It’s hard to nail down the exact cost of making GTA 6, with reports placing it in the astronomical billion-dollar region. Those rumored figures alone secure its spot as the most expensive game ever made, and it will hold on to that title even after the release of GTA 7, according to an ex-Rockstar developer.
The developer in question is Obbe Vermeij, who served as the technical director at Rockstar and worked on several GTA games, including GTA: San Andreas, GTA: Vice City, and GTA 4. During a recent appearance on the Kiwi Talkz podcast, Vermeij offered his two cents on GTA 6’s production and laid out his predictions for its eventual follow-up.
The developer predicted that “GTA 7 will be cheaper to make than GTA 6” since “a lot of that stuff (development) is going to be taken over by AI whether we want it or not.” He added, “So, I think these banks of artists that are just building massive maps or massive cutscenes, I think some of that will be taken over by AI in the next, you know, five years or so.”
Vermeij also issued a general prediction for the games industry, saying the “bulk of the work (game development) is probably going to be replaced by AI,” including the creation of characters and conversations, which could result in some cost savings.
Even in this hypothetical AI-driven landscape, Vermeij conceded that “higher-level creative stuff” will be done by artists. He stated, “I don’t think AI will be doing the creative part. You’re still gonna have artists setting the style and the look, and you’re still gonna have writers writing the story. I don’t think AI can do that.”
His quotes come at a perilous time for the games industry, and just days before some sizable layoffs at Xbox, which were reportedly tied to a shift toward AI automation. With that being said, Rockstar is yet to issue any statements about the use of AI in GTA 6 or future titles.
During a CNBC interview in February, Take-Two chief Strauss Zelnick stated that “we (Take-Two) believe in protecting and paying human beings, and we believe we ought to pay for their work if it’s replicated by AI after their work is done.” He also stressed that the “creative genius is human,” which might just hint at the company’s current plans around AI integration in game development.
With GTA 6 spending a few extra months in the oven (thanks to an unceremonious delay), it will be interesting to see just how much the game’s development ends up costing. Be sure to leave your best guesses on its cost in the comments below.
