•Rockstar Games has promised that its next title will not take eight years to develop, following the lengthy creation of Bloomberg”>Grand Theft Auto 6. The studio acknowledged concerns about slow production after a more than 13-year gap since Grand Theft Auto 5.
In a making-of feature on GTA 6 published by Bloomberg, Rockstar leadership committed to faster development going forward. “The engine, the tools and the team we’ve built during this project will allow us to do things more quickly,” said Phil Hooker, co-head of development on Grand Theft Auto 6.
“I feel confident that we can build on top of this and go more sideways than upwards to build more compelling content.” Grand Theft Auto 5
Aaron Garbut, co-head of Rockstar North, added: “We foundationally changed a lot of stuff on this project. But now it’s done, and we’re not going to rip it apart.”
The Bloomberg article highlights the scale of GTA 6’s development. When Red Dead Redemption 2 launched in 2018, Rockstar had 2,441 employees. By 2026, that figure rose to 4,711 staff across 12 offices, with 4,020 working in development and QA.
The studio’s growth suggests GTA 6 may be one of the most expensive video games ever made”>most expensive video games ever made, though Rockstar denied rumors that the game cost more than $1.5 billion to produce.
Explaining why development took so long, Garbut described designing a single nightclub as involving animating and scripting each individual clubgoer, then adding drinks, music, and lighting with “layers and layers and layers of detail.” “And now you understand why it took so long,” said Jennifer Kolbe, Rockstar’s head of publishing.
GTA 6 has become a symbol of troubling trends in modern game development, where increasing technical fidelity and massive worlds have led to inflated budgets and lengthy development cycles. Despite the pledge to shorten waits for future titles, Bloomberg notes that Rockstar previously held similar expectations about GTA 6 after Red Dead Redemption 2’s five-year development cycle.
PC version of the game”>Grand Theft Auto 6 releases on November 19 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. A PC version is reportedly coming in 2027.
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