Take-Two dismisses Best Buy GTA 6 preorder rumor on earnings call

Strauss Zelnick drew a clean line between retailer noise and actual GTA 6 launch signals, saying Take-Two had no involvement in the Best Buy email that set off the preorder frenzy. On the company’s earnings call on May 21, he said Take-Two had no knowledge of where the email came from, had not coordinated it, and could not explain the dates that spread so quickly across the community.

That mattered because the rumor had briefly pushed fans into full launch-watch mode. A leaked Best Buy affiliate email, tied to a livestream from YouTuber Frogboyx1gaming, appeared to point to a preorder campaign running from May 18 to May 21. The timing was enough to spark a wave of speculation about preorders, a possible marketing beat, and even the idea that Rockstar was about to drop another major reveal.

Take-Two’s own earnings release gave a very different picture. The company reported $1.58 billion in fourth-quarter net bookings and $6.72 billion for fiscal 2026, with initial fiscal 2027 net bookings guidance of $8.0 billion to $8.2 billion. It also reaffirmed that Grand Theft Auto VI is scheduled for November 19, 2026, and said Rockstar’s marketing campaign is expected to begin this summer. Those are the dates and signals that actually matter, not a retailer email that Take-Two itself now says it cannot account for.

The Best Buy rumor was especially sticky because it landed in the middle of a real investor moment. Take-Two was already laying out a major year ahead, with recurring consumer spending accounting for 78% of annual net bookings in fiscal 2026. That made every scrap of GTA 6 chatter look bigger than it was, especially for players trying to guess when preorders would open and for investors trying to read the game’s rollout before Rockstar says anything public.

IGN had reported that Best Buy did not respond to a request for comment on the rumor, and later coverage described the preorder story as inaccurate or a bust. Zelnick’s remarks on the earnings call effectively finished the job. The email may have existed, but the company said it did not seed it, did not coordinate it, and did not confirm the dates, which leaves the official November 19 launch window and summer marketing plan as the only timeline worth following.