Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani says GTA VI’s delay gives Helldivers 2 a temporary “stay of execution,” offering the studio six extra months before Rockstar’s blockbuster inevitably dominates the industry.
Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Shams Jorjani has said Rockstar Games’ decision to delay Grand Theft Auto VI has effectively granted Helldivers 2 “a stay of execution”.
After Rockstar announced it would be pushing back its highly-anticipated action/sandbox game from May to November 2026, Jorjani joked the six-month delay gives Arrowhead “another six months of uninterrupted work without GTA looming over us”.
While Helldivers 2 remains one of 2024’s standout live-service successes, the CEO made clear that no studio – not even one riding a hit – can ignore the gravitational pull of a new GTA launch.
During an interview with The Game Business, Jorjani said: “We try to do our planning and not look too much at what else is happening around the time we are releasing stuff.
“But GTA has obviously been very hard to avoid.”
The Arrowhead boss added he doesn’t think Rockstar would “go out and delay stuff” until its “sure that the new date is going to stick”.
Despite being the second delay for GTA VI, Jorjani “thinks the new date’s going to stick”.
Even so, Jorjani said that GTA VI will “blot out the sun in a way unimaginable” for the rest of the games industry when it eventually releases.
Jorjani contrasted the situation with his time at Paradox Interactive, where niche grand-strategy titles could thrive during crowded holiday seasons because they didn’t compete for the same players or media coverage.
But for mainstream studios, he warned, GTA VI’s launch window will be “terrible to contend with”.
GTA VI delay is ‘a stay of execution’ for Helldivers 2, Arrowhead boss says
