Eric Chort Says Grand Theft Auto Vi Is the Ogre in 2026
Eric Chort says grand theft auto vi has turned 2026 release planning into a moving target. The Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy producer said studios are treating Rockstar's game as the biggest force in the market, and that some publishers have already pushed titles into September or February 2027 to get out of its way.
Eric Chort on GTA 6
“All the studios in the world were thinking about it,” Chort said in a recent chat about Grand Theft Auto 6's impact on release planning. He said, “When you know that GTA is coming, you know that in terms of marketing, in terms of players, the time to play games, GTA is like the ogre, it's the biggest one.”
That framing is not just colorful language. It matches the way publishers are handling the calendar, with games moving into September or February 2027 to avoid getting buried in the same window.
August 27 for Resonance
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy is set for 27th August 2026, and Chort said the team kept revisiting that timing during production: “All along the production, we were like, okay, our release date could be this year - and there's GTA,” he said. The line from a producer is blunt, but it reads like the kind of scheduling math studios now have to do before a marketing campaign ever starts.
Chort's own answer was to stay focused on the game's identity. “As a studio, this is the best you can do,” he said. “You try to make the best game possible with what you have - the more authentic one. Have your identity make it different; try to make it different from all the other ones.”
November Pressure
Grand Theft Auto 6 had a proposed autumn 2025 release date before later delays, and it is now scheduled to arrive in November. That shift is why 2026 looks crowded on paper but narrow in practice: the closer publishers get to Rockstar's date, the more they have to decide whether to stay put or move into another window.
Phantom Blade Zero has already moved closer to GTA 6 to win back breathing space, while other publishers are opting for September or February 2027. Chort's final read is the least diplomatic one: “But definitely it's an odd year to go out.”
