I find the anticipation around GTA VI fascinating. Not only because I want to play it, which I definitely do, but because at this point it feels bigger than a normal videogame launch. GTA V originally arrived in September 2013. GTA VI is currently scheduled for 19 November 2026. That’s thirteen years between the two main releases.
Thirteen years is a ridiculous amount of time in technology. Think about the phones, consoles, internet speeds and software we were using in 2013. Yet Rockstar isn’t simply making another version of the same thing. From what they’ve shown so far, we’re going back to Vice City inside the wider state of Leonida, with Jason and Lucia at the centre of the story.
The part I find more interesting is the expectation. Rockstar delayed the game to November and said the extra time was needed to achieve the level of polish players expect. Normally delays annoy people, and I get it. But honestly, with something like GTA VI, I would rather wait. We complain constantly about unfinished software, day-one patches and products released before they’re ready. Then, when someone asks for more time, we complain about that too.
And I think this goes beyond games. Today we expect products to arrive almost perfect. Especially products from companies that have already done something exceptional before. The better your previous work was, the harder the next one becomes. At some point you’re no longer competing with other companies. You’re competing with people’s memories of your own best work.
AI has made this even stranger. We now live in a period where creating things can feel incredibly fast. Websites, applications, images, code, ideas. Everything can appear in seconds. That’s useful, I use these tools myself, but speed can also change our expectations. We start thinking that because something can be produced quickly, something truly great should also be produced quickly. I don’t think those are the same thing.
Maybe GTA VI will be incredible. Maybe some people will be disappointed simply because no game could possibly satisfy thirteen years of imagination and hype. I’ll judge it when I actually play it. But I already like one thing about the story around it: sometimes taking longer isn’t failure. Sometimes you’re simply trying not to release something before it’s ready.
