There has been a ton of speculation regarding Grand Theft Auto 6‘s budget. With at least eight years of development from a large team, it seems possible its development costs would likely eclipse just about every other game ever made. Uncorroborated rumors even started running rampant about the GTA 6 budget, further adding to the fervor. Rockstar Games has now come out and spoken vaguely about how much the game cost to make, as well as how many people are now working under the Rockstar umbrella.
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According to Bloomberg’s feature on GTA 6, Rockstar claims the open-world game’s development costs are maybe not as high as some may have thought. Head of publishing Jennifer Kolbe wouldn’t give an exact figure, but she did at least debunk the spurious rumor that GTA 6 was more expensive to create than the Burj Khalifa. This massive tower in Dubai cost around $1.5 billion to construct, according to the developer’s chairman.
This strange rumor had no substantial reporting behind it and was parroted on various social media sites. According to Business Insider’s analyst sources, the budget was likely anywhere from $1 billion to $1.5 billion. It’s unknown precisely how much money has been sunk into the open-world game, but it was undoubtedly ludicrously expensive.
Rockstar Games Nearly Doubled in Size After Red Dead Redemption 2
Part of those costs have to do with how many people were involved with making the game. The aforementioned Bloomberg report noted Rockstar had 2,441 employees when it shipped Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018. That number almost doubled over the years, as it, as of August, has 4,711 people across 12 offices. To put this in perspective, CD Projekt Red (as of August 2025) has around 800 developers.
This massive hiring spree was in response to it becoming clear how big the game was going to be, especially with regards to all the non-player characters the team wanted to make. To address this, Rockstar opened a whole studio in Los Angeles with the sole function of creating NPCs.
“I think when it became apparent that some areas weren’t going to make it, that’s when we decided to make the shift of date,” said head of development Phil Hooker. “We could hit that schedule, but it won’t be the game we want to make.”
In addition to that new Los Angeles branch, there are also Rockstar teams in India, Scotland, England, San Diego, New England, Toronto, and Australia. With so many studios, that astronomical head count begins to make more sense.
Does the idea of a game being this expensive excite you? Or do you think it only contributes to the notion that bigger is better, which is currently helping sink the industry? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.
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