I Worked at Rockstar. Here’s Why GTA VI Is Taking Forever.

I produced games at Rockstar Games for nearly five years, the company that brought you Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne, and, of course, Grand Theft Auto. That means there’s only one question on everyone’s lips when they see me: “When the hell is GTA VI coming out?” 

The game’s delay is so legendary that it’s become its own meme. “We got self-driving cars before GTA VI,”“We got Mike Tyson coming back to the ring after 19 years before GTA 6,” “We got aliens confirmed before GTA 6,” and other comments plastered all over socials. The last GTA came out September 13, 2013, and 13 years later, we are still waiting. (Many of us, it turns out, are also still playing.)

Development for GTA VI, which could easily become the holy grail of video games, is rumored to have cost over $1billion. Estimates derived from public financial filings suggest the number may be closer to $2 billion or beyond, potentially making it the most expensive video game ever made. And at that level, it would also become the most expensive single piece of digital entertainment ever created.

So, why the hell can’t we play it yet?

I first met Sam Houser, the president of Rockstar Games, when I was a newly-hired producer at the San Diego division of the company. I worked on games like Red Dead Revolver, Midnight Club 2 and Table Tennis. The rumors of the Rockstar dev life were true: 80 to 100 hour work weeks soon became my norm, consuming my early 20s entirely but resulting in essentially a PhD in game development. Overseeing every detail of each game was Sam himself; exacting, creative, and a true perfectionist in every aspect.

Sam’s visits to Rockstar San Diego produced a mixture of excitement and pressure. Was the milestone actually ready for his review? What unexpected features and new requests would arise? Sam, along with his brother Dan, were closely involved in virtually every major decision on every game; the characters, the story, the unique gameplay features, the graphical fidelity, and every single pixel on screen was scrutinized and pushed to the best it could be under their close watch.

It was intense to have this level of top-down involvement, which was rare in the gaming industry, and certainly stressful. But everyone at Rockstar had the utmost respect for leadership — a true rarity in this day and age — even when major decisions shifted schedules, timelines, and expectations by months. Many times, in the thick of development, I would call my parents around 9 a.m. and they would ask, concerned, “Are you heading into work or going home to sleep?”

Nobody ever wanted to let Sam down. But like all the geniuses of our time — from Francis Ford Coppola to Kojima to Scorsese — perfection comes with a price tag. Sam doesn’t care about a date or a budget. He cares about absolute, soul-gripping, platform-changing, earth-shattering innovation. In other words: the perfect game. 

In many ways, that’s exactly what Grand Theft Auto delivered. This is a franchise that didn’t just define a genre; it became a legitimate cultural institution. Dr. Dre built an entire story arc around himself inside GTA Online. Kendrick Lamar is reportedly getting his own in-game radio station for GTA VI. Travis Scott teased his involvement in a music video. These aren’t artists doing a quick licensing deal, these are the biggest names in music treating a video game like it’s the most important cultural real estate on the planet. And the numbers back that up. 

GTA V has generated nearly $10 billion in revenue since its 2013 release, making it one of the highest grossing entertainment properties ever created, not just in games, but in any medium. The subreddit r/GrandTheftAuto has millions of members still debating, modding, and obsessing over a game that came out over a decade ago. GTA Online, the extension of GTA V, grosses $400 to $500 million a year on its own, which is both a testament to the game’s insane staying power and, perhaps frustratingly for fans, the nonstop cash infusion that lets Rockstar keep raising the bar on whatever comes next.

It’s no wonder the hype for the sequel is so strong. When the second GTA VI trailer dropped in May 2025, it racked up over 475 million views in 24 hours, making it the most watched gaming trailer in history. But then, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, the parent company that owns Rockstar Games, had to acknowledge that the team was running roughly 18 months behind their original schedule.

In some ways, the stakes for the game actually just keep getting higher. There is a constant downturn and mass layoffs impacting the games industry — not to mention, the massive multi-hundred-million dollar failed launches from beloved brands like PlayStation with Concord(a rumored $400 million project that was pulled from stores weeks after launch) and endless scrutiny over other blockbuster franchises for failure to innovate. Not even Pokémon was spared as it launched multiple lackluster games. As the absence grows, so does the appetite. What those 6,000+ employees at Rockstar Games are creating, in other words, better be worth the wait.

Sam Houser knows all this. He knows not only what’s riding on it, but he also sees the new games coming out that consistently raise the bar for the industry while GTA VI is still cooking. And he’s also navigating huge setbacks along the way, from very public hacks that exposed the game and world in early development stages, to the shocking exit of his brother Dan from the company in 2020. 

Dan Houser, who shaped the studio’s voice and was the head writer across all major Rockstar titles, confirmed in an interview with IGN that he had zero involvement in GTA VI’s story or characters. This was no small concession: Dan was the creative engine of the GTA voice for over two decades. Rumors sourced to Insider Gaming suggest his 2020 departure may have been preceded by multiple scrapped story drafts for GTA VI and an overall disagreement with Sam about the direction Rockstar Games was taking. Either way, Sam seemingly lost his co-founder, brother, and most trusted creative partner mid-development on the biggest game the studio has ever attempted.

Then, there’s the shifting expectations of gaming, which is an irony, since it’s a dynamic that Grand Theft Auto essentially helped to create. The expectation from paying customers is no longer just a great game; it’s a living world, a social platform (and for the company, a decade-long revenue engine). Every system in the game — the AI, combat, NPCs, visuals, physics, economy, the social dynamics — has to be built not just to impress at launch but to sustain years of live updates, new content, and collaborations. 

All this ladders up into why GTA VI hasn’t come out yet — and I’m sorry to say, it may not come out in 2026, even with the preorder link going live. Take-Two, the parent company of Rockstar, will urge you to believe that 11/19/26 date is set in stone. Its stock price, among other things, is riding on it. What they won’t tell you is that yes, while they own Rockstar Games, they aren’t really in control. Sam Houser is. And he won’t let GTA VI into the world unless it’s going to blow your fucking mind.