collection of a bunch of the clips I created with VEO 3 to test out it's ability to generate 360° video. I'll post a link below to a VR ready youtube video so you can test it on your own VR headsets. — Martin Nebelong (@MartinNebelong) June 6, 2025 That's right, your poor, innocent VR content isn't safe from Veo 3's generative abilities either. While I haven't had a chance to actually view this content in VR, creating it couldn't be simpler. Per Henry Daubrez on X, who initially discovered the trick, all you have to do is add 'make it 360 degrees' to your Veo 3 prompt to generate video that can later be viewed in VR. Well, almost. There's a little bit of fussing with the metadata afterwards, too, in order to get everything working right. In a post on X, Daubrez says, '…the next step is to inject the right metadata in your file so you can play it as an actual 360 video. I tried a few available solutions, but in the end, using the Terminal was the only one [that] actually [worked] for me with ExifTool… Once it's saved with the right metadata, it will be recognized as an actual 360/VR video, meaning you can just play it in VLC and drag your mouse to look around.' 🤯 How to generate VR/ 360° videos directly with VEO3 Alright, I just randomly stumbled on that very neat trick: If you prompt for a 360° video in VEO3 (like literally write "360°" ) it can generate a Monoscopic 360 video, then the next step is to inject the right metadata in… — Henry Daubrez 🌸💀 (@henrydaubrez) May 30, 2025 But that's pretty much it: prompt Veo 3 and then slightly alter the metadata, and boom, you've got an AI-generated video that can be played back in VR. There are some quirks, of course, like the addition of black bars around some of the generated content. But for the most part, Veo 3 works about as well with 360-degree content as it does with anything else prompters have thrown at it, especially, as Daubrez mentions, when you consider that this likely isn't even a planned feature of Veo 3. If you want to watch some of Veo 3's ad hoc VR video for yourself, there's already some on YouTube for your viewing pleasure (or displeasure, depending on what your relationship to AI is). Just like with any Veo 3 application, there's big potential for slop here, but I'll be honest, I'm going to give this one a bit of a pass. I don't think VR video is quite at the point of high art yet (no offense, VR creators), and, to be honest, I kind of like the idea of being able to generate VR experiences that don't exist yet, especially because the VR catalog is still somewhat limited. I'm sure I'll end up eating those words sooner rather than later, and just like a Sloppy Joe, it might eventually erode your body from the inside out—but hey, there's a time and a place for junk food, so have fun while you can, folks.
Business Insider
3 hours ago
- Business Insider
Addison Rae and the art of the rebrand
The business of being Addison Rae was booming. It was March 2021, and the then-20-year-old had recently become the world's top-earning TikTok star, dancing and lip-syncing her way to nearly 80 million followers and a vast portfolio of brand deals. She'd dropped out of school at Louisiana State University to sign with an agent and move to LA, was preparing to launch her own cosmetics line, and had already secured a second season of her Spotify-exclusive podcast. That summer, she'd make her film debut in Netflix's "He's All That," a role that would lead to a multimillion-dollar deal with the streamer. There was only one thing left to do: Become a pop star. But when the single and music video for Rae's debut single " Obsessed" dropped that month, listeners were anything but. The song was panned as phoned-in influencer slop. "This is proof that nowadays it's so easy to get into the music industry by using the clout you have," one YouTube commenter wrote. Critics weren't much kinder. "'Obsessed' proves she should stick to lip syncing," Langa Chinyoka wrote for entertainment blog Popdust. While the song's reception was almost unanimously negative, the real inciting factor was Rae's audacity to release original music at all: How dare an influencer best known as a purveyor of corny TikTok dance trends envision herself as an actual artist worthy of any stage bigger than an iPhone? Back then, no one could have predicted Rae's debut album, "Addison," would arrive Friday amid a flurry of praise from pop heads and critics alike. Four years after "Obsessed" became a spectacular flop, Rae has masterfully rebranded as the music industry's newest "It" Girl. This time, her strategy is working: her face is back on major magazine covers, she's collaborating and associating with pioneering pop stars like Charli XCX and Rosalía, and is being anointed " the new pop princess" by fans on social media. Against all odds, Rae has pulled off a rare pivot, trading a massive but unenthusiastic audience of passive social media scrollers for critical acclaim and a passionate niche of die-hard fans. As Walden Green wrote for Pitchfork, "Addison Rae has achieved something arguably more impressive than success: coolness." How did she do it? Act I: Flipping the script Rae is hardly the first celebrity to switch lanes, but the transition from TikToker to bona fide celebrity is particularly difficult — just ask Charli D'Amelio or Bella Poarch, both of whom boasted more followers than Rae in 2020, but have so far failed to parlay social-media fame into traditional Hollywood prestige. Lili Colwell, the vice president of digital at Night, a talent representation platform for online creators, said her clients face greater stigma when transitioning into a new discipline, as skeptics often assume that influencers are lazy trend hoppers, not creative forces in their own right. "They don't give these people enough credit," Colwell said. "They're like, 'Oh, they have no talent.'" Growing an audience on TikTok demands a constant churn of content. Rae recently told The New York Times' Popcast she was posting "ridiculous amounts of videos" at her peak popularity, sometimes up to 12 videos per day. Meanwhile, carving a fruitful path in the music industry demands discernment and a distinct point of view. The biggest stars like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé deploy tightly controlled communications strategies to keep their brand identities compelling and consistent. Tara Goodwin, a PR expert and founder of Goodwin Consulting, said for Rae to be taken seriously beyond social media, it was essential that she rejected TikTok's ethos of oversaturation and began sharing with more intention. "On TikTok, she had random posts all the time, never any rhyme or reason," Goodwin said. "Now, it's very curated, it's very strategic." In May 2025, Rae only shared 12 videos on TikTok for the entire month, mostly to promote music videos that were painstakingly styled, shot, and edited — a far cry from the off-the-cuff, low-effort clips that defined her early days on the app. Now, if she's going to lip sync or dance, it's to her own songs. Taking a step back from algorithmic ubiquity not only gave Rae more control over her narrative but also added a crucial layer of mystique to her persona — a key element in transforming her reputation from regular Louisiana girl with a knack for nailing TikTok dances to an aspirational, slightly unknowable celebrity and artist. "She's releasing bits and pieces to intrigue the audience and make them want more," Goodwin said of Rae's current social media strategy. "She's actually now creating a story." Online and in interviews, Rae has managed to sell her rebrand as an earnest progression in her creative coming-of-age. She told The New York Times that, after her TikToker days of hustling for mass appeal and millions of followers, she can finally afford to take risks. "I have this luxury now to be able to play and explore," she said. The fact that it's taken four years for Rae to re-emerge with a different, more adventurous musical persona only makes this arc more convincing. Her evolution didn't happen overnight; instead, Rae's dogged commitment to her new vision is a selling point. "She's no longer just an influencer making music — she's a pop artist who happens to come from an influencer background." Sara Andréasson, PR expert Rae has proudly told news outlets about how she convinced Columbia Records to give her another chance after the failure of "Obsessed" by presenting an elaborate mood board that laid out her new sound and aesthetic in buzzwords ("intense," "glitter"), colors (aquamarine, hot pink), and iconic pop performances. She has been working to personify that character ever since, with every carefully selected public appearance, red carpet look, and new song revealing another layer of her new self-mythology. Sara Andréasson, cofounder of Michele Marie PR, told Business Insider that this strategy has created demand and curiosity. "She's no longer just an influencer making music — she's a pop artist who happens to come from an influencer background." Act II: Finding a backer During her TikTok reign, Rae told BI, "You are who you hang out with." Though she was speaking at the time about how close she was with her family, the statement has become a key tenet of the Rae Rebrand. Rae's music earned its first major stamp of approval from the alt-pop star Charli XCX, who, after hitting it off with Rae in a studio session, asked to contribute a verse to "2 Die 4," a ringtone-era throwback track that was included on Rae's 2023 EP "AR." Before Charli XCX had her major crossover moment in the summer of last year with the ubiquitous acid-green rollout of her album "Brat," the British singer was known as a platinum-selling songwriter for other artists and an ahead-of-the-curve pop prophet in her own right. Her interest in supporting and collaborating with Rae, whom she'd also recruit for the remix of her "Brat" single, "Von Dutch," around the same time, legitimized Rae's artistic pursuits. DJ Louie XIV, a music critic and host of the Pop Pantheon podcast, said he's "keen to ascribe agency" to Rae, even if it could seem like her fame has been propelled by her shrewd choice of collaborators. It's not that he believes Charli is pulling the strings — it's that he trusts her eye for talent. "Maybe I'm buying the hype," he told BI, "but I think if Charli sees something in her, that means something to me." Rae's connection to Charli introduced her to a wider audience, made her more chic by association, and staved off doubts about her staying power. As Brat Summer raged on, Rae took a page out of Charli's cool-girl playbook, crashing parties and smoking cigarettes with club kids, and winning respect from celebrated songwriters like Lorde and Lana Del Rey. To top it off, she generated buzz when she joined Charli onstage for surprise performances during the singer's tour stops at Madison Square Garden and Coachella, and cheekily announced her album release date via a pair of pink underwear while performing the "Aquamarine" remix with Arca at the festival. Act III: Dressing the part Having good style is relatively easy; making your fashion serve a narrative purpose is harder. Rae is largely focused on the latter, using her outfits to signal her new priorities. Gone are the Brandy Melville sweatpants and backward baseball caps that made her look laid-back and accessible, like the average girl at Erewhon. Instead, she's worked closely with Interview magazine fashion director Dara Allen to execute a series of looks that aren't simply pretty or well-fitted, but edgy, flamboyant, and evocative. Rae savvily uses her clothing to evoke movie stars and pop icons and project herself into that lineage, landing a series of indelible fashion moments, from her pap walk in a baby tee accessorized with Britney Spears' memoir to the white satin lingerie set she wore for her VMAs red carpet debut, which Vogue described as "'Swan Lake' meets Las Vegas showgirl." Andréasson, who has experience dressing A-list celebrities for events, said Rae's style evolution stands out for its use of surrealism and storytelling. Rae in 2021. Gotham/GC Images Rae in 2024. XNY/Star Max/GC Images "She does a great job avoiding the costumey elements of nostalgia and instead reinterprets it with modern tailoring and fresh beauty choices," Andréasson said. "Nostalgia only works when it's recontextualized, and Addison seems to understand that." In a media landscape where rewearing a historic Marilyn Monroe gown or recreating a memorable look from a '90s sitcom are easy ways to score headlines, Rae has avoided the plug-and-play approach. Her style may be full of references, but crucially, she doesn't mimic other celebrities or copy exact outfits. Instead, she prefers to arouse a broader feeling of familiarity. For example, Rae cited the 2006 friendship comedy "Aquamarine" as an inspiration for her song of the same name and her mermaid-inspired look for the 2024 CFDA Awards — not in terms of the movie's content or plot, but in how watching it made her feel. "I wanted to find what aquamarine meant to me," she said. Act IV: Living up to the hype Rae's flair for refracting nostalgia through her own original lens is evident in her new music as much as in her aesthetic. Her debut album "Addison" is full of dreamy, mid-tempo pop that flirts with its influences, from Madonna's "Ray of Light" and Björk's "Post" to Spears' "Blackout" and Del Rey's "Born to Die." As the tracklist dances between decades, genres, and moods, Rae's personal touch fills the gaps. This kaleidescopic technique isn't always radio-friendly, but Rae no longer seems to be aiming for immediate chart success (none of the album's five singles have yet cracked the Billboard Hot 100's top 40, with "Diet Pepsi" peaking the highest at No. 54). And why should she? If there's anyone who knows the drawbacks of an abrupt rise to fame without a sensible plan to sustain it, it's Rae. Instead, she and her team are executing a strategy that prioritizes artistic legitimacy and real staying power, something Rae hinted at in a recent interview with Elle. "I feel like I've surpassed Addison Rae," she said. "It's just Addison now." Going mononymous is a shorthand for prestige: think Madonna, Cher, Beyoncé. Rae hasn't earned that level of name recognition yet, but if her journey thus far is any indication, her ambition, marketing savvy, and willingness to play the long game are not to be underestimated — at least, not anymore. "Back in the '50s, people were discovered in Hollywood by sitting at a lunch counter on a stool. TikTok was her stool," Andréasson said. "It's going to fade away, and all of the new things that she's doing are what she's going to be known for. That's just going to be a postscript in the Addison story."
