New GTA Online promos will help fund GTA 6's delayed development

As it delays GTA 6 by six months, Rockstar Games is offering big promos for Grand Theft Auto Online to pull more players into the spending ecosystem.

New GTA Online promos will help fund GTA 6's delayed development
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Senior Gaming Editor
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TL;DR: Rockstar Games has delayed GTA 6 to November 19, 2026, impacting earnings forecasts. To offset this, GTA Online is now available as a $7.99 standalone subscription, and GTA V returns to PlayStation Plus, boosting player engagement and revenue while supporting ongoing GTA 6 development.

Rockstar Games has delayed GTA 6 to holiday 2026, a move that's sure to impact earnings forecasts. The six-month delay coincides with some interesting business moves that will help Rockstar earn in the meantime.

New GTA Online promos will help fund GTA 6's delayed development 2
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Yesterday, Take-Two and Rockstar Games delivered some bad news: GTA 6 has been delayed by six months, and is now releasing November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The good news? GTA Online is much cheaper to access as a standalone game, and GTA V is also coming to PlayStation Plus this month.

GTA V will be included in PS Plus Extra and Premium later this month, as reported by reliable Dealabs leaker billbil-kun. This will be the second time GTA V has been offered on PS Plus--the first introduction helped Rockstar make $190 million revenue during the holiday 2024 season.

New GTA Online promos will help fund GTA 6's delayed development 3
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Rockstar has also rotated GTA Online into the GTA+ subscription vault. This means PS5 and Xbox Series X/S players can effectively buy into GTA Online's standalone version for $7.99, the price of a monthly GTA+ subscription. Normally, GTA Online costs $19.99 on these platforms. This is just the online mode and doesn't include GTA V's story mode, and it's possible GTA Online will rotate out of the lineup--GTA+ acts like Game Pass and PS Plus.

The two promo events paint a clear motive: Rockstar is trying to funnel as many people into GTA Online as possible, likely to help spike earnings and provide more funding for GTA 6's continued development while also maintaining the margins required to keep the company where it is.

Take-Two management has typically expected GTA Online earnings to slowly wind down, but the mode continues to surprise. Company CEO Strauss Zelnick also says GTA+ subscriptions are up, and they're likely to continue to climb as Rockstar adds more value.

"I don't think you'll see any change and Rockstar has a history of supporting GTA Online. And of course, the title continues to perform incredibly well. I also know that GTA+ was up 20% year-over-year in the quarter, which is just great news."