GTA 6 LIVE: Game's development could cost more than any of us thought

ICYMI: GTA 6's development could cost more than any of us thought

GTA 6's cost could end up being much more expensive than any of us thought.

There have been all sorts of rumors and theories flying around about how much GTA 6 will end up costing Rockstar Games to make, with speculative figures online saying it could cost anywhere up to $2 billion.

But it's claimed the final figure could even be higher than that.

Redditor Due-Vanilla-8294 has dug through Rockstar Games' full accounts, a document of which is publicly available on the UK Government website, and found since 2019, the studio has spent "at least £1.6 billion" (which converts to around $2.1 billion) in "expenses related to employee wages and salaries" at Rockstar North's offices alone.

In the GTA 6 Subreddit, Due-Vanilla-8294 added: "This means we're not even including the costs from Rockstar's other studios. Rockstar might be heading for the $3 billion mark."

And gamers have been having their say in the comments.

Novel_Yam_1034 said: "They will get it back in the first three days of the game launching."

xsaadx agreed: "They will make back $3 billion in just pre-orders."

0nlyFuZZ said: "Lots of monetising to come for sure. Not just shark cards."

spider-jedi countered: "No they have not. you forget that during that time period you mentioned they still had people working on GTA Online or RDR Online."

The exact development cost of GTA 6 is currently unconfirmed.

Rockstar recruiting more QA Testers

After Rockstar Games announced a recruitment drive for QA Testers at its studio in Bengaluru, India, a new listing has appeared for an Associate QA Tester: Technical at Rockstar North in Edinburgh.

The role will focus on performance testing as job responsibilities include: "Test and validate the technical performance of game features, content and systems.

"Test additional systems or game features as needed and respond to ad-hoc or time-sensitive test requests, potentially across multiple projects."

This may be to test out elements of GTA 6 although the game is not specifically mentioned in the listing.

GTA 4 leak reaction

In the GamingLeaksAndRumours Subreddit, gamers are reacting to an early, pre-release build of GTA 4 being leaked after it was found on a Xbox 360 console from a car boot sale that was sold for $5.

Dismal_Ad2746 said: "Wow! The Ferry's are included."

Sea-Country8245 said: "My heart stopped for a second."

Xplatos said: "The only GTA that felt the same grittiness of GTA 3."

MB7HK said: "Wow I read it as GTA 6 at first, my heart almost stopped."

LowSpecific1499 said: "Lmao love this. It's like GTA4Forums Christmas. Modders going to have a field day with new content. Awakening from their long hiatus so to speak."

Former GTA 4 dev reveals details about early build

After seeing someone say they bought a Xbox 360 console from a car boot sale for $5 to find it contained an early, pre-release build of GTA 4, former Rockstar worker Obbe Vermeij has revealed some interesting details about the game.

Vermeij spent 14 years at Rockstar as a technical director, working on Grand Theft Auto projects such as Vice City, San Andreas and IV before leaving in 2009.

On X / Twitter, referring to the ferry's model from the first trailer being uncovered, he said: "The ferries were cut late on. They were supposed to be moving back and forth kinda like a train.

"We figured there would be too many issues with it. Mostly the collision and AI of peds and vehicles sitting on top of another vehicle. We ditched them even though they were in the trailer."

Vermeij also commented on what seems to be details of a zombies mode being found too.

"I don't remember anything about zombies in GTA 4," he shared. "Artists were always trying to put zombies in things. Not something that got very far."

Early GTA 4 build found on Xbox 360 bought for £5 at car boot sale

On GTA Forums, a user said they bought a Xbox 360 console from a car boot sale for $5 - and booted it up to find it contained an early, pre-release build of GTA 4.

HeySlickThatsMe posted details of what was discovered, including a number of features that were cut from the final release.

These include different radio stations and tracks, unused logo models, a zombies mini game and beta character models.

The ferry's model from the first trailer was also among the discoveries.

YouTuber claims to have worked out GTA 6 cost

YouTuber Saukko505 claims to have worked out the budget for GTA 6, claiming it will cost at least $3.4 billion and could even cost up to $5.1 billion.

The YouTuber shared a detailed breakdown about how these calculations were made, along with follow up posts about it on X / Twitter.

Saukko505 said: "According to financial statements from Rockstar UK Ltd, it has spent / will spend more than £2.7 billion on staff and other expenses FY2020 to the release of GTA 6

"£2.7 billion is still missing several expenses like marketing and licensing and other non UK expenses like pensions and insurance payments in the US and India.

"So considering all the expenses, I have estimated that the minimum cost of operations from the start of FY2020 to the release of GTA 6 will be at least $3.4 billion."

GTA 6's budget has not been officially confirmed at the time of writing.

Gaming insider's take on GTA 6 cost

A gaming industry insider has shared his take on GTA 6's potential production cost after the sum Rockstar Games has paid employees at its Rockstar North studio since 2019 was shared online.

Reece 'Kiwi Talkz' Reilly said: "The budget for GTA 6 looks like it will be $3 billion dollars once it's all said and done.

"I have been saying for ages that it will take other developers 15-20 years to match what Rockstar is doing with GTA 6, I wasn't exaggerating, some of the stuff they have planned is crazy ambitious.

"Come November you will see where all the money went."

GTA 6 cost could be more expensive than any of us thought

GTA 6's cost could end up being much more expensive than any of us thought.

There have been all sorts of rumors and theories flying around about how much GTA 6 will end up costing Rockstar Games to make, with speculative figures online saying it could cost anywhere up to $2 billion.

But it's claimed the final figure could even be higher than that.

Redditor Due-Vanilla-8294 has dug through Rockstar Games' full accounts, a document of which is publicly available on the UK Government website, and found since 2019, the studio has spent "at least £1.6 billion" (which converts to around $2.1 billion) in "expenses related to employee wages and salaries" at Rockstar North's offices alone.

In the GTA 6 Subreddit, Due-Vanilla-8294 added: "This means we're not even including the costs from Rockstar's other studios. Rockstar might be heading for the $3 billion mark."

And gamers have been having their say in the comments.

Novel_Yam_1034 said: "They will get it back in the first three days of the game launching."

xsaadx agreed: "They will make back $3 billion in just pre-orders."

0nlyFuZZ said: "Lots of monetising to come for sure. Not just shark cards."

spider-jedi countered: "No they have not. you forget that during that time period you mentioned they still had people working on GTA Online or RDR Online."

The exact development cost of GTA 6 is currently unconfirmed.