Rockstar Games says the technology established during the creation of GTA 6 will allow it to develop its next creations at a faster rate.
The wait for GTA 6 is almost over (at least on consoles), but it's been a long one. Rockstar Games has been building the latest installment in its world-dominating series for eight years now, and it's been even longer than that since the release of GTA 5 in 2013. Yet the studio promises that we won't have to hold out quite as long for what comes after.
Speaking to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, GTA 6 Development Lead Rob Nelson reveals that the initial plan was to develop the modern-day crime game concurrently with its western epic, Red Dead Redemption 2. However, the ambition and scope of the latter caused him to "mobilize most of Rockstar, including the senior leadership, to help finish it," which pushed back work on the next Grand Theft Auto by "several years."
The benefit is that Rockstar was able to implement its advancements from RDR 2 in its work on GTA 6. By the time the first trailer came out in December 2023, however, the release date was set for 2025; Schreier reports that leadership at Rockstar "say they genuinely believed" in this, though "staff on the ground level were more skeptical." In the end, Head of Publishing Jennifer Kolbe had to ask Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick for a delay to May 2026, and then again to November.
"I think he said, 'You're kidding. Please tell me you're kidding,'" Kolbe recalls, though she believes Rockstar is "really lucky that he is as reasonable as he is, because a lot of people would say, 'You'd just better figure out how to ship it.'" As for reports of crunch within the studio, Kolbe tells Schreier, "It's not been perfect, but it's certainly better than Red Dead 2 was."
The good news is that Rockstar believes it's now in a position to release its future games at a faster pace. "The engine, the tools, and the team we've built during this project will allow us to do things more quickly," Head of Development Phil Hooker explains. "I feel confident that we can build on top of this and go more sideways than upwards to build more compelling content."
"We foundationally changed a lot of stuff on this project," Art Director and Co-Studio Head Aaron Garbut adds. "But now it's done, and we're not going to rip it apart." Could that mean we see something closer to the rapid-fire pace of the PS2-era trilogy of GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas? It's a possibility.
Alternatively, once it's brought the seemingly inevitable GTA 6 PC port to life, with rumors suggesting it could happen as soon as early 2027, Rockstar could return to delivering story DLC, after leaving us hanging on that front with GTA 5, or even branch out into more distinct projects the way it did with Bully and Manhunt back in the day.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.pcgamesn.com/grand-theft-auto-vi/gta-6-development-rockstars-next-game
