Rockstar Games Doubles Its Workforce for GTA VI Development

Rockstar Games nearly doubled its workforce to 4,711 employees during the development of Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA 6), which is scheduled for release on November 19. According to Bloomberg, analysts expect around 40 million sales and $3 billion in revenue in the first four months after release. However, shares of parent company Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) closed on Friday at $205.28, a decline of 21.86% over 12 months.

Rockstar restructured its production culture to reduce excessive overtime, but completely avoiding extra hours was not possible, Bloomberg reports. The staff size grew from 2,441 at the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018 to 4,711 across 12 studios by August. GTA 6 took more than eight years and was delayed twice, the second time to November 19. Rockstar is confident that this work could shorten the development of the next major release.

Take-Two forecasts net bookings of $8–8.2 billion in fiscal 2027 and confirmed the forecast in August, citing the November 19 launch. Net bookings fell 3% to $1.39 billion in the June quarter, the first of the fiscal year. Meanwhile, GTA typically accounts for less than 15% of quarterly revenue, notes GameSpot. The standard edition is priced around $80, $20 more than the launch price of GTA V in 2013.

StoneX analyst Mike Hickey maintains a 'buy' rating and a $300 target price for TTWO; he attributes the decline to the timing of the online mode, slowing console sales, and concerns over early sales of NBA 2K27. Concerns about leaks also remain: an anonymous GTA 6 informant threatens to reveal the ending if found. Separately, Xbox denied reports of exclusive rights to cloud streaming GTA 6 this month.

November 19 will show whether the expanded Rockstar can turn eight years of work into the sales analysts expect. It will also test the studio's confidence that the next release can come out sooner.