You’ve been wrong about GTA 6’s development timeline all along: Here’s the truth

Take-Two Interactive has confirmed in its recent financial report that full development on Grand Theft Auto 6 only began in 2020. This contradicts recent statements suggesting the game had been in the works since 2018.

With GTA 5 having launched over a decade ago, fans have been eagerly anticipating the next title in the franchise. The release of Red Dead Redemption 2 helped fill the gap between major Rockstar Games projects, but interest in GTA 6 has remained high—especially after the recent announcement that its launch has been pushed to May 2026. This sparked new questions about when work on the project truly began.

The discussion was reignited last week when David O’Reilly, a former Rockstar environment artist, commented during a video breakdown of GTA 6 screenshots. He stated that development began right after Red Dead Redemption 2 launched in 2018. However, Take-Two’s recent statement appears to challenge that timeline.

According to a report by IGN, Take-Two Interactive discussed Grand Theft Auto 6 in detail during a recent financial briefing—the first time the company addressed the game since releasing its second trailer and confirming a delay. In the report, Take-Two clarified that while early work may have started earlier, full-scale development on GTA 6 began "in earnest" in 2020.

This distinction means that both O’Reilly and Take-Two may be accurate in their own context—early groundwork might have started in 2018, but full production only commenced in 2020.

Following the release of GTA 6's second trailer, many fans questioned the absence of clear gameplay footage. Surprisingly, Rockstar Games confirmed that what viewers assumed were cutscenes were, in fact, part of the gameplay.

In a tweet posted by the official Rockstar Games account, the studio said, “Grand Theft Auto VI Trailer 2 was captured entirely in-game from a PlayStation 5, comprised of equal parts gameplay and cutscenes”.