If you didn’t already catch and read the previous reports from Kotaku that highlighted Rockstar Games and their current attempts to reduce crunch culture in their studios, you may have missed a report regarding Grand Theft Auto 6. Rockstar Games may have a few different IPs they are associated with, but the biggest is arguably Grand Theft Auto. The franchise has been around for years and it seems like each installment the development team attempts to make something bigger than before.
That mindset may have changed recently for Rockstar Games as a report from Kotaku reveals the company is looking to make changes towards the way they handle crunch culture. For those unfamiliar with the term, crunch refers to a point in video game development where studios force employees to work late hours and weekends to ensure the game is ready for its launch date. That was apparently pretty brutal for developers that worked on Red Dead Redemption 2 and it’s due to the widespread reports that Rockstar Games is making some changes.
The report from Kotaku states that Rockstar is working on the next mainline installment to Grand Theft Auto known as Grand Theft Auto 6. To make sure they avoid crunch and allow developers to work on the game in enough time allotted to not only finish but successfully launch the game into the marketplace, we may see Grand Theft Auto 6 release as an overall smaller game than Grand Theft Auto 5. That’s of course just a report and not official, likewise, being a Rockstar Game, we imagine that even if it’s smaller than Grand Theft Auto V, it will still be a pretty hefty video game title to explore.
Likewise, the report claims that the game will not stay small in size either. One of the ways Rockstar Games is going to allow developers enough time to finish the game is by allowing the title to further get expanded on through DLC and expansions. What we’re unsure about is if these DLC and expansions are going to be online based much like how Grand Theft Auto Online is today. At any rate, we’re certainly eager to see what Rockstar Games comes up with next for the Grand Theft Auto franchise.