NGRRockstar Rejects Claims GTA 6 Budget Surpassed $1.5 Billion
Rockstar Games has denied rumors claiming Grand Theft Auto 6 cost over $1.5 billion to make, though it remains an unprecedentedly expensive production.
Image: Steam store promotional artwork
Rockstar Games has pushed back against circulating claims regarding the production costs of Grand Theft Auto 6. According to a Bloomberg report detailing the title's creation, Rockstar head of publishing Jennifer Kolbe rejected claims suggesting the project's financial budget exceeded the $1.5 billion required to build Dubai's Burj Khalifa. While Kolbe dismissed the figure, she stopped short of specifying the actual final spending total for the upcoming open-world game.
Parent company Take-Two has similarly kept official development numbers under wraps, with chief executive Strauss Zelnick previously conceding only that production has been costly. Even with figures kept below the rumored threshold, GTA 6 is widely viewed as the most expensive video game ever produced, easily outstripping other high-profile modern releases such as The Last of Us Part II, Horizon Forbidden West, and multi-year operations like Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.
The massive scope of the project reflects significant internal expansion at Rockstar, which has increased its headcount from 2,441 employees during the launch of Red Dead Redemption 2 to 4,711 workers across 12 locations. Analysts anticipate the substantial investment will quickly yield returns upon release, backed by higher tier pricing, strong initial preorder performance, and planned multiplayer offerings expected to follow down the line.
