Nine years of work, nearly 5,000 people on the team, and a budget of less than $1.5 billion — details on the creation of GTA VI
Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier published an extensive article dedicated to the development of GTA VI and changes within Rockstar Games. For it, the reporter spoke with both managers and rank-and-file employees of the studio.
GTA VI
- Rockstar Games began working on GTA VI almost a decade ago, in 2015. At that time, the game was codenamed Project Americas and was planned to be set in North and South America. Eventually, the location was narrowed down to Vice City and its surroundings. To better capture the atmosphere, Rockstar Games employees started to make regular research trips to Miami.
- The studio hoped to develop GTA VI in parallel with Red Dead Redemption II, but as ambitions grew, they realized that the project required as many people and resources as possible. This decision led to the game's release being delayed by several years.
- The exact budget for GTA VI has not been disclosed; however, Rockstar Games assured that it was less than 1.5 billion dollars, a sum that had previously appeared in rumors.
- During the creation of the new GTA, Rockstar Games' staff grew significantly. In 2018, when Red Dead Redemption II was released, the studio had 2,400 employees, whereas now it has 4,700 employees.
- After the debut of Red Dead Redemption II, several key specialists left the studio, including Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser. This complicated the work on the game. Consequently, three managers were put in charge of GTA VI’s development: Rob Nelson, Phil Hooker, and Aaron Garbut. Although the managers claim that their appointments barely affected their daily tasks, some rank-and-file Rockstar Games employees were not thrilled with this move, noting that decision-making seemed slower.
- By the end of 2019, Rockstar Games had finalized the main plot, but many other elements of GTA VI were yet to be defined. Some aspects were immediately clear. For instance, GTA VI had to be a satirical action game with an open world, featuring shootouts and car theft. However, certain decisions were more complex. In particular, developers struggled to set the boundary between realism and convenience. Rockstar Games even debated whether players should perform all actions in stores themselves (like taking goods off the shelf, going to the cashier, and paying) or if this would be too tedious for gamers.
- While Rockstar Games was figuring out these and other issues, an unforeseen problem arose — the COVID-19 pandemic. Later on, leaks concerning GTA VI and issues with unionization compounded the troubles.
- The overall picture of GTA VI emerged by 2022, when developers could already envisage what the finished game would look like. A year later, Rockstar Games released its first trailer for the game, which stated that GTA VI would be released during 2025. Although studio managers sincerely believed that the game would be ready by the scheduled time, rank-and-file employees were more skeptical. As the deadline approached, it became clearer that the skeptics were right. Ultimately, the managers agreed that GTA VI needed further refinement.
- Notably, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick took the postponement of GTA VI from 2025 to May 2026 rather calmly. However, when the game's release was pushed to November 2026, he was initially incredulous and thought Rockstar Games was joking. Nevertheless, Zelnick understood the developers' motives and did not object.
- Rockstar Games plans to use the work done on GTA VI in future projects, hoping that this will make developing new games simpler and faster.
Reminder, GTA VI is set to be released on November 19th for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series.