Shroud Says Rockstar Is Delaying GTA 6 Because the Fanbase Won’t Tolerate Anything but Perfection

GTA 6 got pushed, and yeah, people are rattled. Rockstar says it is about quality, which sounds like PR until you consider the pressure around this game. Then streamer Shroud weighed in and basically said the quiet part out loud: the delay makes sense because the audience will torch anything that is less than perfect.

Shroud puts the mood into words

"They are just trying to make sure they get their game literally perfect. Because there is so much riding on it, right? Even if it is a little bit off, given how volatile the community is now, like in games. Because it is so normie, it has to be perfect. Just like five years ago - only five years ago - everyone appreciated almost everything. Now, they almost f**king hate everything if it is not perfect."

His point is less about Rockstar and more about us. According to Shroud, the vibe used to be: enjoy the game, flag the bugs, let the patch cycle do its thing. Now one rough edge can feel like a studio death sentence. He is not wrong about the shift.

Why the long road to launch actually tracks

For context: GTA 6 has reportedly been in the works since 2018. That is roughly seven years of development, which sounds huge until you remember how long modern AAA projects take. Ask Bethesda. Ask CD Projekt Red. Building a massive open world at Rockstar's usual level of detail is slow, expensive, and fragile. And when every frame of your trailer gets freeze-framed and dissected, you are not shipping early.

The current climate is not gentle

As a snapshot, look at Assassin's Creed Shadows. The story has not won over everyone, the gameplay has steadily improved, and still the conversation turned into a microscope comparison with Ghost of Tsushima. Every little difference in detail became a talking point. That is the field Rockstar is stepping into while being treated as the industry benchmark.

And the nightmare example everyone remembers: Cyberpunk 2077. CDPR launched it in rough shape, got hammered for it, and only pulled off a comeback with update 2.0 and the Phantom Liberty expansion. If they had not righted the ship, that early stumble could have defined the whole game.

Are players being too picky? Not entirely

Here is the other side: games cost more than they used to, and if you are charging full price, you cannot ask buyers to tolerate a half-baked launch. With $60 being the standard in 2025, people expect polish out of the box. And when a game truly hits, players often show they are willing to spend more if the option is there - this year, that enthusiasm showed up around Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

So... who is right here?

• Rockstar taking extra time lines up with the size of the project, their history of obsessive detail, and a very unforgiving audience.
• The audience demanding quality aligns with the price of admission and a long list of bumpy AAA launches that made players wary.

Both things can be true. Personally, I would rather Rockstar ship the game they want than rush it and spend a year in apology patches. But I get why the patience is wearing thin.

Where are you at on this? Should Rockstar lock the date and go, or keep polishing until they are actually ready?