Rockstar says its next game after GTA 6 won’t take another eight years to make

Rockstar expects its next project to arrive much sooner than Grand Theft Auto 6 did, the studio’s head of development Phil Hooker told Bloomberg. GameSpot and VGC reported the interview. Hooker said the technology and the larger team Rockstar put together during GTA 6‘s long production should speed up work on future games.

“The engine, the tools, and the team we’ve built during this project will allow us to do things more quickly,” Hooker said, as quoted by GameSpot. He said Rockstar plans to expand on what it already has instead of rebuilding its technology for each new game. In his words, the studio could “go more sideways than upwards to build more compelling content.”

According to GameSpot, Rockstar has spent more than eight years developing GTA 6. After a series of delays, the game is now scheduled for release on November 19, 2026. Over the same period the company has grown a lot. GameSpot reports that it had 2,441 employees around the launch of Red Dead Redemption 2 and now has 4,711 staff across 12 offices.

Recent gaps between Rockstar’s major releases have been long. GameSpot points out that GTA 5 launched in 2013 and Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018. The outlet also notes that the studio has turned games around quickly before by reusing existing technology: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City came out less than a year after GTA 3.

Rockstar has not announced its next major game. GameSpot also cautions that Hooker’s comments don’t mean the next Grand Theft Auto in particular will arrive quickly. For now, the studio’s attention remains on the GTA 6 launch.