Photo: Rockstar Games
There's a lot of buzz surrounding GTA VI lately, among which is the perpetuated development cost of $2,000,000,000 (yes, billion). But how much of that is misinformation, and what exactly is true about that sum? Let's dig in and find out.
Last September, Rockstar went through the most significant security breach in the industry, where a ton of videos, images, and files were exposed to the general public. Obviously, this should have never happened.
A lot of precious information got leaked, like Take-Two's $2,000,000,000 budget for Grand Theft Auto VI. When that got out, no one could believe it, but the source of the information was right on the money. Pun intended. It wasn't a rumor or fake news but fact, at least in the grand scheme of things.
However, that data wasn't adequately conveyed to the general public. People believe Rockstar/Take-Two has already spent that sum, when the truth is likely a bit more different.
There's no doubt that the sum is authentic, but other sources say those figures were from the total allocated budget. This means that the game won't cost $2 billion at launch but, more likely during its lifetime, which will most certainly be 10+ years. This makes much more sense.
In comparison, GTA V, which came out in September 2013, was in development for about five years and reportedly cost $265 to ship. This was unthinkable at the time, given that The Witcher 3 (2015), which is larger in scope than GTA 5, cost only $81 million, or around $107 million in 2023, inflation included.
You could say there's already a tradition at Rockstar to put more money into a game than everyone else in the industry.
It's public knowledge that current AAA (Triple A = huge budget) games cost anywhere above $200-$250, like Sony's Horizon Forbidden West and The Last of Us Part II. And those are cross-gen titles, not fully new-gen. If a AAA game began development today, it would take 5-6 years to ship from scratch and easily cost upward of $300 million.
Getting back to our new-gen GTA neck of the woods, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that the entire costs for the game would top at around $1 billion, marketing budgets included.
According to an old article by famous gaming journalist Jason Schrier, GTA VI has been in development since 2014. So it's only normal that costs pile up during a 9-10-year cycle when you consider every expense.
So what's to do with the rest of the $1 billion, you ask? Well, consider updates over at least 10 years, GTA online improvements, server maintenance, etc. These could quickly pile up in time.
Given that the head of Take-Two Interactive, Strauss Zelnick, is expecting an extra $2.65 billion by the fiscal year 2025, it's safe to assume the investment in GTA VI is pretty much taken care of in the first year alone. Not to mention that GTA V made over $8 billion in revenue in 10 years.
A lot of precious information got leaked, like Take-Two's $2,000,000,000 budget for Grand Theft Auto VI. When that got out, no one could believe it, but the source of the information was right on the money. Pun intended. It wasn't a rumor or fake news but fact, at least in the grand scheme of things.
However, that data wasn't adequately conveyed to the general public. People believe Rockstar/Take-Two has already spent that sum, when the truth is likely a bit more different.
There's no doubt that the sum is authentic, but other sources say those figures were from the total allocated budget. This means that the game won't cost $2 billion at launch but, more likely during its lifetime, which will most certainly be 10+ years. This makes much more sense.
In comparison, GTA V, which came out in September 2013, was in development for about five years and reportedly cost $265 to ship. This was unthinkable at the time, given that The Witcher 3 (2015), which is larger in scope than GTA 5, cost only $81 million, or around $107 million in 2023, inflation included.
You could say there's already a tradition at Rockstar to put more money into a game than everyone else in the industry.
It's public knowledge that current AAA (Triple A = huge budget) games cost anywhere above $200-$250, like Sony's Horizon Forbidden West and The Last of Us Part II. And those are cross-gen titles, not fully new-gen. If a AAA game began development today, it would take 5-6 years to ship from scratch and easily cost upward of $300 million.
Getting back to our new-gen GTA neck of the woods, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that the entire costs for the game would top at around $1 billion, marketing budgets included.
According to an old article by famous gaming journalist Jason Schrier, GTA VI has been in development since 2014. So it's only normal that costs pile up during a 9-10-year cycle when you consider every expense.
So what's to do with the rest of the $1 billion, you ask? Well, consider updates over at least 10 years, GTA online improvements, server maintenance, etc. These could quickly pile up in time.
Given that the head of Take-Two Interactive, Strauss Zelnick, is expecting an extra $2.65 billion by the fiscal year 2025, it's safe to assume the investment in GTA VI is pretty much taken care of in the first year alone. Not to mention that GTA V made over $8 billion in revenue in 10 years.
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