“I run so scared with regard to all of our releases — just multiply it by a billion this time around,” said Zelnick during the Interactive Innovation Conference, according to Variety. “And I think the minute you stop running scared, you better get a different job if you’re in the entertainment business. Because [if] you claim success before you have it — you will largely be wrong.”

Despite these fears, however, Zelnick has also said that Take-Two Interactive is “blessed” to have the talent it does at its various studios. He also noted that, while the talented development teams continue to work on a game and “deliver a property,” it’s up to the company as a whole to ensure that the marketing and distribution will get the games into as many hands as possible.

“We’re blessed that we have some of the greatest creative talent on earth working inside the four walls of Take-Two and all of our affiliates,” he said. “And I’ve always felt like the way you create hits is to find the most talented people, encourage them to work within your system and then give them unlimited resources — financial, creative, technical and human — to pursue their passion. When that happens and the team delivers a property, it’s in our job as a broader organization to do a better job with worldwide marketing and distribution than anyone else, and then to run a rational business that makes sound decisions with no drama and does it over and over again every day. And so creative independence is a hallmark of creative success.”

At the same conference, Zelnick was also asked about how Take-Two Interactive will decide on the price for Grand Theft Auto 6, since many are expecting it to be the biggest launch in the history of gaming.

“Consumers pay for the value that you bring to them, and our job is to charge way way way less of the value delivery,” Zelnick said. “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 made note of how, despite inflation having affected just about every aspect of life, from essentials like food to luxuries like hobbies, the price of games has stayed largely stable.

“If you look at it through that lens, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. But that isn’t the lens through which we look. Instead, we look at… how do we deliver something amazing, and how do we make sure that what people pay for it feels very reasonable,” he said.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is being developed for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

After all, any brand would probably pay hundreds of millions for their inclusion, which should put a nice dent in that reportedly $2.11 billion (and counting) budget, further padding revenue. However, CEO Strauss Zelnick isn’t going down that road and wants to maintain GTA 6’s “pure” approach to brands, which is that they’re completely fictitious in-game.

“We need to be true to the underlying intellectual property, and we need to be true to our consumers,” Zelnick said at iicon (as reported by IGN). “And consumers have an intuitive sixth sense for something that’s real and something that’s not real. They can always figure it out.

“So in the case of GTA as a property, as you know, it’s a fictional world and everything in it is fictional. So we don’t have, for example, we’re not even at risk of doing brand partnerships because all the brands are made up. And I think that keeps us pure.”

This approach may seem at odds with NBA 2K, but not to Zelnick, because there are plenty of brands in the real-world NBA. “And as long as we present them in a natural way, in a way that’s consistent, the way the world would experience them in a basketball game, it’s great.” Granted, many fans might disagree, especially as the franchise has become more egregious with this (and microtransactions) over the years, but I digress.

Grand Theft Auto 6 will release on November 19th for Xbox Series X/S and PS5, and Zelnick again reassured that it would not face another delay. Launch marketing will begin this summer, but when the next trailer will be revealed remains unknown. Summer Game Fest’s showcase on June 5th sounds like a safe bet, so stay tuned for updates in the meantime.

“Consumers pay for the value that you bring to them, and our job is to charge way way way less of the value delivery,” Zelnick said. “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.”

Zelnick also brought up the fact that, taking inflation into account, games have gotten cheaper when looked at from a wider lens, since just about everything else has gotten more expensive. Most major releases tend to be priced at $60 or $70 – a price point that has largely remained stable for quite some time.

“If you look at it through that lens, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. But that isn’t the lens through which we look. Instead, we look at… how do we deliver something amazing, and how do we make sure that what people pay for it feels very reasonable,” he said.

Measuring the success of Grand Theft Auto 6, however, is a complicated subject for Zelnick. Calling it “the most spectacular piece of entertainment on Earth, in history,” he said that the current focus of the game’s development team is to make sure that the game is enjoyable.

“What we think about is making the most spectacular piece of entertainment on Earth, in history – and it’s a pretty daunting challenge. If we do that, and if we’re of service to our customers, then the upside will take care of itself.”

Speaking about the release date of Grand Theft Auto 6, Zelnick went on to joke that “a lot of people will be calling in sick on November 19.”

While Rockstar Games continues working on the title, a report from last month has indicated that the money needed to make it might exceed $2 billion. According to public records in the UK, Rockstar North has already spent £1.6 billion ($2.11 billion) on Grand Theft Auto 6 so far. These costs include employee salaries going all the way back to March 2019.

A former programmer who has worked on Grand Theft Auto 6 has also revealed through an update on their LinkedIn profile that the game will feature “next-generation procedural breakable glass.” They went on to describe their responsibilities, which included “designing tools for production to capture in-game footage with extra details from our rendering system,” during their tenure at the studio between February 2020 and April 2023.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. There is currently no confirmation of a PC release.

Yeah, GTA 6 is absolutely going to dominate the discourse around gaming once it drops, and rightly so. It’s a follow-up to a title that continues to be among the best open worlds out there, and one that gave us so much freedom to roleplay to our heart’s content. Everything you got to do in that one ended up with scenes that boasted of bombast and spectacle. I don’t see why GTA 6 should be any different, given that you’re playing ex-cons in an adventure that’s sure to have more than a few set pieces.

I expect a lot of moments that players are going to be talking about with awe that’s well-deserved. But that only makes me certain that Pywel is going to enjoy a quieter sort of appreciation. That’s not to say it’s devoid of spectacle, not in the slightest. I did just tear through an army of enemy troops, dual swords flashing with an otherworldly power that they were ill-equipped to handle. But I also spent time in a cave, trying to figure out a complex piece of machinery in an effort to get a reward. How did I end up there after my epic battle? I couldn’t tell you if I tried.

The point is, there are games that are built to earn the spotlight. That’s going to be GTA 6. Conversely, there are games that simply stay just behind the curtain, quietly beckoning you to return to their worlds with the fond memories they’ve given you, and the personal stories they allow you to craft for yourself. Crimson Desert’s one of those titles. It’s a title that’s going to win your memory even as GTA 6 wins the conversation.

Let’s dive into why.

Events Versus Experiences

The biggest names in modern gaming are often remembered as either launches that have been preceded by a lot of hype or as experiences that have delivered very highly on the moment-to-moment gameplay loop. Rockstar has built up enough hype around GTA 6 for its launch, and the subsequent slew of content around it, to fall firmly in the first category. That isn’t to say that I’m not expecting the game to have me completely enthralled with its offerings, but the way I see it, those conversations are going to be based on shared experiences. They would focus on events.

But in Pywel, things are a tad more chaotic. I’m still learning new things from Crimson Desert’s vocal community of Greymanes, each of whom has discovered fresh ways to achieve specific goals that just sailed past me since my time with the game has taken me in an entirely different direction. I powered down my console last night after a thrilling time chasing down armor pieces for a set that would let Kliff look like a samurai, a search that led me to a place where crows constantly attacked me, intent on impeding my progress through the region.

I misjudged a jump, plummeting downwards, only to find a puzzle that had me scouring the surrounding areas for three symbols that I would then have to use in a solution. Only, I forgot where the puzzle was in the first place. That new search put me in the path of a boss that took multiple tries and a lot of skilful parrying to defeat. Every moment you spend in Pywel could lead to new experiences, which become the sort of thing that makes each session of play a sort of smaller story within its sprawling boundaries. Allow me to elaborate further.

And that starts with how I spent my weekend in Pywel.

Predictably Unpredictable

For starters, I spent hours flitting between various cities and settlements, feeding stray cats to earn their trust before I brought them back to my Greymane camp. I now have a whole bunch of furry friends, and I stop to pet them all every time I visit my fellow brothers-in-arms. It was a lot of work, to be sure, but I did enjoy the quiet rhythm of that particular activity.

I then went on a search for a legendary horse, as my take on Kliff wouldn’t want to show up on a common beast. I made my way to the Steel Mountains, where a group of goblins was annoying enough to distract me from my search. I took them down, the last one falling in front of a gigantic tower that had me forgetting about a new horse. After I figured out that all I needed to do to get inside was to place a few stones around the front door, I soon ended up in Pywel’s alternate world, wracking my brains on a puzzle that had me at my wits’ end, forcing me to look up a solution that was staring me in the face all along.

Of course, the warrior in me was itching to blow off some steam, and I soon came across a bunch of bandits who were waylaying an innocent man. I summarily dispatched them, giving their victim a ride to the nearest village, where I discovered rumors of a whole fort being taken over by those darn villains. Of course, I then went in alone, bringing them down with a ferocity that even GTA 5’s Trevor would admire. All of this was in the space of six hours, with one coffee break to process it all. And there were four more sessions like that over two days. I’ll leave the math of all that could have happened to you.

Crimson Desert’s one of those rare games that gives you all the freedom to explore its world that you could desire, and then immediately has you encountering a form of friction that stems from its mechanics, traversal, or puzzles that comes between you and a discovery that you’re itching to learn more of. It allows things to get messy and trusts you to come up with ways to resolve your predicament on your own terms. You don’t just witness things in Pywel, but live through them and survive them in a way that makes the whole thing feel all the more relatable.

Of course, things weren’t all perfect. I can’t remember how many times I wished the developers would address the annoying double jump issue in their next batch of updates. I spent hours trying to track down an item I needed to progress a quest, endlessly scouring through my inventory and private storage until a friendly Greymane on Reddit suggested I speak to the one who managed my camp’s provisions and trade goods. That friction can get annoying from time to time, but it’s also a part of Crimson Desert’s charm.

Flaws in any game are never good. But in some cases, they stem from nuance and engineered resistance that are meant to make you stop and adapt to what the game throws at you. More often than not, those are the games that tend to be more vividly remembered than their more polished counterparts. The memories you have of them aren’t just about their story or some massive twist, but from the unexpected adventures you have in their worlds.

Snap Back To Reality

I’m under no illusions that GTA 6 is going to be a more polished release that will absolutely dominate both critical and commercial benchmarks, and manage to have the entire gaming community talking about the many things it will bring to the table. It’s a Rockstar blockbuster release, after all. But it’s that very nature that makes it a very different offering from Crimson Desert.

It’s a game that’s meant to gather momentum right off the bat, and sustain that momentum so its players don’t feel like they’re bogged down by its mechanics or systems at any point. It’s designed to encourage a different kind of freedom, one that makes its players feel empowered to do as they please in its open world while encountering the least amount of resistance as the game can manage.

That would mean that it could redefine what production values could mean for modern gaming, but it leaves little to no room for the sort of unpredictability that’s baked into Crimson Desert’s very design. It’s a title that’s meant to have all of its players discussing its best set pieces across the board, its sheer scale overwhelming them into awe. But can it leave fingerprints on their memory the way that Crimson Desert does? I hope so, as I’m hoping to be served a slice of humble pie later this year on that front.

Make no mistake, I think GTA 6 is going to be talked about and remembered for years to come. But it would be because everybody experienced the same highlights, and came away with experiences that might seem varied on the surface, but are largely similar, owing to it being a game that needs to balance player freedom versus accessibility considering how big of a release it really is.

But Crimson Desert’s a game that’s free of such restraints, and it leans into that freedom with unrestrained abandon. It’s a title that has each of its players coming away from it with different stories, and the only common talking point to connect them all is the fact that you’d have to be there to experience it the exact same way. It’s a game that I’d certainly revisit in conversations, not to simply remember a mission but to tell a fellow Greymane about my own adventures on the way there.

The spotlight’s going to move away from Pywel later this year, and I’m definitely grabbing a front-row seat to GTA 6’s unique brand of chaotic open-world fun. Its much-awaited launch could be an era-defining event, one that’s talked about many years from now. But I know that I’m never going to forget how Crimson Desert has made me feel, and the highs and lows that engaging with its vast world brings to the table.

It’s a game that doesn’t aim to be memorable, but manages to leave you with enough fond memories to remain unforgettable. And on that note, I’m off to make more of those memories before I move on to other titles and other worlds.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

According to the report, the physical release will happen on May 7th and will be priced at a lower point than the digital version, with a price tag of €34.99, compared to the €49.99 digital edition. The PS5’s physical release is slated to include the full game on a disc. The Nintendo Switch 2, on the other hand, will be getting the title as a code-in-a-box release, which means that buyers will have to redeem an included code through the eShop to get access to the game.

Much like the digital release of Red Dead Redemption, the physical version is also slated to include the base game as well as the Undead Nightmare expansion, which tells an entirely unique story tapping into the weird west genre, pitting players against zombies and other fantastical creatures.

Red Dead Redemption was originally released all the way back in 2010 on PS3 and Xbox 360. It would eventually get ported to PS4 and Nintendo Switch in 2023, while Xbox One players would have to make do with the backwards compatibility method of playing. A PC release would happen just a year later—in October, 2024—before the title would get a current-generation console release on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2 in December 2025.

The current-gen version brought with it quite a few enhancements, including support for 4K and 60 FPS on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The Nintendo Switch 2 version is capable of running at 60 FPS, and can make use of DLSS for image upscaling, as well as mouse controls, thanks to its Joy-Con 2 controllers.

Red Dead Redemption revolves around the story of John Marston in the year 1911, who has been tasked by federal agents to hunt down his former allies from the now-defunct Van Der Linde gang. As part of this mission, Marston has to travel far and wide, including some of the northern parts of Mexico. Major themes of the narrative revolve around the end of the era of the Wild West, thanks to the arrival of civilization. For more details on its PS5 release, take a look at our review.

The title would eventually get a sequel in 2018—Red Dead Redemption 2—that would act as a prequel while introducing a brand new protagonist—Arthur Morgan. Its story revolved around the final days of the Van Der Linde gang, with leader Dutch slowly losing his grasp on the world. We also get to see the events that would shape Marston into the man he would become by the beginning of Red Dead Redemption. It is available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with PS5 and Xbox Series X/S capable of playing the title through backwards compatibility. For more, check out our review.

The studio has been facing a sort of hostage situation, with hackers threatening to leak data unless the studio pays a substantial amount of money. However, with the latter refusing to do so and the data released, parent company Take-Two has seen a very welcome uptick in its stock prices.

Apparently, knowing how much money the company is making off IPs like Grand Theft Auto Online has increased investor confidence in its prospects. Given its rather high daily earnings, it’s certainly not surprising. It’s always great to report on a win, and with Grand Theft Auto 6 reportedly turning out to be quite expensive, the $1 billion increase in Take-Two’s valuation, as reported on by Insider Gaming, should be an outcome that has delighted the company.

Hopefully, it’s motivated the folks over at Rockstar as it enters the final leg of a very long development cycle on what’s arguably its magnum opus, launching on November 19th for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Marketing is expected to begin this Summer, with Take-Two confident about the current release date.

According to this data, Rockstar Games made, on average, around $1.3 million in daily revenue from just Grand Theft Auto Online over the last year. Taking a wider look, the weekly revenue for the online game comes in at around $9.5 million. For comparison, Red Dead Online doesn’t seem to be nearly as profitable, bringing in an average of $507,193 on a weekly basis. For an entire year – from September 2025 to April 2026 – Grand Theft Auto Online has seemingly generated around $498.8 million. The numbers for Red Dead Online, the two-year period between June 2024 and March 2026, generated an average of $26.4 million in yearly revenue.

The data also includes revenue by platform. The PS5 version of Grand Theft Auto Online seems to be the most popular, with around 3.4 million weekly active users, who generate around $4.4 million through weekly purchases in-game. The PS4 is the second most popular, with 1.8 million weekly active users generating $973,308. Xbox Series X/S saw 1.1 million weekly active users, making Rockstar Games around $1.8 million, and Xbox One still sees around a million weekly players, generating $918,373. PC is in last place, with 894,621 weekly players generating $264,273.

It is worth noting that the PC version’s low revenue generation might come down to the fact that the platform allows players to play modded versions of Grand Theft Auto Online. This, along with the popularity of custom servers that support a variety of mods, means that players are less likely to partake in Rockstar Games’ in-game microtransaction options like Shark Cards.

Rockstar Games, for its part, hasn’t commented on any of the data that has been released by the hackers, which should also bring into question their veracity.

ShinyHunters had gotten its hands on the data over the weekend by taking advantage of Rockstar Games’ instances in Snowflake by using the recently breached Anodot. The group had announced that it would be releasing all of the data unless the company paid them by today. While ShinyHunters promised “several annoying (digital) problems” would pop up for Rockstar Games, the Grand Theft Auto 6 developer simply responded by saying that it “has no impact on our organization or our players.”

Grand Theft Auto 6 is deep in development as Rockstar Games, along with parent company Take-Two Interactive, get ready for its November 19th release on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. While few details have been released as part of the company’s careful marketing strategies, a report from last month has indicated that its development costs may go over $2 billion. For more, check out our thoughts on whether Grand Theft Auto 6 is going to be the most expensive game ever made.

On the April 9th episode of Game Mess Mornings, Grubb added that, “It’s still supposed to come out this year, but that probably means December.” He also noted that if Xbox has “any other games, they’re probably trying to stack them up as early as they can so they have plenty of window of opportunity to succeed before Grand Theft Auto [6] comes out.”

Shortly after its launch window was announced at the last Xbox Developer_Direct, Xbox Game Studios head Craig Duncan didn’t seem all that worried about a potential clash. “I mean, it’s more that they’re going to do what they’re going to do,” he said, referring to Rockstar. “My job is to do what we should do for the best of our games.”

However, when The Verge’s Tom Warren reported that Gears of War: E-Day could launch in the second half of 2026, he claimed that Microsoft wanted to avoid launching too close to Grand Theft Auto 6. It may be a case where Fable requires more time for polish, which could push its arrival closer to Rockstar’s magnum opus.

Whether it launches in December remains to be seen, but it wouldn’t be surprising if Microsoft opted for an early 2027 launch. The real question now is: How many other companies are thinking the same?

We’ll wait for more details, but if true, then Microsoft may announce this during the Xbox Games Showcase on June 7th. After all, other impending releases, such as Halo: Campaign Evolved, which reportedly launches in late July, could soften the blow of a delay. Stay tuned for updates in the meantime.

The group, ShinyHunters, claims it compromised the company’s instances in Snowflake through Anodot, the latter having recently suffered a breach. It warned that it would release this information unless Rockstar paid up by April 14th, while promising “several annoying (digital) problems” that it would also face. However, the latter noted that the incident “has no impact on our organization or our players.”

While the nature of the data remains unknown, it does remind one of the massive leak that Rockstar suffered in 2022, which saw 90 gameplay videos from Grand Theft Auto 6 unleashed on the public. Captured from an alpha version, it showcased both protagonists – Lucia and Jason – alongside combat, various locations, and more. While Lapsus$ hacker Arion Kurtaj was allegedly responsible, he was later ruled to be psychiatrically unfit for trial.

Parent company Take-Two Interactive said the leaks were “terribly unfortunate” but noted that they did not influence “development or anything of that sort.” Of course, it – and a subsequent leak of the first trailer – likely contributed to the company pushing for heavier secrecy, which reportedly led to the firing of 34 members. Former members of Rockstar North have pursued legal action as a result, though an employment tribunal recently denied requests for interim pay.

In case it wasn’t obvious, we’re talking about Grand Theft Auto 6. The once and future king of all open-world games. The magnum opus, the game to end all games, and which everyone is trying desperately to avoid. Surprised about that supposed August release window for Lords of the Fallen 2? Or that Halo: Campaign Evolved could launch before September, while Marvel’s Wolverine is launching halfway through?

Such is the power of Rockstar Games and the Grand Theft Auto name. No one wants their release to go figuratively toe-to-toe with Grand Theft Auto 6, much less hang around in the same vicinity. Because when you spend as much as Rockstar North reportedly has on employee wages alone, you can afford the breathing room.

Recently, fans discovered just how much that may be through public records maintained by the UK government agency, Companies House. Registered as Rockstar Games UK Limited, these outline wages and salaries from March 31st, 2019, to March 31st, 2025. Remember when Take-Two said development began in earnest around 2020? Rockstar North reportedly spent £191 million from 2019 to 2020 – about $252.6 million in what we can assume was pre-production alone.

Consider for a moment that Cyberpunk 2077, currently the seventh most expensive game ever made, spent roughly $526 million across all versions, marketing included, when adjusted for inflation in 2025. Let’s continue.

As production seemingly started rolling, costs increased gradually from March 2020 to 2021, with £223 million spent and then far more from 2021 to 2022, with £346 million spent. And while that marked the most expensive period of development per these records, the next two years would see the developer spend £316 million and £315 million.

Its latest report from March 31st, 2024, to the same date in 2025 indicates £282 million spent on salaries. Of course, we already know that Grand Theft Auto 6 got delayed – twice, in fact – and Rockstar has yet to reveal how much was spent from 2025 to 2026, never mind the other nine months leading up to its launch. However, if you calculate the current amount reportedly spent on employee wages alone, it’s about £1.6 billion or roughly $2.1 billion.

Disclaimer: While Companies House does “basic checks on documents,” ensuring they’re “fully completed and signed,” it doesn’t have “statutory power of capability” to verify their accuracy. So while these records are a strong indicator of how much has been spent, you shouldn’t take them as full confirmation. Not that Rockstar or Take-Two will willingly confirm the same if you ask nicely, but I digress.

The most expensive game ever developed is, believe it or not, Monopoly Go!, with $1.026 billion spent on development and marketing when adjusted for inflation last year. Star Citizen, which started releasing modules in 2013 – the same year that Grand Theft Auto 5 launched, conveniently enough – and Squadron 42 have already cost over $955 million. If these records for Grand Theft Auto 6 are accurate, then just based on developer salaries alone, it would be the most expensive game ever made. And again, that hasn’t even factored in marketing or costs spent on support studios. Heck, 21 months have yet to be accounted for. The total may cross $3 billion in wages when all is said and done.

However, as of March 2025, about $2.1 billion. It’s simply mind-boggling, but then again, is it? A former graphics programmer seemingly revealed that they worked on “next-generation procedural breakable glass” for vehicles and props over the course of three years and two months (among other things). With reports of all the other technical wizardry that the game will have – a “revolutionary new system” for real-time physically simulated water, more precise deformations for vehicles, a real-time weather system with heavy gameplay implications – it’s not surprising. Then again, there’s also that part in the documents about a monthly average of 1,744 employees at Rockstar, which is also an insane number in its own right.

“They’ll get that back in the first week of launch,” you’re no doubt thinking about that amount, and as incredulous as it sounds, you’re not wrong. Just think back to the release of Grand Theft Auto 5, which earned $800 million on its first day and $1 billion in three. By comparison, the sequel is on a whole other level when it comes to hype. It’s been touted as the savior for an industry that’s notoriously lagging in both hardware and software sales. It’s Take-Two’s cash cow for the next decade or so. Amid concerns of rising inflation, global tariffs and the economy in general, no expense has apparently been spared for Grand Theft Auto 6. Just like for Grand Theft Auto 5, and just like for Red Dead Redemption 2.

Conveniently, an interview by Kiwi Talkz with former audio designer Rob Carr talks about Rockstar’s thought process. Speaking on technical limitations – “’Each soundbank has to be X, Y, and Z, these are your limitations for every mission. These are the technical constraints,'” he said. But creative constraints? “’There isn’t any. Go nuts’” is apparently how the company operates. Which doesn’t mean that its teams can logically fit in everything that they want – just that, “It’s easier to dial it down, you know, dial it back, go too much and then strip some fat off than it is to not do enough and then have to push for that extra five or 10 percent at the end of the project,” says Carr. Which makes even more sense if Rockstar wants to instead spend that time on bug testing and polishing.

Nevertheless, it speaks to how the company has been when developing its games, and Take-Two always gives it that leeway for a reason. Other developers and publishers avoid it for the very same. What would ordinarily inspire outrage in terms of the sheer amount spent on development thus far – especially with criticism over ballooning cost in triple-A development – is pretty much a given. Creating an unrealistic standard that the genre has no hope in hell of ever reaching? Par for the course, really. It’s almost as if Grand Theft Auto is in a completely different realm that’s just plain untouchable, regardless of everything else. Not because this is how games are made, but because that’s how Rockstar wants to make them, all else be damned.

I’d like to believe spending hundreds of millions doesn’t automatically translate into a quality release, much less one that will see the light of day – look no further than reports of Eidos Montreal cancelling a project whose budget apparently blew well past nine figures. Nor should it be taken as the norm, despite the general direction of triple-A games over the past decade or more.

Instead, it can be best viewed as Rockstar doing Rockstar things, ensuring that Grand Theft Auto 6 stands out. It will be players’ de facto choice when it comes to spending $80, because there is no way it could retail for cheaper after these figures have come to light. It will help justify all those re-releases and special editions, all those double-dippers when the PC version rolls around. And maybe, that’s enough, but really, it’s because Rockstar probably doesn’t know how else to make games. With less than nine months before launch, either thought is scary and we probably can’t even imagine to what extent.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.