GTA 6 News Today (October 14, 2026): Rockstar Opens Up

The GTA 6 news today is Rockstar talking about how the game was made. In a long Bloomberg Businessweek feature published October 14, Rockstar's leaders say GTA 6 started in 2015 as "Project Americas", explain both delays, and say the game did not cost more than $1.5 billion. Nothing changed on dates or prices: GTA 6 still launches November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, with preloading from November 12.

From Project Americas to Vice City

Bloomberg's Jason Schreier spent a day at Rockstar North in Edinburgh in late September with Jennifer Kolbe, Rockstar's head of publishing, and the three heads of development, Rob Nelson, Aaron Garbut and Phil Hooker. Bloomberg calls it the first time Rockstar has talked openly about the game's development problems.

The story starts in 2015, when Nelson and other senior staff took their first research trip to Miami. The game's code name was "Project Americas", because it was meant to cover big areas of both North and South America; it was later cut down to Miami and its surroundings. Rockstar first planned to build it alongside Red Dead Redemption 2, but as that game grew, most of the company moved over to finish it, which pushed GTA 6 back several years. By the end of 2019 the leaders had the skeleton of the story, Jason and Lucia's crime spree through a fictional Miami. The pandemic then stopped Rockstar's performance-capture studios for months.

Rockstar also gave Bloomberg its headcount: 2,441 employees when Red Dead Redemption 2 came out in 2018, and 4,711 across 12 offices as of August 2026, almost twice as many.

Sources: Bloomberg; Eurogamer; GamesRadar+

Why GTA 6 slipped twice

Rockstar's leaders say they really believed in the 2025 window from the first trailer. When the team asked for more time, Kolbe phoned Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick to move the game to May 2026, then called again months later to ask for November. "I think he said, 'You're kidding. Please tell me you're kidding,'" she told Bloomberg. "But once we talked through why, he got it." Zelnick told Bloomberg a delay is generally "a wise investment in time and financial resources" when a game needs it.

The leaders say there was no single dramatic reason. One example: when they worked out how many non-player characters they still had to write and animate, "the projections they were giving us were horrifying," Nelson said, so Rockstar built a new studio in Los Angeles just for NPC writers, producers and directors. "We could hit that schedule, but it won't be the game we want to make," Hooker said. Bloomberg writes that November 19 "appears to be" the real release date, and saw the bug-fixing progress screens in Edinburgh showing more green tiles than red.

Sources: Bloomberg; Kotaku; Eurogamer

Crunch, the office and the union

Kolbe said Rockstar told staff after Red Dead Redemption 2, "We're not going to finish this game by crunching," and added paid time off for extra hours worked. "It's not been perfect, but it's certainly better than Red Dead II was," she said. Since 2024 everyone has had to work from the office five days a week for security reasons; Kolbe said Rockstar will look at that again after launch but doubts it will move to a hybrid model.

On the union, Bloomberg reports that the group asked Rockstar for voluntary recognition over the summer and meets management every week. "If they want a union, they will have a union," Kolbe said. The Glasgow tribunal over the 34 people Rockstar fired in 2025 is still under way.

Sources: Bloomberg; Eurogamer

The budget, and the next game

Rockstar still won't say what GTA 6 cost, but Kolbe rejected the popular claim that it cost more than $1.5 billion. IGN traces that claim to a July 2025 Gulf News article that put the budget at $2 billion. Bloomberg's own estimate is that the game "might have cost more than double" $500 million. Our budget and sales page now carries Rockstar's answer.

The leaders also said the next Rockstar game will not take another eight years. "The engine, the tools and the team we've built during this project will allow us to do things more quickly," Hooker said. Garbut: "We foundationally changed a lot of stuff on this project. But now it's done, and we're not going to rip it apart." Rockstar did not say what that next game is.

Sources: Bloomberg; IGN; VGC

What it means for players

Our take: this is the most Rockstar has said about itself in years, and the useful part for players is the reason for the delays. Running short of characters to fill the world is a content problem you fix with more people and more time, not a broken game, and a release date that Bloomberg says "appears" firm a month out is a good sign. Take-Two's November 9 earnings call is still the last place a surprise could come from, so keep the date in pencil until then. The headcount explains the budget: almost twice the staff that made Red Dead Redemption 2, for more than eight years. As for the next game, the comparison Bloomberg draws is GTA III to Vice City, made in under a year on the same base. We would not expect anything that fast, but a wait shorter than GTA 5 to GTA 6's 13 years now looks likely. Our timeline has the dates.

Not confirmed

• A later end for the tribunal. Eurogamer reports that closing arguments at the Glasgow tribunal have moved into November, with two extra days on November 17 and 18. Bloomberg, writing before that, expected a result at the end of October. We have not seen a second outlet report the new dates.
• GTA 6 online in 2027. Bloomberg writes that the online part is expected in 2027, but Rockstar's developers did not talk about it. Rockstar has not announced a date.
• The PC window. Early 2027 is still GamesBeat's report from unnamed sources. Rockstar has not announced a PC version.
• Miami Beach branding from October 15, a Vice City Goodyear blimp, and a collector's map in boxed copies. None has a second reputable outlet or a word from Rockstar yet (see yesterday's news).
• Who plays Jason and Lucia, a new trailer or TV ad, and a Switch 2 version. Rockstar has announced none of them.

Coming up

1. October 15: the planned start of the Miami Beach branding, which may slip.
2. October 19: one month to launch.
3. October 20: the next Miami-Dade commission meeting, according to The Miamian.
4. November 9: Take-Two's earnings report after the US market close, with a call at 4:30 PM Eastern.
5. November 12: preloading starts at local midnight.
6. November 18: the Miami Heat's "A Night in Vice City" game.
7. November 19: the game, Grand Theft Auto VI: The Album and The Goodtime State collector's box.