Rockstar let Bloomberg into Rockstar North a month before launch. The story it told is about a studio that had to rebuild itself to finish one game.
The short version
Jason Schreier's Bloomberg Businessweek cover story went live on 14 October 2026. Rockstar grew from 2,441 staff in 2018 to 4,711 across 12 offices, cut a 2015 plan called Project Americas back to Leonida, went through what Rob Nelson calls a dark period and says its next game will not take another eight years.
Quick answer
What does the Bloomberg GTA 6 report say?
Jason Schreier's Bloomberg GTA 6 story says the game took more than eight years because Rockstar first aimed far too big. A 2015 plan called Project Americas was cut back to Leonida, the studio hit a dark period, and staff grew from 2,441 to 4,711 to finish it for 19 November 2026.
Rockstar had 2,441 employees when Red Dead Redemption 2 came out in 2018. It now has 4,711.
That is the number Jason Schreier picked out himself when his Bloomberg Businessweek cover story, The Making of Grand Theft Auto VI, went live on 14 October. He said on Bluesky that he went to Scotland and interviewed the studio's top developers. The piece is paywalled, so this page sticks to what Bloomberg's free text and the outlets that read it in full report.
What did Bloomberg reveal about GTA 6's development?
GTA 6 took more than eight years and two delays, and the studio nearly doubled in size to get it done. Bloomberg counts 4,711 staff across 12 offices, and Polygon reports 4,020 of them work in development and QA (quality assurance, the testers).
Development lead Rob Nelson calls one stretch “a dark period”, when the vision for the game was not yet clear. Bloomberg also lists the crises the company dealt with along the way, from work and life balance to a run of leaks and the firing of 34 employees over misconduct allegations.
| Point | What Bloomberg reports |
|---|---|
| Staff in 2018 | 2,441 |
| Staff in 2026 | 4,711 across 12 offices |
| Development and QA | 4,020, per Polygon |
| First Miami research trip | 2015 |
| Early code name | Project Americas |
| Cost over $1.5 billion | Denied by Rockstar, no figure given |
| Launch | 19 November 2026, PS5 and Xbox Series X and S |
What was Project Americas?
Project Americas was the code name for GTA 6 in 2015. Bloomberg says Nelson and other senior staff flew to Miami that year for their first research trip, and the name came from a plan to cover big areas of land across the Americas.
That plan did not survive. Polygon's breakdown says Rockstar has now confirmed the rumoured project and that the scope was too ambitious, which helps explain years of lost time. What shipped is Vice City and the state of Leonida.
Why did GTA 6 take so long to make?
Realism, mostly. Nelson told Bloomberg the team knew sharp graphics would make players expect a real world, and it struggled to decide how far that should go. His example was a beer. Do you shop for it, open the fridge and open the bottle yourself, or does the game skip all that.
Aaron Garbut, one of the heads of Rockstar North, described building a single nightclub. Every clubgoer was animated and scripted, then drinks, music and lighting were added in “layers and layers and layers of detail”. Head of publishing Jennifer Kolbe summed it up. “And now you understand why it took so long.”
The pandemic hurt too. Polygon reports staff working from home could not reach Rockstar's servers and tools for privacy reasons, and motion capture needs people in one room. The game also had three heads of development at once, a setup Nelson admits staff did not like.
Why was GTA 6 delayed twice?
Because parts of the game were not going to be ready. After the first trailer in December 2023, Rockstar found it lacked the means to write and animate all the characters that fill the world, so it built a studio just for that, The Verge reports.
Phil Hooker, one of the game's heads of development, put it plainly. “We could hit that schedule, but it won’t be the game we want to make.” The game moved from 2025 to May 2026 and then to 19 November 2026.
That first trailer reached 93 million views in 24 hours, a YouTube record for a video outside music, according to Bloomberg. Jonathon Ashcroft, senior vice president for technology, said “nothing aligns us like a trailer.”
Did GTA 6 really cost $1.5 billion?
Rockstar says no. Kolbe rejected the claim that GTA 6 cost more than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which is roughly $1.5 billion, The Verge reports. She did not give a real number, so the true budget is still private.
Garbut also spoke about the 2022 hack, when early footage leaked. “It feels like somebody’s wading through your dirty washing,” he told Bloomberg.
Will the next Rockstar game take eight years?
Rockstar says it will not. “The engine, the tools and the team we’ve built during this project will allow us to do things more quickly,” Hooker told Bloomberg. Garbut agreed. “We foundationally changed a lot of stuff on this project,” he said. “But now it’s done, and we’re not going to rip it apart.”
Polygon points out the catch. Rockstar thought the same after Red Dead Redemption 2, and GTA 6 still took eight years. So treat the promise as a plan, with no date attached.
Rockstar also supplied two new screenshots for the story, which you can see on Bloomberg's page. For everything else Rockstar has shown, our GTA 6 characters guide covers Jason, Lucia and the cast.
Frequently asked questions
What did the Bloomberg GTA 6 report reveal?
That GTA 6 took more than eight years, began in 2015 as a much bigger plan called Project Americas, went through a dark period with no clear vision and needed Rockstar to grow from 2,441 to 4,711 staff.
What was Project Americas in GTA 6?
The code name Rockstar used for GTA 6 from 2015, because the plan was to cover big areas of land across the Americas. Polygon reports Rockstar has now confirmed it and that the scope was cut back.
Why was GTA 6 delayed twice?
Phil Hooker told Bloomberg that once it was clear some areas would not make it, Rockstar moved the date. Building enough characters for the world was one cause, and Rockstar set up a studio just for that work.
Did GTA 6 cost more than $1.5 billion?
Rockstar says no. Head of publishing Jennifer Kolbe rejected the claim that it cost more than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, but Rockstar did not give its own figure.
Will the next Rockstar game take eight years?
Rockstar says it should not. Phil Hooker told Bloomberg the engine, tools and team built for GTA 6 will let the studio move faster.
Sources
- Bloomberg Businessweek: The Making of Grand Theft Auto VI, by Jason Schreier
- Jason Schreier on Bluesky: his GTA 6 Businessweek cover story is live
- Polygon: Rockstar reveals why GTA 6 took nearly a decade
- Polygon: Rockstar promises its next game won't take another 8 years
- The Verge: We might not have to wait 13 years for the next GTA
- Rockstar Newswire: GTA VI is now set to launch November 19, 2026
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