Bloomberg just revealed a ton of new GTA 6 details, including how the open world works and why development took so long

Jason Schreier from Bloomberg has published a massive article about the development of GTA 6 after visiting Rockstar’s offices and speaking with some of the people leading the project. There’s actually a lot of interesting stuff here, especially about the NPCs, Jason and Lucia’s relationship, and what Rockstar plans to do after GTA 6. Here’s a summary of the most interesting bits. Development and why it’s taken so long * GTA 6 has been in full development for over eight years, making it Rockstar’s biggest project ever. * The original plan was much bigger, with parts of North and South America included in the map. Eventually, Rockstar scaled everything down to Vice City and the surrounding areas. * Red Dead Redemption 2 took up so many resources that GTA 6’s development was delayed by several years. * Rockstar has grown from 2,441 employees in 2018 to 4,711 in 2026, spread across 12 studios. * The early development period was apparently known internally as the “dark period” because the team was struggling to figure out exactly what the game should be. * The main story involving Jason and Lucia was already established by late 2019, but it wasn’t until 2022 that the different systems started coming together. The open world sounds absolutely insane One of Rockstar’s main goals was to make the world feel genuinely alive, rather than just filling the streets with NPCs walking around. Jason and Lucia can apparently spend time together outside story missions. You can even text Lucia while playing as Jason and arrange to meet her somewhere. Getting their relationship to work naturally in the open world required years of work on the game’s AI systems. But the most interesting part of the Bloomberg article is a gameplay demonstration. Phil Hooker, one of Rockstar’s development leads, was trying to reach a story mission when he accidentally hit another vehicle. He went into a convenience store to recover his health, but another NPC started insulting him. Things escalated into a fight, and he noticed the cash register was unattended, so he robbed the store. The police came after him, forcing him to steal another car. He then encountered a vehicle blasting music, followed it, and discovered a compound containing valuables. After stealing those valuables, he visited someone who could buy them, which led to yet another activity. Two hours had passed, and he still hadn’t reached the story mission he originally wanted to test. Apparently, none of that sequence was scripted. It emerged naturally from the interactions between NPCs, police, criminal activities and the environment. Rockstar considers this kind of unpredictable gameplay one of GTA 6’s biggest achievements. They even created an entirely new studio in Los Angeles dedicated to producing NPC content because the existing teams couldn’t keep up with the amount they wanted. Leaks, delays and working conditions The massive 2022 leak was apparently devastating for the developers. Rockstar described it as deeply invasive, particularly because the footage showed unfinished work that was never intended for the public. COVID also caused significant problems, especially with motion capture. Rockstar says the delays weren’t caused by one specific technical issue. The problem was getting all these incredibly complex systems working together. They also tried to avoid the extreme crunch associated with RDR2, when some employees were working around 60 hours per week for months. According to management, conditions have improved, although crunch hasn’t disappeared completely. Remote work was restricted for security reasons, and Rockstar may reconsider its policies after launch. A couple of other details: * Rockstar denied rumors that GTA 6’s development budget exceeded $1.5 billion. * GTA 6 Online is expected in 2027, although Rockstar hasn’t officially detailed its launch plans. * Take-Two’s CEO was reportedly surprised by the second delay but supported Rockstar’s decision. And what happens after GTA 6? This might actually be the most exciting part. Rockstar believes the technology, tools and development pipelines created for GTA 6 will allow them to make future games considerably faster. They compared it to the transition from GTA III to Vice City, when they could build another game relatively quickly because the technological foundation was already there. The developers don’t expect their next project to require another eight years of development. Obviously, that doesn’t mean GTA 7 or Red Dead Redemption 3 is coming anytime soon, but it’s encouraging. Personally, I’d love to see Rockstar return to releasing games more frequently. Imagine getting Bully 2 or RDR3 without another decade-long wait. And honestly, the description of that unscripted two-hour gameplay session has made me even more excited for GTA 6. What do you think? Is Rockstar taking open-world games to another level, or are we getting a bit carried away with the hype? https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2026-grand-theft-auto-6-making-of/