#AAA

Rockstar says its next game won't take eight years, citing GTA 6 engine and team

Rockstar leadership told Bloomberg that its next game will not take another eight years, saying the engine, tools, and team built during GTA 6 will let it make content faster. The studio's headcount grew from 2,441 at Red Dead Redemption 2's 2018 launch to 4,711 across 12 offices in 2026, with 4,020 in development and QA and 690 in publishing. GTA 6 was announced in 2023 for a planned 2025 release, was pushed to May 26, 2026, and then moved to its current date of November 19.

Rockstar more than doubled its workforce for GTA 6 and says its next game won't take another eight years

Rockstar Games more than doubled its workforce to develop Grand Theft Auto 6, and says completing its next title will not take another eight years. The studio says the engine, tools and team built during GTA 6 will let it do things more quickly.

Rockstar set up a dedicated Los Angeles studio to make GTA 6 NPCs

Rockstar Games reportedly established an entire Los Angeles studio dedicated to creating NPCs for Grand Theft Auto 6. Development lead Rob Nelson told Bloomberg the team had struggled to hit its targets for the number of NPCs to be written and animated, calling the projections horrifying, and this was a major reason for the first GTA 6 delay. The studio is staffed with writers, producers, and directors focused only on the game's NPCs, while GTA 6 has been in production for more than eight years and moved from 2025 to May 2026 and then to November 19, 2026.

Jason Schreier reports on GTA VI development: studio doubled in size, project was once Project Americas

Jason Schreier's report details the challenges behind GTA VI's eight-plus years of development and how Rockstar changed during production. Rockstar grew from 2,441 employees at Red Dead Redemption II's 2018 release to 4,711 across 12 offices, and the game went through a dark period as leadership struggled to settle on its vision. GTA VI was originally codenamed Project Americas and aimed to cover large areas of North and South America before being scaled back to Vice City and its surroundings, with Rockstar leadership maintaining the November 19 release date is achievable.

Epic Games delays Disney collaboration shooter and tells developers to go AI first

Epic Games has delayed its Disney collaboration shooter, which had been slated for March, with no new release date confirmed. According to Bloomberg, developers were asked to build the game with AI tools including Anthropic's Claude, and a director said there would be no more hand-written code and that art would be generated with full AI workflows. Disney invested $1.5 billion in Epic in 2024 for an equity stake, and this shooter was to be the first of several games in their partnership.

Dead by Daylight studio hiring for AAA sci-fi FPS

Dead by Daylight studio is hiring for a triple-A Sci-Fi first-person shooter with "a high realism bar". https://bit.ly/4yAydKG

Glen Schofield on retirement, The Callisto Protocol development, and the state of AAA

Veteran developer Glen Schofield has retired from the games industry, with his last project being The Callisto Protocol at Krafton's Striking Distance Studios in 2022. He says Krafton's decision to launch the game in December 2022, months before the March 2023 date he had been promised, forced the team to ship a pared-down version amid COVID disruption. Schofield added that he finished all the DLC and put out 86 patches, while Krafton was not interested in a pitch for a second Callisto Protocol game.

Glen Schofield on retirement, Callisto Protocol, and AAA

"A creative idea can save more money than AI can right now" – Glen Schofield on his retirement, Callisto Protocol's development, and the state of AAA https://bit.ly/47HMj0U

How Is a Game Like GTA 6 Actually Made? Here's How Rockstar Gets It Done

Rockstar North boss Rob Nelson said in an interview with Love magazine that GTA 6 was built through a series of eight-week milestones, where select pieces of the game are compiled together, evaluated, adjusted based on feedback, and then followed by the next milestone. The process begins by creating assets and systems and then roughing in content across all areas of development. Writing director James Horton said there are no shortcuts when it comes to building a world like this.

Rockstar executives explain how GTA 6 is actually made

Rockstar North head of development and co-studio head Rob Nelson told Love magazine that the team builds the game through a series of eight-week milestones, pulling agreed-upon sections together, evaluating them, and using notes to set the next milestone's focus year after year. Open-world writing director James Horton said Rockstar set up a Los Angeles team solely to write pedestrian dialogue, working with a local production team on the game's thousands of unique NPCs. Grand Theft Auto 6 has been in development in some form since 2014, and players will get to try it next month.

AAA developers going indie

"It's less risky to be the masters of our own fate" – The AAA developers going indie https://bit.ly/4rNOmtG

Dead by Daylight studio hiring for AAA sci-fi FPS

Dead by Daylight studio is hiring for a triple-A Sci-Fi first-person shooter with "a high realism bar"

Rockstar Traveled Across Florida With Gang Members and Cops for GTA 6 Research

Rockstar Games told Love Magazine that its team took research trips across Florida for GTA 6, driving from Miami through surrounding towns and the Florida Keys to Key West. Head of development Aaron Garbut said the team traveled with locals, cops and gang members to experience Miami's extremes, and that those details will find their way into the game. GTA 6's satire focuses on modern culture and conspiracy theories rather than recreating real-world viral moments.

GTA 6 completely "re-engineered" Rockstar's weather systems to "achieve a sense of scale we haven't felt before," adding hurricanes, rain...

Amid Xbox layoffs, Gears of War: E-Day studio The Coalition fears cuts right after launch and before Metacritic bonuses

Eurogamer spoke to multiple anonymous staff at Gears of War: E-Day developer The Coalition who fear being laid off shortly after the game's release and missing out on Metacritic-linked bonuses. The bonus requires employees to be full-time at the payout date, which studio leadership said should be near the end of October; it remains unclear whether current staff laid off right after launch would receive it. The report follows Microsoft's 3,200 gaming job cuts and a further round of at least 268 roles, and Xbox declined to comment.

Report: Microsoft's Deal for Hideo Kojima's Physint Is Well Below Xbox's Typical Premium Game Spend

A New York Times profile of Xbox CEO Asha Sharma reported that Microsoft's deal for Hideo Kojima's Physint was substantially below what Xbox would typically spend to develop a premium game, and included film and TV rights. Kojima pitched the project to Sharma after Sony canceled the previously PlayStation-exclusive game. Physint still has no release window and is expected after OD, Kojima's next game for Xbox.