Rockstar Let Its Developers Shape GTA VI With Their Own Ideas
Jason Schreier described a structure that could allow spontaneous contributions from the team, without confirming specific features in the new game.
Rumor: this information has not yet been officially confirmed.
Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA VI), the next game in Rockstar Games’ action series—the studio behind Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption—could make room for small details created at the initiative of artists and developers, rather than being born exclusively from centralized leadership decisions. The possibility was described by journalist Jason Schreier while discussing the behind-the-scenes work on a production involving thousands of professionals in Leonida, the fictional state where the game takes place.
Schreier discussed the topic in a later video dedicated to information that was left out of his reporting on GTA VI’s production. The journalist used Rockstar’s previous western, Red Dead Redemption 2, to explain how an individual idea can find room within such a large development structure.
The example he cited was the anatomical reaction of horses to the cold in Red Dead Redemption 2. According to the account, the feature “wasn’t an order from upper management,” but rather an idea from a developer who had the time and resources to pursue it.
The description does not point to a mechanic or confirm any specific detail about GTA VI. The account concerns room for smaller initiatives during the development process, without indicating which features may make it into the game.
The scale helps illustrate this process. Rockstar grew from 2,441 employees at the launch of Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018 to 4,711 professionals across 12 offices during the production of GTA VI. According to Schreier, the art production team, which had five or six members on Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V), the previous game in the series, grew to 65 on the new project.
Aaron Garbut, one of Rockstar’s development leads, summed up the complexity of the work by saying that “there isn’t a single person in the studio who has the entire game in their head.” When creating a nightclub in Vice City, GTA VI’s fictional city inspired by Miami, for example, the team needs to combine non-player characters (NPCs), drinks, music, lighting, and synchronization between these elements.
Grand Theft Auto VI is Rockstar Games’ next title, set in the fictional state of Leonida. It is scheduled to launch on November 19, 2026, for Sony’s PlayStation 5 (PS5) console and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X|S consoles.
Coverage by
- Creative Autonomy and Details in GTA VI — Bloomberg Businessweek — The Making of Grand Theft Auto VI, por Jason Schreier
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
No. Jason Schreier’s account concerns the studio’s creative process and does not point to any specific GTA VI features.
Schreier used the detail of horses’ anatomical reaction to the cold in Red Dead Redemption 2 as an example of an idea created by a developer.
Rockstar is working with a team distributed across 12 offices and aiming to create environments, NPCs, animations, music, and lighting on a massive scale.