Grand Theft Auto 6 is a video game community’s white whale. After going a whole console generation without a new GTA game, fans are becoming increasingly anxious about when one could be released. We know one is in development; Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier essentially confirmed it in April, although whispers of the game’s development have been circulating since 2016.
Those suspicions gained new fuel on Tuesday, when a possible release date was allegedly leaked. The disadvantage is that the year in question is 2025. Yes, it is an absurdly lengthy time, but if there is one thing we know about Rockstar, it is that they enjoy taking risks with their games. That ambition is what allows them to create such big and wide environments, and it’s also why they don’t produce GTA games as frequently as, say, Call of Duty.
While 2025 is the rumored release date, it is so far in the future that no one at Rockstar can commit to it. If the story is genuine, then the development team has most certainly set an internal goal. Anyone who has worked in game development understands that deadlines and objectives change. Making a video game is difficult, and it’s impossible to know what obstacles might arise along the way. For example, if this game truly began development in 2016, as the early reports claim, then they have most likely already scrapped whatever they were working on and started over once or twice. These are the kinds of obstacles that video game producers face, which is why we can’t place much stock in a 2025 release date rumor; it’s simply too far away.
Some may be asking why a video game takes so long to build, especially one that is already known to be in development. To begin with, Rockstar hasn’t given up on the cash cow that is GTA Online by any means. The online mode in Grand Theft Auto V is one of the most profitable pieces of media ever developed, and it’s so successful that it’s currently available on three generations of consoles. They’re continuing working on and maintaining GTA Online with a large portion of their current development team.
Another reason a game like GTA 6 will take so long to build is a combination of the worlds that Rockstar enjoys creating, as well as a shift in organizational culture. We’ve always known Rockstar to create massive settings – GTA practically invented the sandbox genre, and Red Dead Redemption 2 was maybe their most ambitious project ever. Creating such an universe requires the kind of time that has historically led corporations into an unhealthy crunch culture, which they have allegedly been working to improve.
Of course, the most intense crunch normally occurs in the final year or two of a game’s production, but it’s plausible that the rationale for Rockstar giving themselves so much time to produce GTA 6 is to ensure that crunch doesn’t happen again. Employees on Red Dead Redemption 2 worked 55 to 60 hour weeks. It’s probable that Rockstar is preparing ahead to avoid development headaches in the future to ensure that this doesn’t happen again and to keep personnel healthy.
With all of this in mind, a release date of 2025 seems realistic, but it’s simply too far off in the future to be certain. Perhaps we’ll be lucky and all of the deadlines will be met, and the game will be great in 2025, just as the creator supposedly desires, but that rarely happens in video games. We’ll have to wait until the development is further advanced to know for sure when GTA 6 will be released.
