It has been seven years since Grand Theft Auto V released. Nonetheless, it seems that fans of the franchise will still be waiting a long time for the next instalment. Though there were recently rumours that the reveal of Grand Theft Auto VI was right around the corner; it seems that the highly anticipated sequel is only in "early development" at Rockstar Games.
According to Kotaku, Grand Theft Auto VI will indeed by Rockstar's next release. Therefore, the many rumours of a sequel to 2006's Bully are out the window. Jason Schreier, one of the most reputable sources in the industry, writes:
"The next GTA is still a ways away, so it'll be a while before we see whether the company's attempts to mitigate crunch are really successful, but in the last year Rockstar has made several quality-of-life improvements and replaced managers that staff described as toxic."
So, what have Rockstar Games been doing all this time? Well, improving themselves. The developer was subject to much criticism for cultural issues and extensive overtime. Among bullet-points detailing such improvements; Rockstar executive Jennifer Kolbe wrote the following in an e-mail to Rockstar Games employees:
In these last several months we have undertaken a lot of work across every area of the company, looking at our processes to determine what works and what doesn’t, what we are great at and what we could improve. We hope that the majority of you have felt some of these positive changes already and those that haven’t soon will.
We have taken conscious steps to improve our approach to developing games in order to reduce the need for overtime. We realise we still have plenty to do in this area and will continue to take steps so we can more accurately predict and schedule games and DLC in a way that is more sustainable but still allows us the creative flexibility to iterate on the incredibly ambitious and complex games we make.
What about Grand Theft Auto VI? Well, as Schreier said, it's a long ways away. That's certainly unfortunate, but at least employees at Rockstar Games are no longer having to work for a hundred hours per week. It seems fans will just have to remain in waiting for a couple more years.
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