Rockstar Games has surprised fans by unexpectedly releasing the second official trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI. The surprise drop comes just days after the studio confirmed the game is now slated for release in May 2026, pushing it well beyond the originally expected 2025 launch window.
The second trailer gives a closer look at the story of the main characters, Jason and Lucia.
According to the official description, "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.”
Also Read: GTA 6 is delayed: 10 new games you can enjoy before the May 2026 release
Why the delay?
An alleged Rockstar employee responded to rumors that the game's delay is due to the story mode not being finished.
{{/usCountry}}An alleged Rockstar employee responded to rumors that the game's delay is due to the story mode not being finished.
{{/usCountry}}Refuting the rumors, the person wrote on Reddit, "The story mode for GTA 6 has been fully finished and playable since January 2025 as I'm aware of. That's not speculation. I've seen it. It's not ‘almost done.’ It's not ‘still being tested.’ It's finished. Fully playable from beginning to end. The missions are there. The characters are there. The single player world is complete. And it's not being delayed because it's broken. If anything it's better than what most people are expecting."
The post claims the real reason for the delay is Rockstar’s big plans for the online mode.
“The real reason for the delay is online. Full stop. Executives are obsessively focused on getting GTA online right this time. They saw firsthand what GTA online became for GTA 5 and how much revenue it brought in long term. This time the stakes are way higher. They don't just want a working online mode, they want a platform that is nothing but perfection,” the post states.
“I've been in meetings where the focus is entirely on day one concurrency, server load testing, and backend systems being airtight. We already had our internal launch yield forecast and the expectation is somewhere between 35 to 40 million players accessing GTA 6 online within the first 72 hours of its release. That number is driving almost every technical and infrastructure decision right now. There's a lot of internal pressure to avoid what happened in 2013. No crashes, no major bugs, no login issues. They want a strong pipeline already in place before launch.”