The Grand Theft Auto series has seen its fair share of news this week. Earlier in the week, a reputable Rockstar Games insider revealed that remakes for GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption have been scrapped. This was in direct response to the harsh reviews the recent GTA Trilogy remasters received. However, the decision also could have been made so Rockstar could focus on their upcoming projects, like the highly-anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6.
The same Rockstar insider who reported that the remakes have been scrapped is also reporting that the developers have only just started putting all of their eggs into the GTA 6 basket.
It’s unclear exactly long the next installment in the GTA series has been in development. Rockstar’s last big release was Red Dead Redemption II in 2018. So it’s likely that the developers have at least been working on GTA 6 since then but likely a little before RDR II’s initial launch date. However, it’s been close to four years since RDR II was released and there have been tumbleweeds on the GTA 6 news front. This might be because, at least according to an industry insider, Rockstar Games has only just started putting all of their focus into the new GTA game.
The insider in question is Tez2, a highly-reputable source within the Rockstar Games realm. They recently took to Twitter to say that the developers have only just begun to “fully work on GTA VI.”
Yes. They are still doing bug fixes for Trilogy DE, but it's slowing down as focus increases and Rockstar starts fully working on GTA VI.
— Tez2 (@TezFunz2) July 4, 2022
This was quite alarming for GTA fans, as they hoped that Rockstar would have already done this years ago. While there are a couple of ways to interpret this leak, the most rational one is likely the easiest explanation. When Tez2 says that the developers have just started fully working on the game, this presumably means that Rockstar is putting everyone to work on the game instead of most of their developers. They did the same thing back in 2011, two years before GTA V was released, and in 2016, two years before RDR II was released.
This doesn’t give us a clear timetable for when GTA 6 could arrive on our systems, of course. However, it’s promising that Rockstar is now putting its full attention on the game that has likely been in development for several years already. If GTA V and RDR II are any indications, then fans could the new GTA game within a couple of years.
To play devil’s advocate, though, Tez2’s leak could also mean that Rockstar might be farther behind in development than fans think. Perhaps the debacle of the GTA Trilogy release and the ever-consistent popularity of GTA Online forced the developers to delay the development of GTA 6.
Stating the obvious, all of this is pure speculation, as it’s all based on a leak from an insider. Fans should continue to take any GTA 6 information with a grain of salt and wait for official news.
