Grand Theft Auto VI is scheduled for release on 19 November 2026, which is a Thursday. That single line is doing a lot of work for a lot of people right now, so it is worth pulling apart properly rather than repeating it and moving on.
Three things follow from the date, the platform list and the pricing that have been published alongside it: what you need to own to play it, what it costs here rather than in dollars, and roughly when in the week it lands. Everything below is sourced, and everything that is not sourced is listed at the bottom as not confirmed.
The date, and how much of it is settled
19 November 2026 is Rockstar's stated date. It is the third public milestone this game has had in front of an audience: the first trailer leaked on 4 December 2023 and was officially released the following day, the second trailer arrived on 6 May 2025, and the presentation Rockstar calls An Extended Look premiered on Netflix on 27 August 2026 before going to YouTube.
A Thursday release is worth noting for one practical reason. It puts launch day on a working day and a school day in the UK, with the first full weekend of play starting two days later. If you were assuming a Friday, you were assuming the pattern most games follow, and this one does not.
Platforms, and the thing people keep getting wrong
The announced platforms are PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S. There is no announced PC version and no announced Nintendo Switch 2 version.
The PS5 Pro is not a third platform. It is a PlayStation 5 model, so it sits inside the PlayStation 5 line rather than beside it. You will see it listed separately in a lot of coverage. Worth keeping straight if you are deciding what to buy between now and November: the question is whether you have a current generation console at all, not which PS5 you have. The announced list is PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, and a PS4 or an Xbox One is not on it, so for anyone still on one of those this is a hardware decision as much as a game one.
One related detail from the Extended Look, reported by Shacknews and Push Square: all of the footage was captured in game on a PlayStation 5, and specifically on a base PlayStation 5 rather than a PS5 Pro. That tells you what the standard machine is doing. It does not tell you anything about frame rates or resolution, because no performance figures have been published.
What it costs, in pounds
The standard edition is 69.99 pounds in the UK. In the United States the standard edition is 80 dollars and the Ultimate Edition is 100 dollars. The Ultimate Edition adds in game content including vehicles, weapons and apparel. No UK price for the Ultimate Edition has been confirmed, so we are not printing one.
The detail most likely to catch someone out at a till in November: physical copies contain a download code rather than a disc. If you were planning to buy a boxed copy so you could lend it, sell it on, or install it without a big download, that plan does not work here. A boxed copy is a box with a code in it.
Preload, and the launch day question nobody has answered
Preloading begins on 12 November 2026, a week before release. That is the number that actually matters for launch day, because a game this size is not something you start downloading at teatime on the 19th and expect to be playing by nine.
What has not been announced is the unlock time. Nobody has published what time the game becomes playable in the UK, and we are not going to guess at one and dress it up as information.
There is one worked example of how Rockstar handles UK timing, and we offer it as an observation rather than a prediction. The Extended Look premiered on Netflix at 3pm Eastern on 27 August, and reached YouTube six hours later at 9pm Eastern, which was 2am on Friday 28 August in the UK and Ireland. UK viewers who wanted it at the same time as everyone else were awake in the middle of the night for it. We will replace all of this with the real unlock time the moment one is published.
How much time to set aside
Rob Nelson, co studio head at Rockstar North, told the New York Times that his own playthrough took about 80 hours, covering the main story plus some optional objectives.
That is one developer describing one playthrough, not an official length for the game, and it should not be read as one. It is still the only figure with a name attached to it, and it is a useful shape for planning: someone playing a couple of evenings a week is looking at months, not a long weekend.
Why a British release, from Manchester
This game is largely made in the UK. Rockstar North is in Edinburgh, and Rockstar also has studios in Leeds, Lincoln, London and Dundee. Rob Nelson, the developer doing most of the talking in the current press round, is co studio head at the Edinburgh studio.
There is no Manchester connection to this game, and we are not going to manufacture one. No studio here, no announced Manchester event, nobody from the city named in any coverage we could verify. What Manchester gets on 19 November is what every other British city gets: a Thursday, a 69.99 pound price tag and a week of preload before it.
The scale is worth one line for context. Take-Two reports that Grand Theft Auto V has sold 230 million copies since 2013 and the series 475 million. Whatever happens in November happens to a lot of people at once.
What is not confirmed
Stated plainly, so nobody reads a gap as an answer.
- No unlock time. Nothing published on what time the game becomes playable in the UK on 19 November.
- No PC version announced.
- No Nintendo Switch 2 version announced.
- No PS4 or Xbox One version on the announced platform list.
- No confirmed UK price for the Ultimate Edition.
- No performance figures. No frame rate or resolution numbers have been published for either PS5 model.
- No age rating printed here. We are not putting a rating badge on this page until it is checked directly against the ratings board.
- No download size published.