In recent months, we’ve reported on a handful of leaks, like how it will feature the series’ first playable female lead and its use of the RAGE 9 engine, which Rockstar wants to be on par with Unreal Engine 5. Fast forward to today and a new Bloomberg report claims that Rockstar has spent most of the past ten years working on GTA 6. According to Bloomberg, Rockstar started development on GTA 6 just a year after releasing GTA 5.
Before concluding that the game is in development hell, the same report defended the slow progress. Apparently, Rockstar spent a few years overhauling the organization. A few years back, Rockstar dealt with the employee and public backlash following allegations that the studio encouraged crunch culture. This forced Rockstar to take the necessary steps to create a less toxic, more sustainable work environment. In addition to this, Rockstar also dealt with the departure of high-level executives like Dan Houser. Bloomberg also revealed that the original plan for GTA VI was to have a larger map, which would corroborate earlier reports about “Project America”. Unfortunately, Rockstar dropped its earlier plans and will instead expand the game’s world post-launch. As for a release date, Bloomberg states that sources have told them that they are skeptical that GTA 6 will come out before March 2024. This would make it more likely that GTA 6 will be out by 2025 or 2026, a release window that was previously leaked. The biggest takeaway from Bloomberg’s report is that the finer details about GTA 6 are still in flux. This would help explain why various sources are making different claims about GTA 6. Previously, we reported that the game would feature twin siblings as lead characters. This is in line with what Bloomberg said that GTA 6 will have a playable female lead to address the studio’s misogynistic treatment of women in the past. This can still change depending on Rockstar. For now, the only fact we truly know about GTA 6 is that Rockstar is putting all its eggs into one basket. After confirming GTA 6 earlier this year, reports emerged that Rockstar had canceled remasters of GTA 4 and Red Dead Redemption and a next-gen Red Dead Redemption 2 to focus work on GTA 6. Rockstar also appears to have confirmed this when it said that it had moved “more development resources” towards the next GTA game in recent years. In the meantime, GTA fans can keep themselves busy with GTA Online and its latest update.
