We’re the closest we’ve ever been to Grand Theft Auto 6. After last year’s official confirmation and the subsequent (and very unfortunate) leak, Rockstar Games is finally ready to reveal the next Grand Theft Auto game, which it still refuses to call GTA 6, for some reason. But, as the promised date draws closer and the internet grows ever more restless, fans are reminded of something important, courtesy of Rockstar itself.
In a post on r/GTA6, u/RogerRoger63358 shared a reply by Rockstar to a pair of queries about the release date of Heists in GTA Online. At the time, Rockstar was dealing with several complaints about GTA Online, mostly leftover sentiment from its disastrous launch period and the overall lack of content in the time that followed. It took a herculean effort for GTA Online to become what it is today and it all started during those years. Naturally, just as they are doing now with GTA 6, most couldn’t wait for an official announcement regarding new stuff coming to GTA Online.
Thus, this prompted a very character response from Rockstar where it basically said that, they’re not in the business of rushing stuff out of the gates.
This quote from Rockstar in 2014 is one we should all pay attention to because it looks like it still rings true to this day
byu/RogerRoger63358 inGTA6
This serves as a reminder that, for all its shortcomings and the criticisms it has received in recent years, Rockstar is still the company that most grew up with. Some of the faces might have changed, but how it operates remains the same. It’s a sentiment shared by Take-Two Interactive’s CEO earlier this year when asked why GTA 6 is taking so long.
In an ideal world, video game developers should all get the necessary time, money, and freedom to make a game they want – crunch culture “benefits” be damned. Rockstar isn’t lucky Take-Two doesn’t pressure it. It’s earned it. Besides, it’s already in enormous amounts of pressure as it is, presumably from itself and from fans. The last thing Rockstar needs are stock holders and corporate executives breathing down its neck, which thankfully likely hasn’t happened yet. Otherwise, we’d have heard about it already.
Several games in recent years have suffered mightily because those at the top felt like the developers were taking very long to make them.
Rockstar Games has always served as one of the standard bearers of the video game industry. The award-winning but very controversial studio has released plenty of masterpieces over the years. Unlike others, Rockstar just can’t seem to stop getting better. Any game with the “R” logo in it will sell at neck-breaking speeds. Case in point, Grand Theft Auto V was the fastest-selling entertainment product ever after grossing over a billion in three days in 2013, which is two days faster than the record set by Avengers: Endgame in 2019 as the fastest movie to gross at least a billion at the global box office. Today, GTA V is the most successful entertainment product of all time, outgrossing any individual movie, book, or music album.
More than that, every GTA, especially starting from GTA III all the way through GTA V, have set the bar for its innovative gameplay, strong narrative, and massive open worlds.
Rockstar knows very well that it can’t afford to cut corners, but it can afford to ask fans to extend their patience more as they wait for GTA 6.
After being in production for pretty much a decade, what’s a year or two more if it means Rockstar gives us the best and most polished version of what could potentially be the best, most expensive and most lucrative game of all time?
