While numerous leaks and hiring boards point towards Grand Theft Auto 6 being deep into the development process, confirmed details about the upcoming title are non-existent. With previous GTA games being known for their size and Red Dead Redemption 2 being overwhelmingly (in a good way) large, many are hoping that the upcoming Grand Theft Auto title follows suit. According to a recent interview, however, that might not necessarily be the case.
Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick recently sat down with GameIndustry.biz to talk about how making games shorter works out for both developers and players. He mentioned that shorter games means less of a wait time and less of a crunch and because of that, “it’s possible that games may be a bit shorter than they were in certain instances.” Given that GTA is the next one up, unless the Bully 2 rumors see fruition, it stands to reason that the shorter philosophy could extend to San Andreas.
That being said, it doesn’t mean the shorter approach would necessarily stick. Grand Theft Auto 6, for example, could launch smaller but later extend through the artful DLC and post-launch support. Even more so should they implement an online mode as they did with Grand Theft Auto 5 and even Red Dead Redemption 2.
“It’s possible that the ability to deliver content on an ongoing basis for a long time after an initial release of a hit would mean that perhaps that initial release wouldn’t be as long in terms of number of hours of gameplay as previously had been demanded in a world where that was all you were getting,” Zelnick added.
In other leaky goodness regarding the future of Grand Theft Auto, a recent posting from an alleged EU dev mentioned that the next GTA would be a PlayStation 5 launch title set for 2020. According to the leak, the PS5 will supposedly release in March of next year, with GTA 6 launching in November, though they mentioned that those dates are not finalized. It’s important to note that this is an anonymous tip and that anyone can claim to be a developer, so take all information in this report also with the aforementioned and metaphorical grain of salt.
