Rockstar might be offering a fan who is very sick a special chance to play Grand Theft Auto 6 before the game officially comes out. This game is one of the most highly expected in the gaming world, and Rockstar has been talking about it for a long time. The company finally announced GTA 6 in 2022 and showed the first official trailer in December 2023, which made a big splash on YouTube and became the biggest premiere for a non-music video ever. But the game has taken a while to get to its current November release date.
GTA 6 is one of the most talked-about games in the industry, but it has faced many delays during its development. The first trailers suggested it would come out in 2025, but Rockstar pushed the release back to May 2026. Then they moved it even later, setting the launch date for November 19. This change happened after a lot of staff were let go and some employees protested. However, a recent message from an Ubisoft Toronto worker on LinkedIn hints that one fan might get to play GTA 6 before it officially launches.
A Ubisoft Toronto employee named Anthony Armstrong recently shared a personal story on LinkedIn about a family member who is very sick. He asked Rockstar employees if they could help by setting up an exclusive playtest of GTA 6, under a confidentiality agreement, because his family member is a big fan of the GTA games and may not live to see the game fully released. He mentioned the family member was given a prognosis of 6 to 12 months to live. Later, Armstrong said he talked to the CEO of Take-Two, the company that publishes GTA, and someone said they got good news from Rockstar. However, his LinkedIn posts have since been taken down.
The post can't be seen on LinkedIn anymore, but part of it is still stored in Google's search engine.
The removal of those posts probably means that Armstrong managed to get the ill family member an exclusive early playtest of GTA 6. This isn’t the first time Rockstar has done something like this — they once gave a fan with a serious illness a chance to play Red Dead Redemption 2 before it came out. The gaming industry has seen many developers offer early access to players with terminal illnesses, like one fan who got to play Borderlands 4 more than a year before it officially launched.
Rockstar's positive news is a nice change of pace for the company after a tough ending to the year. Earlier, Rockstar fired several people, which caused a lot of anger from fans and ex-employees. Even the UK's Prime Minister talked about the situation. There are also rumors that Grand Theft Auto 6 might be delayed again, but a former Rockstar worker says more delays could hurt the game's excitement. Rockstar hasn't officially said if there will be any more delays for GTA 6, but the game is still set to come out in 10 months.
The release of GTA 6 is making a lot of game developers change their plans. Sony is acting like GTA 6 will only be on the PS5, and they are adjusting their big game releases to fit around it. Many smaller game studios are also planning their new game releases to avoid competing with GTA 6's big launch. This is expected to be one of the biggest events in gaming, and lots of developers are changing their schedules to make space for it.