GTA 6 pre-order chaos begins after third delay ruled out

Here we go again. It turns out the supposed GTA 6 pre-order window might not be happening after all.

Unless you've been living under a rock, it was revealed last week that US retailer Best Buy had sent out affiliated emails to a bunch of creators telling them about a supposed GTA 6 pre-order window that was going live from today (18 May) until Thursday (21 May). With Thursday also being the next quarterly update from GTA 6 parent company Take-Two Interactive, the stars were aligning once again and the copium was so very real.

We've then been treated to even more hope via Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, confirming a third delay isn't happening. Alas. Reality is back and it isn't quite as optimistic as the last week has been.

Best Buy 'got it wrong' on GTA 6 pre-orders

The dedicated community team over at GTAForums.com has reported that internal Rockstar Games / Take-Two emails have indicated no pre-order will go live today.

"I don’t want to disappoint anyone," writes one user, "but internal company emails suggest that Best Buy has got it wrong and no pre-orders will be launching today.

"Things might change at the last minute, but I’d advise keeping your expectations in check."

This was followed up by the main administrator of the forums, user Spider-Vice, saying the leaked email has been confirmed in their own direct messages.

"Verified in DMs," they replied.

"The company email also matches the one the member used to register on the forum, as they've suggested before they used their work email here."

Responding, the community has been a little upset, you could say. One wrote on social media: "Just fell to my knees outside Best Buy."

A second posted: "I can't believe it. One decent credible leak we had in a long time & that too turned out to be false. I don't think so moving forward I will ever be able to fill my heart with hopium again."

No GTA 6 third delay

At least there's going to be no third delay, according to Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick.

He made the commitment in a sit-down interview with David Senra, in which Zelnick committed to the 19 November, 2026 release date.

But by Zelnick's own admission in the interview, the third delay might already have happened. As reported by GAMINGbible, he admitted to GTA 6's release window now being 18 months after the initial date set out.

With 18 months ago being spring 2025, and the first public release date being the fall of 2025, are we looking at an unannounced delay before we even got confirmation? It certainly seems that way.