Rockstar Games is working so hard at the next Grand Theft Auto game that it has given up on Red Dead Online in order to focus on the former.
But, despite pouring most of its available resources to focus on GTA 6, we still don't know when it's coming out.
According to a Bloomberg report, the release date for GTA 6 is still very much in flux.
Some sources claim that Grand Theft Auto 6 is at least two years away from coming out but even then this release window is fairly optimistic. For what it's worth, earlier leaks suggested that the sixth mainline GTA game won't hit store shelves in 2025 if not 2026. If anything, this isn't surprising news. What's interesting is that Rockstar has reportedly worked on GTA 6 "in some form" since 2014.
This would imply that Rockstar Games had already worked on GTA 6 for nine years before it officially confirmed its existence. It is curious that Rockstar waited for this long to make the game public.
But, while 9 years is an awfully long time working on GTA 6, the report is also saying that Rockstar had its hands full on other stuff. Specifically, the report claims that the slow progress on GTA 6 was due to several factors. The biggest one is Rockstar Games' problematic organizational structure. In addition to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rockstar had to work on fixing its workplace culture as well as working conditions so that workers won't have to burn themselves out.
Now that Rockstar Games is all-in on GTA 6 after putting Red Dead Online to pasture, we can expect production to ramp up. It's just a shame that GTA 6's development has cost us an unconfirmed remaster of GTA 4 and Red Dead Redemption as well as a next-gen version of Red Dead Redemption 2.
Ultimately, you can't blame Rockstar Games for feeling the pressure.
GTA 5 continues to sell well despite recording more than 165 million copies sold in less than a decade. It's the best-selling game outside of Minecraft and could end up breaching the 200 million mark. In the meantime, fans can look forward to playing GTA Online, which just got a big free expansion, Criminal Enterprises. Finally, Take-Two Interactive might shed some light on the future of the GTA series at its next earnings briefing next month.
