It’s been reported that Grand Theft Auto 6 could be the most expensive video game ever made.
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The follow-up to 2013’s Grand Theft Auto 5 has been in full development since 2019. Last year, a report claimed Rockstar had spent between $200million and $300million working on hyper-realistic water and earlier this year, a former developer said he spent 39 months making broken glass look more realistic in the game.
A new report from Business Insider (via IGN) says that industry analysts have estimated that Rockstar Games has already spent between $1billion and $1.5billion on creating Grand Theft Auto 6. Strauss Zelnick, boss of publishers Take-Two, didn’t comment on specifics but said making the game “was expensive”.
Speaking to Bloomberg earlier this year, Zelnick explained that “development costs have gone up and up” but the team still “aim to deliver the highest quality entertainment on Earth, and that is costly.”
“We have the most amazing creative teams. We try to give them unlimited financial, creative human resources and then they aim to deliver perfection,” he added.
Most game budgets are never shared with the public but according to experts, Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 was previously believed to be the most expensive video game ever made with development costing $218million while Grand Theft Auto 5 reportedly cost $137million.
Earlier this year, a YouTuber looked at Rockstar’s financial records and estimated that the company had spent more than $2.7billion making Grand Theft Auto 6.
Because of how much the game is rumoured to have cost Rockstar, there are worries they could charge up to $100 for Grand Theft Auto 6 but last month, Zelnick suggested it would cost between $70 and $80. He also promised that the title would have no in-game advertising or brand partnerships. “We need to be true to our consumers. It’s a fictional world and everything in it is fictional.”
Grand Theft Auto 6 is set to launch November 19 for PlayStation and Xbox. Nintendo Switch and PC versions of the game are expected but haven’t been confirmed.
In other news, Nintendo hosted a surprise Direct last night (May 6) to confirm that a remake of Star Fox 64 would be coming to the Switch 2 later this year.
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