Inside GTA 6's Making: What Rockstar Told Bloomberg

Bloomberg Businessweek published The Making of Grand Theft Auto VI on October 14, a long feature by Jason Schreier built on a day-long interview at Rockstar North in Edinburgh in late September. Bloomberg calls it the first time Rockstar has talked openly about the problems behind its biggest game. Here is what the studio’s leaders said on the record, and what is Bloomberg’s own reporting.

Who spoke

Five Rockstar executives are quoted by name: the three heads of development, Rob Nelson, Phil Hooker and Aaron Garbut, head of publishing Jennifer Kolbe, and Jonathon Ashcroft, senior vice president for technology. That is unusual for a studio that rarely puts anyone in front of the press.

Project Americas

The game started with a research trip to Miami in 2015. Its codename, Project Americas, reflected the first ambition: big stretches of North and South America. That scope was later cut down to Miami and its surroundings, the basis for Vice City and Leonida. GTA VI was then pushed back for several years so most of the company could help finish Red Dead Redemption 2, a trade-off Nelson says was worth it, because everything built along the way would pay off once GTA VI’s turn came.

A studio that doubled in size

Rockstar gave Bloomberg its own headcount: 2,441 employees when Red Dead Redemption 2 shipped in 2018, and 4,711 across 12 offices as of August 2026. Part of that growth came late. Assessing how many non-player characters the game needed, the leadership found it could not produce them in time and built a new Los Angeles studio dedicated to writing and animating them. Rockstar also expanded significantly in India, according to the report.

After Dan Houser’s departure, Nelson, Hooker and Garbut shared the title of head of development. Nelson acknowledged that some staff complained about having three decision-makers, and argued that a single director brings the same risks.

The story, settled in 2019

By the end of 2019 the leadership had the skeleton of the story: Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos, a criminal couple working their way through a fictional Miami. The hardest design question was realism, Nelson explained: whether you should have to fetch a beer from the fridge and carry it to the counter, or buy groceries before making a sandwich at home.

The answer they committed to was the couple. Bloomberg describes playing as Jason and texting Lucia to meet, then walking hand in hand in a park, working out at the gym, robbing a store together and fleeing the police, bantering the whole time. The report calls that system one of the game’s most exciting innovations. Our characters guide covers everything Rockstar has confirmed about the pair.

Two delays, and a game still moving

Kolbe recounted calling Take-Two’s Strauss Zelnick twice, first to move the game to May 2026, then to November. Leadership told Bloomberg there was no single dramatic cause, just many pieces that did not come together on schedule. Hooker said they could have hit the earlier date, but not with the game they wanted, and added that the game is still not frozen. “The game’s never completely settled,” he said, noting changes made in the last few months. November 19 remains the date, as tracked in our release date guide.

Crunch, offices and the union

Kolbe said Rockstar promised staff it would not finish GTA VI by crunching, using bigger teams, stricter scheduling and paid time off for extra hours, while admitting it has not been perfect. Since 2024, staff have had to work from the office five days a week, and GTA VI developers could not reach Rockstar’s servers from home, a policy Kolbe says will be reviewed after launch.

The report also covers the 34 employees fired last year, most of them involved in a union drive. Rockstar says they shared confidential information on Discord, which the group disputes, and the case before an employment tribunal in Glasgow was expected to end in October; it has since been extended, with closing arguments set for November 17 and 18 (our tribunal report). Kolbe said that if the team wants a union, it will have one.

The leaks, from the inside

Garbut described the 2022 leak as deeply invasive, like strangers going through your unfinished work. Bloomberg adds that the strict office rules did not stop another major leak in August, just before the Netflix premiere, which caused grumbling inside the company. Our August coverage has Rockstar’s response at the time.

Cost, online and what comes next

• Budget. Rockstar will not give a figure. Kolbe did deny the rumour that the game cost more than the 1.5 billion dollars spent on Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. Bloomberg’s own estimate is that it may have cost more than double the 500 million dollars other publishers try to stay under.
• Online. The developers declined to discuss it. Bloomberg reports that a planned online component is expected in 2027. That is the outlet’s reporting, not a Rockstar announcement; our GTA 6 Online guide explains the difference.
• The next game. Hooker and Garbut say the engine, tools and team built for GTA VI mean the next Rockstar game will not take another eight years.