Publisher Take-Two Interactive has revealed that full production work on Grand Theft Auto 6 began “in earnest” in 2020. The use of the word “earnest” indicates that there was likely some work being done on the game – likely for its earlier pre-production stages – earlier, but a larger team only got involved in 2020. The company revealed this during its recent earnings report, as caught by IGN.
In its report, the publisher has noted that, while development costs for Grand Theft Auto 6 have been quite high – estimated to be more than $ 1 billion – the time and money spent on the title is being considered worth it. “Affording Rockstar additional time for such a groundbreaking project is a worthy investment,” said Take-Two in its report. It is also worth noting that a development budget of more than $1 billion would make GTA 6 the most expensive game to be under development in history.
“The ambition and complexity of Grand Theft Auto VI is greater than any previous Rockstar title, and the team is poised to release another astonishing entertainment experience that will exceed players’ expectations,” the publisher continued.
Interestingly, a former environment artist from Rockstar, David O’Reilly, revealed earlier this month that Grand Theft Auto 6 first started development in 2018. This would place its development timeline at starting right after the studio shipped Red Dead Redemption 2. O’Reilly revealed that he had worked with Rockstar for 12 years, and had worked on Red Dead Redemption 2 as well as well as the early stages of Grand Theft Auto 6.
“It’s fascinating having a look at all this stuff, you know, because, as we’ve seen from [trailer 2], the lighting is just so nice, and they put some secret sauce on all that sort of stuff,” said O’Reilly, reacting to the recent screenshots Rockstar had released for GTA 6.
“Because everything just looks so different than when I last saw it. Granted, most of my viewing of it was in debug mode and stuff, very much development environment. And when you see it in trailer form, it’s a different thing altogether because it’s just ultra-polished. It’s just looking its best, and everything’s curated. It looks so nice and well presented.”
Anticipation for Grand Theft Auto 6 has been incredibly high, with the second trailer, released earlier this month, breaking all kinds of records in regards to view count and engagement across all platforms. In just its first day alone, the trailer had gotten more than 475 million views. For context, the first trailer for the game got 93 million views on YouTube in the same time frame. The trailer also eclipsed the views gotten by other projects in the entertainment industry, including the debut trailer for Deadpool and Wolverine (365 million views) and Fantastic Four: The First Steps (200 million views).
Grand Theft Auto 6 is under development for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Originally set for a Fall 2025 launch window, the game was delayed to May 26, 2026. Check out what Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick had to say about the delay.
