GTA 7 likely already in works despite GTA 6 delays according to former Rockstar director
As speculation around the GTA 6 release date rumbles on, a developer who worked on GTA 5 has dropped a bomb that may ruffle a few feathers among fans.
The release of the eagerly anticipated title has already been pushed back twice, with a current date in place for 19 November. Despite this, there have already been rumours about a third delay after an industry insider revealed he'd heard GTA 6 is not yet 'content complete'.
Whether or not this is true we probably won't know until we edge closer to the November release date, but despite the title being in the works since 2014, shortly after the release of GTA 5, it seems Rockstar Games is already looking ahead to what's next.
An animator who worked on GTA 5 recently said he believed GTA 7 or Red Dead Redemption 3 is 'most likely' already in the works within the studio.
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"Major gaming companies always have two games being developed at once, so Rockstar Games might have already started working on a potential GTA 7 or RDR3," Mike York told Esports Bets.
"Throughout the gaming industry, companies don't tend to work on one project at a time; they always start developing the next thing once their current game is nearing completion.
"That's probably what is happening now at Rockstar; GTA 6 is nearing the end of its production so I would be shocked if they hadn't already started working on RDR3."
However, he was clear to not let fans get their hopes up that another title could be right around the corner, adding that he wouldn't expect RDR3 to be released 'any time before 2032, especially given how long it has taken GTA 6 to be released'.
York continued: "Games of this calibre usually take five-to-seven years to produce, given the work that has to go into them - just look at the size of the games themselves to download.
"It might not be another rendition of either GTA or Red Dead but whatever Rockstar is working on next, it would have already started undergoing development and I'd anticipate its release to be the early to mid-2030s."
Obviously Rockstar hasn't confirmed any of this, but the animator's comments come fresh off the heels of former Rockstar director Obbe Vermeij revealing what he believes will be the setting for GTA 7.
Vermeij, who worked as technical director at the publisher for 14 years, was asked whether there would be any possibility of another Europe-based title, following GTA: London which was released in 1999.
"It's just not realistic. I would love it and if games still took a year to make then yeah sure, you can have a little fun but you're not going to get that when there's a GTA every 12 years," he told GamesHub.
"You're not going to set it in a new location. You don't really need to either because the technology changes so much. Nobody is going to say that they're not going to play GTA 6 because they've already played Vice City. That doesn't make sense. It's completely different.
"They'll revisit New York again. They'll go back to LA or maybe Las Vegas. I'm afraid we're stuck in this loop of about five American cities. Let's just get used to it."
Emma Rosemurgey