{"id":1920998,"date":"2026-05-06T14:22:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1920998"},"modified":"2026-05-06T14:22:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:22:41","slug":"gta-6s-development-costs-estimated-to-be-over-1bn-as-take-two-head-admits-its-an-expensive-endeavour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1920998","title":{"rendered":"GTA 6&#8217;s development costs estimated to be over $1bn, as Take-Two head admits its an &#8220;expensive&#8221; endeavour"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/grand-theft-auto-vi\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Grand Theft Auto VI<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">GTA 6&#8217;s development costs estimated to be over $1bn, as Take-Two head admits its an &#8220;expensive&#8221; endeavour<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">Car-te blanche.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/gta-6-cash.jpg?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"GTA 6's Jason and Lucia overlaid on a blue background showing piles of cash\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"gta-6-cash.jpg\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Eurogamer<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Victoria Phillips Kennedy avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/1644925423.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"179\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Victoria Phillips Kennedy avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"1644925423.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"179\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/victoria-kennedy\">Victoria Phillips Kennedy<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      News Reporter<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-05-06T14:22:41+00:00\">May 6, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<div class=\"comments\">\n      <a class=\"comments__link comments-bubble\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/grand-theft-auto-6-development-cost-billions?view=comments\" rel=\"nofollow\"><br \/>\n          21 comments<br \/>\n      <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mypop-header-wrapper\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"7685df9e-22e2-4b0e-a893-03c1781df5f1\" data-name=\"Grand Theft Auto VI\" data-follow-text=\"Follow Grand Theft Auto VI\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following Grand Theft Auto VI\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow Grand Theft Auto VI\" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following Grand Theft Auto VI\" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow Grand Theft Auto VI\" title=\"Follow Grand Theft Auto VI\"><br \/>\n  Follow Grand Theft Auto VI<br \/>\n<\/button>          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>GTA 6 parent company Take-Two is estimated to have spent between $1bn and $1.5bn on Rockstar&#8217;s upcoming game.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/strauss-zelnick-take-two-ceo-grand-theft-auto-gta-6-2026-5\">Business Insider<\/a> (via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/gta-6-estimated-to-have-cost-take-two-1-billion-to-15-billion-so-far-ceo-strauss-zelnick-says-it-was-expensive\">IGN<\/a>), which based these staggering figures on  estimations made by industry analysts, as part of an interview with Take-Two&#8217;s head honcho, Strauss Zelnick.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"GTA 6 (Grand Theft Auto 6) - Official Trailer 2\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sQEGy86F2gE?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/sQEGy86F2gE\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">GTA 6 (Grand Theft Auto 6) &#8211; Official Trailer 2<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>GTA 6 (Grand Theft Auto 6) &#8211; Official Trailer 2. <a class=\"video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=sQEGy86F2gE\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>To compare other big &#8216;triple-A&#8217; video game releases from recent years, in 2023 it was revealed that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/horizon-forbidden-west\">Horizon Forbidden West<\/a> cost $212m (\u00a3168m) to develop over five years between 2017 and 2022, with 300 employees attached to the project. At this same time, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/sony-court-documents-removed-after-redacted-details-spotted\">fellow PlayStation exclusive The Last Of Us Part 2 was revealed to have cost $220m (\u00a3174m) to make<\/a>, with an employee count of roughly 200. More recently, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/marathon-budget-over-200-million-dollars-likely-250-million\">Bungie&#8217;s Marathon reboot reportedly had a budget of $200m<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>So, yes, big games have been costly to develop for quite some time, but it seems that GTA 6 is <em>costly <\/em>with extra emphasis on each and every letter in the word<em>. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Zelnick himself has stated GTA 6 has been an &#8220;expensive&#8221; endeavour, though he refrained from putting an actual figure on how much GTA 6 is costing its parent company. Given analysts are talking about a figure over one billion dollars, though, this feels like quite an understatement from the Take-Two head.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Boobie Ike in GTA 6\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/Boobie-Ike-in-GTA-6.webp?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.7777777777777777\" width=\"1920\"><\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Boobie Ike in GTA 6\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-lightbox data-uri=\"Boobie-Ike-in-GTA-6.webp\" height=\"1080\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.7777777777777777\" width=\"1920\"><figcaption><span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Rockstar<\/cite><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But, it is not just GTA 6&#8217;s development cost that has caused discussion in the industry. Just how much Rockstar and Take-Two will charge for its series&#8217; next car boosting romp has also stirred up some discourse, and early last year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/will-gta-6-cost-80-report-says-theres-industry-hope-rockstar-will-usher-in-another-game-price-rise\">a report suggested that GTA 6 could retail for $100<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In April, Zelnick discussed GTA 6&#8217;s price, and while he didn&#8217;t give us that all important figure, the Take-Two CEO stressed that the company&#8217;s &#8220;job is to charge way, way, way less of the value delivery&#8221;. At this time, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/gta-6-rockstar-take-two-price-expectation-player-experience\">Zelnick called &#8220;making the most spectacular piece of entertainment on Earth, in history&#8221; a &#8220;pretty daunting challenge&#8221;<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>GTA 6 is currently scheduled to release on 19th November, across PS5 and Xbox Series X\/S. For more, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/gta-6-everything-we-know-so-far-9357\">here is everything we know about Grand Theft Auto 6 so far<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>GTA 6 parent company Take-Two is estimated to have spent between $1bn and $1.5bn on Rockstar&#8217;s upcoming game.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/strauss-zelnick-take-two-ceo-grand-theft-auto-gta-6-2026-5\">Business Insider<\/a> (via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/gta-6-estimated-to-have-cost-take-two-1-billion-to-15-billion-so-far-ceo-strauss-zelnick-says-it-was-expensive\">IGN<\/a>), which based these staggering figures on  estimations made by industry analysts, as part of an interview with Take-Two&#8217;s head honcho, Strauss Zelnick.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"GTA 6 (Grand Theft Auto 6) - Official Trailer 2\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sQEGy86F2gE?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/sQEGy86F2gE\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">GTA 6 (Grand Theft Auto 6) &#8211; Official Trailer 2<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>GTA 6 (Grand Theft Auto 6) &#8211; Official Trailer 2. <a class=\"video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=sQEGy86F2gE\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>To compare other big &#8216;triple-A&#8217; video game releases from recent years, in 2023 it was revealed that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/horizon-forbidden-west\">Horizon Forbidden West<\/a> cost $212m (\u00a3168m) to develop over five years between 2017 and 2022, with 300 employees attached to the project. At this same time, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/sony-court-documents-removed-after-redacted-details-spotted\">fellow PlayStation exclusive The Last Of Us Part 2 was revealed to have cost $220m (\u00a3174m) to make<\/a>, with an employee count of roughly 200. More recently, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/marathon-budget-over-200-million-dollars-likely-250-million\">Bungie&#8217;s Marathon reboot reportedly had a budget of $200m<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>So, yes, big games have been costly to develop for quite some time, but it seems that GTA 6 is <em>costly <\/em>with extra emphasis on each and every letter in the word<em>. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Zelnick himself has stated GTA 6 has been an &#8220;expensive&#8221; endeavour, though he refrained from putting an actual figure on how much GTA 6 is costing its parent company. Given analysts are talking about a figure over one billion dollars, though, this feels like quite an understatement from the Take-Two head.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Boobie Ike in GTA 6\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/Boobie-Ike-in-GTA-6.webp?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.7777777777777777\" width=\"1920\"><\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Boobie Ike in GTA 6\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-lightbox data-uri=\"Boobie-Ike-in-GTA-6.webp\" height=\"1080\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.7777777777777777\" width=\"1920\"><figcaption><span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Rockstar<\/cite><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But, it is not just GTA 6&#8217;s development cost that has caused discussion in the industry. Just how much Rockstar and Take-Two will charge for its series&#8217; next car boosting romp has also stirred up some discourse, and early last year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/will-gta-6-cost-80-report-says-theres-industry-hope-rockstar-will-usher-in-another-game-price-rise\">a report suggested that GTA 6 could retail for $100<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In April, Zelnick discussed GTA 6&#8217;s price, and while he didn&#8217;t give us that all important figure, the Take-Two CEO stressed that the company&#8217;s &#8220;job is to charge way, way, way less of the value delivery&#8221;. At this time, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/gta-6-rockstar-take-two-price-expectation-player-experience\">Zelnick called &#8220;making the most spectacular piece of entertainment on Earth, in history&#8221; a &#8220;pretty daunting challenge&#8221;<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>GTA 6 is currently scheduled to release on 19th November, across PS5 and Xbox Series X\/S. For more, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/gta-6-everything-we-know-so-far-9357\">here is everything we know about Grand Theft Auto 6 so far<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News Grand Theft Auto VI GTA 6&#8217;s development costs estimated to be over $1bn, as Take-Two head admits its an &#8220;expensive&#8221; endeavour Car-te blanche. Image credit: Eurogamer News by Victoria Phillips Kennedy News Reporter Published on May 6, 2026 21 comments Follow Grand Theft Auto VI GTA 6 parent company Take-Two is estimated to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-1920998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1920998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920998\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1920998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1920998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1920998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}