Rockstar Games continues to share new and exciting information regarding GTA 6 week after week. The studio has even released a brand new launch trailer for the game one full month ahead of launch.

Elsewhere, the team shared details on GTA 6’s mission design, criminal profiles, and various other elements via different interviews. Another interview from the team has also addressed the long gap between Red Dead Redemption 2 and GTA 6, with Rockstar Games promising to release its next game much quicker.

The Longest Gap Between GTA Games

For some background, GTA 5 launched over a decade ago in 2013, and Rockstar Games then followed up with Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018. Until then, this was the longest the team had taken between consecutive releases, since Rockstar Games’ release cadence had been quite consistent pre-GTA 5.

Not only was the team launching Grand Theft Auto titles in quick succession until GTA 5, but it was also doing so while experimenting with franchises like Max Payne, Midnight Club, L.A. Noire, etc.

To Rockstar Games’ credit, the developer did launch and support GTA Online with a slew of updates between 2013 until now. However, following Red Dead Redemption 2, the team would go on to take a whopping 8 years to deliver GTA 6, which is now just over a month away from release.

Note that GTA 6 was also delayed multiple times during development since the developer refused to compromise on its vision and quality. Additionally, the shift to remote work disrupted Rockstar Games’ standard operating procedures. The studio’s focus on avoiding crunch after reports of poor developer treatment during Red Dead Redemption 2’s development likely disrupted development in a similar manner.

All of this meant GTA 6 couldn’t come out as quickly as the team would have liked, but the future seems much brighter.

Rockstar’s Next Release Won’t Take As Long

Speaking to Bloomberg, Rockstar Games developer Phil Hooker addressed the long development period for GTA 6. He explained that the team went through multiple fundamental shifts during this period. In addition to technical changes, Rockstar Games itself expanded from 2,441 employees in 2018 to 4,711 employees in 2026.

Similarly, the studio overhauled its Rage Engine to ensure development would move at a faster pace for all projects in the future. According to Phil Hooker, the studio aims to use this foundation and build upon it.

The engine, the tools, and the team we've built during this project will allow us to do things more quickly.

In fact, studio leadership has vowed to ensure its next game doesn’t take as long as GTA 6 to come out. Rockstar Games studio head Aaron Garbut also joined the discussion and noted that GTA 6’s development marked a fundamental shift for the studio’s technology. 

However, now that this shift is complete, the team does not intend to redo these elements. This should effectively lead to a much smoother timeline for the team’s next big release.

What are your thoughts on GTA 6’s development timeline? Do you think the game will be worth the wait? Share your thoughts below, and find more details on GTA 6 in the game’s dedicated section on GTABase.