Grand Theft Auto 6 May Be Most Expensive Game Ever Made
By Josh Bobrowsky
At the time of writing, the five most expensive games created are the following1:
Star Citizen: $500m (not yet released)
CyberPunk 2077: $300m (2020)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: $250m (2009)
Final Fantasy VII: $140m (1997)
Halo 2: $120m (2004)
GTA 6 estimated $1B+ total budget
According to the multiple sources it is estimated that GTA 6 will exceed $1 billion dollars in total cost.
While we do not know Rockstar’s exact budgets some reports have estimated as high as $2 billion.2
A budget of $1 billion feels like a reasonable bet by Rockstar as GTA 5 is the #3 best selling game of all time with over 175 million units sold (at $50 per sale that is $8.7 billion in revenue).
What we know about GTA 6
The above video is a fairly comprehensive breakdown of everything that is known about GTA 6 over the past 5 years:
Potentially located in Miami
Potential female protagonist (similar to Bonnie and Clyde)
A 3rd party leaked footage of high quality but still cartoon styled graphics
Substantially larger map
I am curious how the mostly male audience will relate to playing as a female protagonist. There have been a few games that have successfully built games with female leads such as the Tomb Raider series (that said it is not an easy task).
10 years in the making
It has been 10 years since GTA 5 was released. Many video game fans and critics regard GTA 5 as one of the best video games ever made (or easily on a top 10 list).
Hopefully, the 10+ year gap between the two games will have given Rockstar enough time to put out a new game that is truly exceptional.
2 big questions
Two large questions I have which have not been addressed are the following:
Will there be any own-able digital assets?
How deep will the gaming AI interactions be?
The GTA series could potentially be a great fit for both in-depth AI conversations and digital ownership.
With respect to AI, we now have the ability to have a single player game with a highly customized storyline. This could make GTA 6 substantially more enjoyable to play and replay in single player mode.
Conclusion
While we don’t know the exact details of the game here is a quick breakdown of what I believe is true:
GTA 6 is likely to be most expensive game ever made giving the game a level of production depth that has not been seen to date
Release of the game is likely to be in 2024
Some AI, no word on NFTs or digital ownership
I am looking forward to the next edition of GTA.
Cheers
Josh Bobrowsky
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_video_games_to_develop
https://www.unilad.com/technology/gta-6-most-expensive-game-835610-20230508
Great newsletter this week Josh!