The Rockstar Office Caught Fire. Will GTA 6 Be Delayed Again?

In case you were living your life in the happy hopes of playing GTA 6 later this year, the Rockstar North office, based in Edinburgh, caught fire yesterday. At 5.02 am on Monday, 19 January, a loud explosion was heard at the office on Holyrood Road. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service crews were called were deployed to secure structural damage at the site. Firefighters remained on the scene until 9:21 am, and authorities confirmed there were no casualties.

Rockstar later clarified that the explosion was caused by a malfunctioning heating boiler. The company confirmed that all employees were safe and that the studio remained open. The developer also thanked emergency services and those who reached out with concern following the incident.

Social media was flooded with memes as news of the incident hit the internet.

So, Is GTA 6 Getting Delayed Again?

The explosion occurred at Rockstar North, the studio responsible for the Grand Theft Auto franchise and Red Dead Redemption series. Naturally, attention has turned to whether the incident could affect the release of Grand Theft Auto 6.

Fans have been waiting over a decade for the next installment, with GTA 5 having launched in 2013. GTA 6 was officially revealed with a trailer in December 2023 and initially pointed to a 2025 release window.

Since then, the game’s launch has been pushed multiple times. A December 2025 release was later moved to May 2026, before Rockstar confirmed a new date of November 19, 2026. In a previous statement addressing delays, the studio said the additional time was needed to deliver the level of polish players expect, while teasing the return to Vice City in the fictional state of Leonida.

Rockstar Games

But in the meanwhile, the Edinburgh office that caught fire yesterday has also been in the spotlight over the past year for protests following reported mass layoffs in 2025 (no wonder it was getting delayed so many times).

With the Edinburgh studio declared operational within hours of the explosion, there is currently no indication that the incident will cause further delays to GTA 6’s release timeline. In fact, the game is practically playable by now, as recently, Rockstar earned gave a terminally ill fan the chance to play the game before its release. This took place after a UI integrator at Ubisoft Toronto posted on LinkedIn that a family member who had been battling cancer was given 6–12 months to live. "They are a huge GTA fan, and with this latest update, he may not be around long enough to actually get to see GTA 6 launch, best case scenario he will be leaving us the same month it does," she said.

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Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Take Two, Rockstar’s publishing company reached out for help, and a few weeks later, the person behind the original post put a follow-up message saying that they would be discussing the idea with Rockstar's team shortly.

So, if all goes smoothly (no pun intended), GTA 6 will actually be releasing on November 19 this year.