Rockstar Games confirmed the 4 month delay on their website today

In an official press release Rockstar Games shared an official release date of September 17th 2013. This comes as a 4 month delay to the original release window of “Spring 2013” and to the previously speculated release by GameStop in Kilkenny of May 28th. The following was detailed by Rockstar:

Dear all,

Today, we have an official release date to share with you: Grand Theft Auto V will arrive in stores on September 17, 2013.

We know this is about four months later than originally planned and we know that this short delay will come as a disappointment to many of you, but, trust us, it will be worth the extra time. GTAV is a massively ambitious and complex game and it simply needs a little more polish to be of the standard we and, more importantly, you require.

To all Grand Theft Auto fans, please accept our apologies for the delay, and our promise that the entire team here is working very hard to make the game all it can be. We are doing all we can to help ensure it will meet if not exceed your expectations come September – we thank you for your support and patience.

Yours,

The GTA Team

This is very close to the next gen cycle of consoles, which will be inevitably be announced this year. Hopefully this release date is solid as many eager GTA fans are impatiently as well as angrily waiting to get their hands on the title. And this was seen in the comments section of the press release, with Rockstar replying: “Hey all, we understand many of you guys are disappointed with this news – unfortunately sometimes such delays are necessary in all forms of entertainment, and especially in the case of a game experience as massive and complex as GTAV. However this does not give you free reign to be abusive in comments. The general rules of common courtesy, decency and behavior as listed above the Comment Box still apply here, therefore anyone continuing to post abusive comments will have their privileges suspended. Also for those of you asking about the official box art, that will be coming out a bit later as well. Thank you all for understanding.”

So if you’ve preordered GTA V you may want to take care of that receipt for the next 8 months. GTA V is set for release on Xbox 360 and PS3 on September 17th with a predicted later release on PC.