The Making of GTA 6: Project Americas, Two Delays and 8 Years of Development
From a 2015 research trip to Miami to a scrapped game spanning North and South America, two delays and a leak-filled final year: the full story of how GTA 6 was made, including everything from Bloomberg's October 2026 cover story.
Grand Theft Auto VI arrives on November 19, 2026, more than 13 years after GTA V. It is almost certainly the most expensive video game ever made, built by a company that nearly doubled in size while making it. On October 14, 2026, Bloomberg Businessweek published a cover story by Jason Schreier, based on a late-September visit to Rockstar North in Edinburgh, that filled in much of how it happened.
This is the full story in order, from the first research trip to launch week. Where details come from Bloomberg's reporting rather than an official Rockstar statement, we say so.
Project Americas: the game GTA 6 almost was
According to Bloomberg, GTA 6 began life under the codename Project Americas, a far bigger concept that would have covered large parts of both North and South America. Over time Rockstar scaled it back to a single fictional state, Leonida, centered on a modern Vice City.
The research started early. Rob Nelson and other senior staff made their first research trip to Miami in 2015, three years before Red Dead Redemption 2 shipped. That research reportedly included ride-alongs with police, helicopter photography and nights out in Miami's clubs. Most of the studio moved onto the game after Red Dead Redemption 2 launched in October 2018, which is why the development is usually counted as more than eight years of full production.
Who made GTA 6
GTA 6 is the first mainline Grand Theft Auto made without Dan Houser, who co-founded Rockstar and was lead writer on most of its games before leaving after Red Dead Redemption 2. Bloomberg reports there was no single replacement. Instead, Rob Nelson, Aaron Garbut and Phil Hooker share the role of head of development.
Some staff told Bloomberg the arrangement meant too many cooks and slow or conflicting decisions. Nelson acknowledged the criticism but argued a single leader brings its own problems. He also described a dark period in the middle of development when the vision was not yet clear. By 2022, the team could finally see the full picture.
Rockstar grew enormously along the way. It had 2,441 employees when Red Dead Redemption 2 launched in 2018 and has 4,711 across 12 offices today. That is a company-wide figure, not the size of the GTA 6 team, but almost every studio contributed.
The NPC problem
One of the most striking details in Bloomberg's story is about Leonida's crowds. Nelson described the projections for how much NPC content the game needed as horrifying. Rockstar did not have enough capacity to write and animate it all, so it built a new studio in Los Angeles staffed with writers, producers and directors dedicated to NPCs.
The result shows in the Extended Look: Rockstar has said its NPCs use more than 600,000 animations, against roughly 55,000 in GTA V.
Every delay, explained
When Trailer 1 launched in December 2023 it promised a 2025 release. The game was delayed twice after that.
| Date announced | What changed | What Rockstar said |
|---|---|---|
| December 2023 | Trailer 1 sets a 2025 release window | Coming 2025 to PS5 and Xbox Series X and S |
| May 2, 2025 | Delayed to May 26, 2026 | More time needed to deliver the quality players expect |
| November 6, 2025 | Delayed to November 19, 2026 | Extra months to finish the game with the level of polish players expect and deserve |
"Please tell me you're kidding": how Take-Two took the news
Bloomberg reports that Jennifer Kolbe, Rockstar's head of publishing, made both calls to Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick. When she told him about the second delay, his reply, as she recalls it, was: "You're kidding. Please tell me you're kidding." He came around, and later described the extra time as a wise investment.
Phil Hooker told Bloomberg that Rockstar could have hit the earlier dates, but not with the game it wanted. There was no single crisis behind the delays, just a huge number of interconnected systems that kept changing, even in the last few months. Nelson put it simply: you only know whether a deadline works near the end.
Take-Two has reaffirmed November 19 at every earnings call since, including May 21 and August 7, 2026. Its next call, the last before launch, is on November 9, 2026.
Crunch, overtime and the 2024 return to office
After reports of 60-hour weeks during Red Dead Redemption 2, Kolbe told Bloomberg that Rockstar did not want GTA 6 finished by crunching. The studio changed its scheduling, introduced overtime pay and time off in lieu. Rockstar does not claim crunch was eliminated, and Kolbe acknowledged individual experiences may differ, but Schreier's sources were largely positive about the changes.
In 2024 Rockstar required staff back in the office five days a week and blocked access to its tools from home, a move Bloomberg reports was hard on employees caring for children. Security was the main driver, and the leaks that followed show why.
The leaks: 2022 and 2026
In September 2022, a hacker posted 90 videos of work-in-progress GTA 6 footage on GTAForums, roughly 50 minutes in total. A teenager from Oxfordshire, Arion Kurtaj, was arrested days later. A 2023 trial found him unfit to stand trial but found he had carried out the acts, and he was given an indefinite hospital order. BBC reporting in July 2026 said a retrial was scheduled for November 2026.
The second wave came in August 2026, when a leaker calling themselves CyberLeek posted the map and minutes of gameplay over more than a week. On August 20, Take-Two filed subpoenas against Microsoft and Discord in New York to identify the leaker. Rockstar called the leaks heartbreaking for the team. The Extended Look went ahead on schedule a week later.
The 2025 firings and the union case
In late October 2025, Rockstar fired 34 staff, 31 in the UK and 3 in Toronto, saying they had publicly discussed and distributed confidential information. The IWGB union called it union busting and said the staff had been discussing working conditions in a private Discord. In January 2026 a Glasgow tribunal refused the union's request for interim relief. The final hearing began on September 10, 2026, and no verdict had been announced as of mid-October.
How much did GTA 6 cost?
Rockstar has never disclosed a budget. Kolbe denied to Bloomberg that it cost more than about 1.5 billion dollars, but Bloomberg concludes it is almost certainly the most expensive game ever made, likely above 1 billion dollars and possibly more than double the roughly 500 million dollar ceiling other publishers work with. Analysts expect around 40 million copies sold and more than 3 billion dollars in revenue in the first four months. GTA V, for context, has sold 230 million copies.
Will GTA 7 take as long?
Rockstar's leaders say no. Hooker told Bloomberg that the engine, tools and team built for GTA 6 will let Rockstar move faster in future, going sideways rather than upwards. Garbut described the last 30 years as practice, adding that now it is done, Rockstar is not going to rip it apart. No next game has been announced, but the message is that the gap between GTA 6 and whatever follows should be far shorter than eight years.
The full GTA 6 timeline
- 2015: first Miami research trip
- October 2018: Red Dead Redemption 2 ships and most of Rockstar moves to GTA 6
- February 4, 2022: Rockstar confirms the next Grand Theft Auto is well underway
- September 18, 2022: 90 development videos leak
- December 2023: Trailer 1 releases early after a leak and sets YouTube's 24-hour record for a non-music video
- May 2, 2025: first delay, to May 26, 2026
- May 6, 2025: Trailer 2 and the official website update
- Late October 2025: 34 staff fired
- November 6, 2025: second delay, to November 19, 2026
- June 25, 2026: pre-orders open
- August 2026: CyberLeek leaks and Take-Two subpoenas
- August 27, 2026: An Extended Look premieres on Netflix
- October 14, 2026: Bloomberg's making-of cover story
- November 12, 2026: pre-load opens
- November 19, 2026: launch
FAQ
What was Project Americas?
Project Americas was GTA 6's original codename and concept, which Bloomberg reports would have covered large parts of North and South America before Rockstar scaled it back to the state of Leonida.
How long did GTA 6 take to make?
More than eight years of full development, starting after Red Dead Redemption 2 shipped in 2018, with research beginning as early as 2015. It launches 13 years after GTA V.
Why was GTA 6 delayed?
Rockstar delayed GTA 6 twice, in May 2025 and November 2025, saying it needed more time to finish the game with the level of polish players expect. Bloomberg reports there was no single crisis, just many interconnected systems still changing late in development.
How much did GTA 6 cost to make?
Rockstar has not disclosed the budget. Its head of publishing denied it exceeded about $1.5 billion; Bloomberg estimates it is likely above $1 billion.
Who is directing GTA 6?
Bloomberg reports there is no single director. Rob Nelson, Aaron Garbut and Phil Hooker share the role of head of development.