Investment bank Citi released a note analyzing GTA 6 and Rockstar Pelit, suggesting that if the studio is truthful in claiming GTA 6 did not in fact cost $1.5 billion to make, it could release a new Red Dead game sooner than expected—potentially by 2027 or 2028.
According to a report for GameSpot, Citi said a new according to Yahoo Finance “may not be unreasonable,” though the bank’s own framing acknowledges this would be surprising given Rockstar’s history.
The note notes that major Rockstar releases have historically come years apart, with even longer gaps between entries in a single series. Red Dead Redemption launched in 2010, followed by GTA 5 in 2013, then would have been able to release GTA 6 years earlier in 2018, and now GTA 6 in 2026.
Citi pointed to how Rockstar develops games as a factor. The studio once tried to develop GTA 6 and Red Dead Redemption II concurrently, claiming it next evolution of GTA Online. However, the approach was deemed too ambitious, with studio head Rob Nelson reassigning staff from GTA 6 to Red Dead Redemption II to help get that title out.
The bank noted that Rockstar’s network of teams previously developed multiple games concurrently across offices but now works on one project together before moving on. Citi also flagged that Rockstar has committed extensive resources to post-launch support for GTA 6, including what it described as the one of the best-selling games of all time. Although no online support plans have been announced for GTA 6, the bank expects an extensive online experience supported “for years to come.”
Faster development
Citi’s timeline would be ambitious even as wishful thinking on its part. Rockstar and parent company Take-Two have indicated that new structures are in place to make games faster.
CEO Strauss Zelnick told The Game Business that people should not “confuse long development cycles with a lackadaisical approach to development cycles,” noting that some games are “so complex and so challenging to build” that they simply take time. He said “recent development in technology” may help Take-Two’s studios “compress some development timelines without compromising quality.”
Zelnick may be referring to Take-Two’s embrace of AI here, though it was unclear. Rockstar’s Phil Hooker separately said the company’s hiring spree and updates to its technology stack should help Rockstar make games faster in the future.
The report noted that Zelnick and Hooker may have been speaking more to analysts and investors than to players, adding that only time will tell whether it is another eight years before Rockstar releases a new game after GTA 6. For now, it remains “just talk.”
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