New ‘Grand Theft Auto’ Game Is Reportedly in Early Development

It looks like a new Grand Theft Auto game is in early development. 

The news was included in an investigation from Kotaku that looked into Rockstar Game‘s culture of crunch that saw employees working multiple hours of overtime to meet deadlines. IGN also reported a source from Rockstar as saying that a new GTA is indeed being developed. The report doesn’t indicate if the upcoming game will be titled GTA 6 or something different. Although a release date or time frame wasn’t given, Kotaku’s report did say that the game might be smaller in scope when it’s first released with regular updates rolled out to expand it. 

Per Kotaku:

One plan that management has laid out for the next game, a new entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, is to start out with a moderately sized release (which, by Rockstar’s standards, would still be a large game) that is then expanded with regular updates over time, which may help mitigate stress and crunch.

Kotaku also referenced a company email that was sent out by Rockstar executive Jennifer Kolbe to employees back in the fall of 2019. Said email addressed the company’s culture and laid out ways it can improve by mentioning a more flexible work schedule, anonymous employee surveys, and more. “We have taken conscious steps to improve our approach to developing games in order to reduce the need for overtime,” wrote Kolbe, according to Kotaku. “We realise we still have plenty to do in this area and will continue to take steps so we can more accurately predict and schedule games and DLC in a way that is more sustainable but still allows us the creative flexibility to iterate on the incredibly ambitious and complex games we make.”