Bloomberg's GTA 6 Feature: What Rockstar Finally Said, and What It Still Won't

Rockstar almost never explains itself. For Jason Schreier's Bloomberg Businessweek feature, published Wednesday, Oct 14, it did, putting five senior leaders on the record at Rockstar North in Edinburgh. Below we keep two things apart: what Rockstar people actually said, and what Bloomberg estimates on its own.

Note: we couldn't open the Bloomberg article ourselves, because it wasn't reachable from our tools this morning. Everything here is as relayed by Vice, TheGamer and Leonida Hub, which read it. We'll add the direct link once we can confirm it.

On the record: what Rockstar said

The leaks hurt. Aaron Garbut, one of Rockstar North's heads of development, described the 2022 leak of early footage to Bloomberg as "somebody's wading through your dirty washing," according to Vice. He called seeing unfinished work online "weirdly invasive." Vice notes Rockstar didn't add new comments about this year's leaks.

The next game should be faster. Phil Hooker said "the engine, the tools, and the team we've built during this project will allow us to do things more quickly," TheGamer and Vice report. Garbut added that the big foundational changes are "done, and we're not going to rip it apart." Neither named the next project. That's not a GTA 7 or Red Dead announcement.

The delays. Per Leonida Hub's summary, head of publishing Jennifer Kolbe says she personally called Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick to ask for each of the two delays. Hooker framed the second as a choice: they could hit the date, "but it won't be the game we want to make."

A "dark period." Rob Nelson used that phrase, Leonida Hub reports, for the stretch after Red Dead Redemption 2, when the pandemic, staff departures and a hiring surge slowed progress.

Crunch and the office. Kolbe says the game wasn't finished on Red Dead 2-style crunch, but conceded "it's not been perfect," according to Leonida Hub. Staff have been in the office five days a week since 2024, and she doubts that will become hybrid.

The union. Bloomberg reports that Rockstar and the group of fired workers seeking recognition now meet weekly. Leonida Hub quotes Kolbe: "If they want a union, they will have a union." Rockstar maintains the October 2025 firings were over leaked confidential information, and the workers dispute that.

Headcount. Rockstar's own figures, per Leonida Hub, go from 2,441 staff in 2018 to 4,711 across 12 offices as of August.

Bloomberg's estimates (not Rockstar's)

• Cost: Rockstar wouldn't give a number. Bloomberg estimates it at more than $1 billion. Leonida Hub says Kolbe only denied that it passed $1.5 billion.
• GTA 6 Online: Bloomberg expects it in 2027. Rockstar didn't discuss online.
• Sales: analysts quoted by Bloomberg expect about 40 million copies and more than $3 billion in the first four months (Leonida Hub). That's a forecast.

What Rockstar still won't say

• The budget.
• When online launches, or what it looks like.
• What its next game is.
• Schreier's own impressions. He said ahead of publication that he saw the game running but wasn't allowed to share impressions (egw.news).

GTA VI launches Nov 19 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.