Jason Schreier revealed the behind-the-scenes of GTA VI: why Rockstar had to rebuild the entire studio

Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier revealed details of GTA VI's development: Rockstar spent more than eight years on the game, almost doubled its staff, and postponed the release twice, striving to bring the project to the intended level of quality.

According to Bloomberg, Jason and Lucia will be able to walk together, train, rob stores, and evade the police. For this, Rockstar had to create complex artificial intelligence systems. At the same time, developers aim to combine GTA's satire with more realistic characters, as in Red Dead Redemption 2.

Work on the game began back in 2015 under the code name Project Americas. Initially, the project covered North and South America, but its scope was reduced to Vice City and its surroundings. Development was delayed due to Red Dead Redemption 2, the pandemic, and internal reorganizations, among other things.

During development, Rockstar almost doubled its staff. At the launch of RDR 2, the company had 2441 employees, and by August 2026, it will have 4711 people in 12 offices. Management explains the delays by the complexity of production and the lack of resources to create numerous characters and animations.

Rockstar does not disclose the budget. According to Schreier's estimate, GTA VI could have cost more than a billion dollars. Analysts predict sales of 40 million copies and revenue exceeding $3 billion in the first four months. Rockstar also promises that the studio's next game will not require another eight years of development. The studio has a ready-made engine and tools, backed by 13 years of experience and a team that has worked together for a long time.