GTA 6 Publisher Take-Two Makes Statement About GTA 7 And The Franchise's Future
After a 13-year wait "Grand Theft Auto 6" is set to be the biggest media release in history. By August 2026, "GTA 6" pre-orders had reportedly netted developer Rockstar Games $430 million, and that was a whole three months before its official release. Now, just ahead of the game's November 19, 2026 debut, it seems "GTA" publisher Take-Two Interactive is already looking to the future.
An October report from Bloomberg features interviews with co-studio heads at Rockstar North Phil Hooker and Aaron Garbut, wherein the pair seemed to suggest future games would take nowhere near as long as "GTA 6" to develop. "The engine, the tools and the team we've built during this project will allow us to do things more quickly," said Hooker. "I feel confident that we can build on top of this and go more sideways than upwards to build more compelling content." Garbut, meanwhile, seemed to agree. "We foundationally changed a lot of stuff on this project," he said. "But now it's done, and we're not going to rip it apart."
Now, IGN has spoken to Take-Two Interactive (Rockstar's parent company) CEO Strauss Zelnick, who concurred with the Rockstar studio heads: "We do think that the nature and velocity of the content we'll see from our iconic franchises, including GTA, will look dramatically different over the next decade. And that's really being driven by our industry-leading commitment to releasing the highest quality entertainment, to reaching our players in new ways and in new places and trying to maintain engagement with our consumers post-launch."
The next GTA game won't take 13 years to arrive
Though it's been 13 years since "Grand Theft Auto 5" debuted, Bloomberg's report puts the development time for "GTA 6" at eight years. During that period Rockstar Games has developed all sorts of new technologies. "GTA 6" will introduce a new advanced dynamic weather system that will see Leonida (the fictional Floridia-themed state in which Vice City is located) hit by hurricanes and other severe weather events. The game will also feature new water physics, an entirely revamped wanted system, and dozens of new activities that include dirt biking and mini golf.
On top of that, Rockstar has made major changes to how NPCs react to players' crimes, along with numerous other upgrades to its in-house RAGE engine. With that, much of the hard work has now been done to create a new game engine capable of delivering a host of games for a new generation.
Meanwhile, as Bloomberg notes, Rockstar has grown significantly in the last decade, taking on new staff and doubling in size from the days of "GTA 5." As such, the developer is now in a position whereby it can leverage both its newly revamped RAGE engine and its enlarged workforce to create games in what both Rockstar developers and Take Two's Strauss Zelnick agree will be much quicker timeframes than that of "GTA 6."
That's good news for gamers, as it means we shouldn't have to wait 13 years for another "GTA" title. On the other hand, "GTA 6" hasn't even been released yet, and it seems a tad premature to start thinking about when its successor might arrive.
"GTA 6" pre-loading is now live ahead of the game's November 19, 2026 release date.