After the recent presentation of the PlayStation 5, it is clear that Rockstardecided to follow the path of Todd Howard, issuing another re-release of GTA 5 released in 2015 instead of the new GTA 6. But why does the company remain stubbornly silent and give absolutely no information about the next game in the series, while supporting a slightly outdated product? Due to the complete absence of official news and the simultaneous agonizing expectation of fans, every rumor or assumption on the Internet causes heated discussion, regardless of the information source’s quality. We will figure out why this situation has arisen at all and what are the reasons behind the fact that the company didn’t release GTA 6 even in 2020, and is unlikely to release it anytime soon.
In this situation, it is difficult to single out just one specific reason, because many variables affect any decision in business. One such variable was recently shared by Darion Levenshtein, a former Rockstaremployee who produced their major titles in 2002-2006. It was under his strict guidance that such masterpieces as first GTA: Vice City and then GTA: San Andreas came out. It was thanks to them that the company managed to climb the Olympus of the gaming industry, therefore, such a person knows exactly how things are done. According to Levenshtein, it’s not just pointless, but even harmful for Rockstarto release a new game right now – even if the excitement around GTA 5 has subsided a little over so many years, it still brings big profits to the studio. Consequently, using a business point of view, it is much more profitable to continue exploiting the old game until the interest in it finally dies out, than to interrupt the “gold mine” by prematurely launching a new product. However, the problem isn’t only the question of the profitability of a new project’s launching – there is every reason to believe that the game is simply not ready even by a third (or even less), that is, there is simply nothing to announce yet.
To put some weight into our words, let’s analyze some statistics, in particular – the release rate of Rockstargames. For example, in 2008, the studio released GTA 4, and in 2010 the first Red Dead Redemption was born. The next big titles – Grand Theft Auto 5 and RDR 2 – were released in 2013 and 2018, respectively. As you can see, the studio takes more and more time to develop a flagship game: the difference between the first two examples is only two years, while five years have passed between the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 and GTA 5. The reason is pretty obvious to anyone familiar with these products – the quality of the first RDR and Grand Theft Auto 4 isn’t nearly as different as between the second two games. The studio threw all its resources for the development of Red Dead Redemption 2, both material and intellectual – the staff literally spent nights at work, which was even covered in the press more than once.
The whole point is about such quality growth. If the games don’t differ from each other in quality, the players have less desire to get acquainted with the new game, which means that the company suffers losses. The development of modern technologies doesn’t play into the hands of developers in this situation – after all, the pattern shows that with the improvement of the game picture pixel density, studios need to make more efforts to improve this picture so that it is at least noticeable to the player. With a “pipeline” model of game release, such as sports simulators like FIFA or NBA 2K, this improvement is simply impossible to create. But if sports sims continue to sell out due to real-world sports changes, that are reflected in games, then Ubisoftwith its endless Assassin’s Creed was forced to modify its release calendar and approach to development. (It’s worth noting that some companies stubbornly refuse to admit the inevitable and continue to rivet one game after another almost every year, not worrying about their quality – yes, Treyarch, we’re talking about you!)
However, this isn’t just some ordinary company, but Rockstar. This is a benchmark studio, its games are the beacon to most of the companies in the industry, and this status must be constantly maintained. In their games, they always use advanced technologies that others can obtain only after a certain time. But it is also a heavy burden – the slightest mistake, a small decrease in quality that would be considered optimal for others will rob them of their “rock stars” title. If you take all this into account, it’s hard to even imagine what a titanic work the developers have to do to make GTA 6 so much superior to GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2.
But what you really need to understand is that long development time will only benefit the game. Thanks to the postponement, the team will be able to better work out all the details of the game, maximize the plot, animation, and more. Keep in mind that it is people, not machines, who create games. The authors need more time to grow the concept-arts into a full-fledged AAA project that can completely capture the players’ hearts.
Going back to the numbers, it took the studio 5 years to develop Red Dead Redemption 2 with full use of the studio’s resources. If RDR 2 came out in 2018, how could GTA 6 come out in 2020? Using conventional arithmetic, the game should be released in 2023. It’s clear that this number is very approximate, the exact release date cannot be predicted due to the huge number of variables. For example, the developers most likely began to work on the new Grand Theft Auto at the end of RDR 2 production – the designers started to sketch the first concept-arts, the scriptwriters wrote down the outline of ideas for the future plot, etc.
Also, we can’t forget about the situation with Den Hauser, the studio’s lead writer behind the plot of most of Rockstar’shits. His recent departure from the studio has certainly shaken the position and quality of the company’s future products, including GTA 6.
The bottom line is – Rockstaris a tough company that produces top-class games, and quality, as you know, takes resources, including time. There is a quite high possibility that the company’s management may decide to lower the game’s quality and release it earlier because users will buy the game anyway, thanks to the popularity of the series. Bearing a little longer is sure better than such an alternative.
