Rockstar's Jennifer Kolbe says Zelnick met the second GTA 6 delay with 'You're kidding', Bloomberg reports
GamesRadar+ and Eurogamer reported on October 14, 2026, from a Bloomberg interview, that Rockstar's Jennifer Kolbe said Take-Two's Strauss Zelnick first met the second GTA 6 delay with disbelief. She also said crunch was better than on Red Dead 2 and that Rockstar would follow its staff on a union.
By GTA 6 Everything Editorial · · 1 min read
Rockstar's head of publishing Jennifer Kolbe told Bloomberg that Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick first reacted with disbelief when she phoned to say GTA 6 would slip a second time, GamesRadar+ and Eurogamer reported on October 14, 2026. Bloomberg's feature is behind a paywall and we could not open it, so the quotes here come through those two outlets.
GamesRadar+ said Kolbe had to call Zelnick twice: once when the game moved from fall 2025 to May 2026, and again when it had to move from May to November. Of the second call she said: "I think he said, 'You're kidding. Please tell me you're kidding.'" Once they talked through the reasons, she said, he understood, and she said Rockstar was lucky to have someone so reasonable in charge.
On crunch, Eurogamer said Kolbe called Red Dead Redemption 2 "a real moment for Rockstar to look at itself". She said the team agreed not to do it that way again, and added: "It's not been perfect, but it's certainly better than Red Dead 2 was." She did not claim there had been no crunch, saying that whenever she says so, someone will tell her they did. Eurogamer said Bloomberg spoke to "dozens" of employees, who "mostly expressed positive sentiment".
On unions, Kolbe said: "We go where the team goes." She added that if staff want a union, they will have one. Eurogamer set this beside the Scottish employment tribunal over 34 staff Rockstar fired, 31 of them from Rockstar North. Rockstar alleged gross misconduct, while the fired workers called it union-busting. Eurogamer said the tribunal was scheduled to conclude in November.
Looking ahead, Eurogamer said Phil Hooker told Bloomberg that the engine, tools and team built for this project will let Rockstar do things more quickly, so the next game should not take another eight years. No plans for that game were given.
Neither outlet's account says why the game needed the extra six months. GTA 6 was then due on November 19, 2026, on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
More official images
Jason and Lucia standing on the Vice City waterfront, the downtown skyline and a helicopter behind them
Sources and verification
- "Please tell me you're kidding": GTA 6's two delays flabbergasted Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, but he was "reasonable" with Rockstar, GamesRadar+ (14 October 2026)
- GTA 6 was originally Project Americas and covered "big swaths" of country's north and south, Rockstar reveals, in interview tackling crunch, delays, and leaks, Eurogamer (14 October 2026)
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