We might not have to wait 13 years for the next GTA

Rockstar’s Phil Hooker says the engine and tools that the team has built ‘will allow us to do things more quickly.’

Emma Roth

Oct 14, 2026, 1:42 PM UTC

Image: Rockstar Games

Part OfGTA VI: all the news on Rockstar’s next entry in the Grand Theft Auto seriessee all updates

Emma Roth

is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO.

Rockstar Games might not keep fans waiting as long for the next installment ofGrand Theft Auto. Aspart ofBloomberg’s expansive reporton the making ofGTA VI, Rockstar technical lead Phil Hooker said that the “engine, the tools and the team we’ve built during this project will allow us to do things more quickly.”

GTA VIhad a notoriously long development process. It took eight years to make, leaving a 13-year gap between this upcoming installment andGTA V.

The report points to the one-year gap betweenGrand Theft Auto IIIandGrand Theft Auto: Vice City, which was possible because Rockstar already had the framework in place for its next project. “I feel confident that we can build on top of this [GTA VI] and go more sideways than upwards to build more compelling content,” Hooker toldBloomberg.

There were several other interesting details in the report as well, including:

Rockstar built a studio dedicated to creating nonplayable characters (NPCs) after the team realized it lacked the “production capabilities” needed to write and animate all of the game’s NPCs. That contributed to the game’s delay. “I think when it became apparent that some areas weren’t going to make it, that’s when we decided to make the shift of date,” Hooker said. “We could hit that schedule, but it won’t be the game we want to make.”
GTA VIapparently didn’t cost more than $1.5 billion to develop, as Rockstar’s publishing head Jennifer Kolbeshut down a reportthat suggested it was more expensive to build than Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.
Rockstar head of development Aaron Garbut responded to themassiveGTA VIleak in 2022: “It feels like somebody’s wading through your dirty washing,” Garbut toldBloomberg. “It’s like they’re inside your head. You see your early work out there. Nobody’s ever supposed to see that. It’s really weirdly invasive. And so it’s quite hard to deal with on an emotional level.”
Since 2018, the number of Rockstar employees has risen from 2,441 to 4,711 across 12 offices.

GTA VIlaunches on November 19th on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X | S.

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