While Rockstar Games continues its work on Grand Theft Auto 6 in preparation for its November 19th release date, it looks like the studio also wants to work on more remasters to bolster its more modern offerings. A new job listing on Rockstar Games’ official website for a senior gameplay programmer indicates that the company wants to work on “classic game technology areas”.
“Rockstar is on the lookout for a talented Senior Gameplay Programmer with a passion for game development. You will be working as part of a small but experienced team, ideally taking responsibility for one or more classic game technology areas and stepping outside your comfort zone to work in other areas as necessary.”
Among the core responsibilities is working with designers and artists to implement gameplay systems and features and discern where and how existing systems can be extended or modified. The studio wants candidates with five or more years of experience in using C++ to develop video games, along with strong math and problem-solving skills.
It is worth noting that, while the last three titles developed and released by Rockstar Games—Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Red Dead Redemption 2—are playable on modern platforms, many of its older releases remain locked to their original platforms of release. These include the third Max Payne game, Bully, and even the Team Bondi-developed L.A. Noire. The studio could be looking for ways to bring these games to modern audiences, and remastered releases could also help test the waters for potential sequels. Taking even just the Grand Theft Auto franchise into account, games like Liberty City Stories, Vice City Stories, and Chinatown Wars also remain unavailable on modern platforms.
In the meantime, Grand Theft Auto 6 might end up being one of the most expensive games ever made with the UK’s public records indicating that $2.11 billion has already been spent on its development. These costs consist of employee salaries dating back to March 2019. Interestingly, since marketing for the game hasn’t really kicked off yet, the budget will likely grow larger once those expenses are taken into account.
CEO of Rockstar Games’ parent company Take-Two Interactive, Strauss Zelnick, has discussed the potential price of Grand Theft Auto 6. While he didn’t reveal any details, he discussed how it depends on how much consumers would be willing to pay.
“Consumers pay for the value that you bring to them, and our job is to charge way, way, way less for the value delivery. How you feel about something you buy is the intersection of the thing itself and what you pay for. Consumers need to feel like the thing itself is amazing and the price they were charged was fair for what they got.”
He also noted that game pricing remained largely stable since the 1990s, seeing few jumps over time. This has been an outlier when accounting for inflation over the same period.