How GTA 6 was made: it began as “Project Americas”, took eight years and Take-Two’s boss hoped the delay was a joke

Bloomberg's feature with Rockstar's leadership: the map that was going to span two continents, a workforce that doubled, the cost they won't reveal and what they say about crunch and the union.

Journalist Jason Schreier spent a full day at Rockstar North in Edinburgh with Jennifer Kolbe, head of publishing, and the game's three heads of development: Rob Nelson, Aaron Garbut and Phil Hooker. The result, published by Bloomberg, is the closest look yet behind the scenes of GTA VI. This is what it says.

From "Project Americas" to Miami

In 2015, Nelson flew to Miami with a group of senior staff for the first research trip. The project then had a code name, Project Americas, because it aimed to feature "big swaths" of North and South America. It was later cut down to Miami and its surroundings, today's state of Leonida.

The plan was to develop it alongside Red Dead Redemption 2, but the western grew so much that Nelson had to pour most of the company into it, and the GTA slipped by several years.

A Rockstar twice the size

• Headcount: 2,441 people when Red Dead Redemption 2 came out in 2018; 4,711 across 12 offices today. Bloomberg describes it as far larger than any competitor.
• No Dan Houser: after Red Dead 2 several veterans left, including the co-founder and writer of most of its games. Nelson, Garbut and Hooker came to share the leadership, an unusual arrangement in the industry.
• A "dark period": Nelson's term for the phase when the vision was not yet clear. By the end of 2019 they had the story's skeleton, the Jason and Lucia couple, and then the pandemic hit.
• A studio just for pedestrians: when they worked out how many non-playable characters had to be written and animated, "the projections they were giving us were horrifying," Nelson says. The fix was a new Los Angeles studio of writers, producers and directors devoted solely to them. More in IGN's interview.

The two delays: "Please tell me you're kidding"

Rockstar's leaders say they genuinely believed in the 2025 date the first trailer promised. When the team asked for more time, Kolbe called Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two's chief executive, to move it to May 2026. Months later she had to call again to ask for November. His reaction, as she recalls it: "I think he said, 'You're kidding. Please tell me you're kidding.'" Once the reasons were explained, he accepted it. Kotaku and Eurogamer also highlight it.

What it cost: they will not say, but under $1.5 billion

Rockstar does not disclose the budget. Kolbe did shoot down the rumour that it exceeded $1.5 billion, what it cost to build the Burj Khalifa. Bloomberg estimates it may have cost more than double the $500 million other publishers try to stay under, and notes some analysts expect 40 million copies and more than $3 billion in revenue in the first four months.

Crunch and the union

After Red Dead Redemption 2's marathon hours, "we all looked at each other and said, 'We're not doing it again like this,'" Kolbe recalls. She admits it has not been perfect: "Anytime I say we haven't crunched, someone is going to say, 'I did.'" Bloomberg says most of the employees it has spoken to over the years see progress, including the removal of managers seen as abusive.

The sore point remains the 2025 dismissal of 34 people, most of them from the group trying to unionise. According to Bloomberg, since the summer that group has been seeking voluntary recognition and meets management every week. "We go where the team goes," Kolbe says. "So if they want a union, they will have a union." The tribunal over those dismissals has been extended: closing arguments will be heard on 17 and 18 November, on the eve of launch. Where the tribunal stands.

The leaks, seen from inside

On the 2022 hack, which exposed dozens of unfinished videos, Garbut says it felt like "somebody's wading through your dirty washing" and calls it "weirdly invasive". For security, Rockstar still works from the office, and Kolbe doubts it will move to a hybrid model: with a game so many people want to steal, she says, it is a hard conversation. Bloomberg adds that August's leak still caused frustration inside the company. Rockstar did not discuss Cyberleek in the interview.

Game details from the feature

• Everything as a couple. The leadership wanted Jason and Lucia to be able to do everything together in the open world. "They have to be a couple," is how the decision is summed up.
• How much realism. They debated whether buying beer should mean taking it from the fridge and paying at the till, or whether making a stat-boosting sandwich should mean buying the ingredients first. The game aims for a middle ground.
• Never settled. "The game's never completely settled," Hooker says: they changed things even in the last few months.
• A two-hour detour. Playing a build, Hooker was heading to a mission, bumped another car and ended up chaining a robbery, an escape and several jobs. Two hours later he was nowhere near the mission.
• Research. The team rode with police, took helicopter shots of the city and walked through nightclubs to study their lighting. Among the game's "superlatives", Bloomberg lists the most realistic depiction of sweat.

What comes next

"The engine, the tools and the team we've built during this project will allow us to do things more quickly," says Hooker. Garbut adds that they changed a lot along the way, but now that it is done, they are not going to tear it apart. Their next game will not take another eight years. They are not discussing online; Bloomberg puts it in 2027.

Two new screenshots

Rockstar gave Bloomberg two unseen images, according to RockstarINTEL: Jason and Lucia covered in mud with a beer at the off-road race, and a sports car on Ocean Drive at sunset with a police helicopter flying low. They are exclusive to the feature, so we do not reproduce them; they can be seen in Bloomberg's article itself.

Frequently asked questions

What was Project Americas?

GTA 6's code name in its early years. According to Bloomberg, it aimed to include large areas of North and South America, and was later cut down to Miami and its surroundings.

How much did GTA 6 cost?

Rockstar will not say. Its head of publishing, Jennifer Kolbe, denied it exceeded $1.5 billion. Bloomberg estimates it may have cost more than $1 billion.

Why was GTA 6 delayed twice?

Because the team needed more time to finish it. Rockstar says it believed in the 2025 date, but as it got closer it saw it would not make it; it asked first for May 2026 and then for November.