Take-Two Says GTA VI Development Is Complete and Pre-Orders Are at Unprecedented Levels

Grand Theft Auto VI is finished. "Right now, Rockstar has completed the development of GTA VI," Take-Two Interactive chief executive Strauss Zelnick told analysts on the company earnings call on Monday, November 9, ten days before the game goes on sale. "They have done their very best work, and it is going to come to consumers soon," he said.

Posts on X on Tuesday morning called the game gone gold, the industry term for a locked final build. Take-Two did not use that term on the call, and neither did Rockstar. What the company confirmed is narrower and still final: development is complete, the November 19 date stands, and the build players began preloading on Tuesday is the finished game.

Pre-orders are running far above plan

The demand numbers, in the company words, are large. "Pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto VI are tracking far in excess of our initial expectations," Zelnick said in his prepared remarks, and the earnings release said pre-orders are "continuing to reach unprecedented levels" in what the company expects to be "an historic year." Finance chief Lainie Goldstein called the level of pre-orders "extraordinary."

Take-Two published no pre-order total. Zelnick also refused to celebrate before launch day. "We still aren't ready to declare victory," he told analysts, even as the company raised its outlook for the December quarter on the strength of those orders.

No second delay, Zelnick tells IGN

Asked by IGN on Monday whether the game could slip again, Zelnick gave a short answer: "It's not going to be delayed again." He described himself as optimistic and said he is looking forward to the launch. The game was delayed twice before this date held.

The finished build is already reaching consoles. Preloading opened on Tuesday, November 10, at 12 a.m. GMT on Xbox Series X and S and at midnight local time on PlayStation 5. Rockstar says players need up to 212 GB of free space depending on the device. The game unlocks at midnight local time on Thursday, November 19, on both platforms.

The quarter rides on one game

Take-Two reported net bookings of $1.60 billion for its fiscal second quarter. For the December quarter, which holds about 42 days of GTA VI sales, the company projects net bookings of $3.35 billion to $3.5 billion, up from $1.9 billion a year earlier, with Rockstar Games expected to supply about 37 percent of label bookings. The full year outlook stayed at $8 billion to $8.2 billion. Take-Two stock rose 4 percent in after hours trading after the release, and marketing spending was up 21 percent from a year ago.

The old game is still selling on the way in. Grand Theft Auto V passed 235 million copies sold as of September 30, with five million sold in the quarter. NBA 2K27 sold fewer copies than the company expected, a miss executives linked in part to a crowded September slate of games moved to avoid the GTA VI window.