Grand Theft Auto 6 Leak Reveals Game Length, And The Cause Of Its Biggest Problem
It would seem that the upcoming GTA 6 is more ambitious of a project than any of the previous rumors suggested
This article is more than 2 years old
After years of rumors and speculations, Rockstar Games finally broke the silence and announced that it’s working on the next installment in the Grand Theft Auto franchise, the long-awaited Grand Theft Auto 6. Previous rumors have suggested the game’s settings, as fans tried to piece together different maps that were supposedly leaked, and some pointed towards development hell. Well, we finally got answers, and while they’re encouraging from the gamers’ perspective, they’re also the game’s biggest problem.
It would seem that the upcoming GTA 6 is more ambitious of a project than any of the previous rumors suggested, as reported by ComicBook. According to an industry analyst and insider, Michael Pachter, Grand Theft Auto 6 is set to be a massive game, offering nearly unprecedented amounts of in-game content that would take up to 500 hours to complete. It’s still unclear whether the analyst refers to the main story or the complete game with all the side missions and extra, but developing 500 hours of content certainly requires a massive amount of time — justifying GTA 6‘s incredibly long development period.
Patcher also gave some credibility to previous rumors, most specifically map leaks, which suggest that the game is taking place in either Vice City, Liberty City, or San Andreas. According to Pachter, they’re all partially correct. Instead of taking place in one of the aforementioned cities, Grand Theft Auto 6 will take place in all three cities and some newly added European cities as well. The leaker doesn’t mention GTA 5‘s Los Santos, but it might also be in the mix considering the newly reported scope of the game’s world.
If this sounds ambitious, it’s because it is — games that take 500 hours to complete are pretty rare — the title of the longest game currently belongs to recently released Dying Light 2, whose main narrative takes 23 hours to complete. That number increases to 80 if you want to complete the main story with all side quests. However, if you’re going to explore every nook and cranny Dying Light 2 has to offer alongside its main narrative’s multiple story endings and side quests, it may take you up to 500 hours to do so. Unfortunately, we still don’t know whether Rockstar plans all 500 hours on Grand Theft Auto 6‘s main narrative or the overall game, so the comparison between the two might not be apt.
Pachter stated that Grand Theft Auto 6 has been in development since 2014, when Rockstar Games started pre-production, moving onto code-writing in 2015. He also suggested that the game could be released in 2024. Some might argue that writing code for a game scheduled to release one decade later makes no sense, but let’s all remember how much time Cyberpunk 2077 spent in development. Of course, let’s never forget the initial results either, and considering Rockstar Games’ recent sloppiness, we sure hope they fare better than CD Projekt RED did.
Regardless, Pachter is a well-known industry insider who occasionally shares various bits of information regarding upcoming releases, and his track record is pretty good so far. However, it’s unclear just how much of his scoop was factual information versus pure speculation, so it’s best to ingest everything said about Grand Theft Auto 6 with a pinch of salt.
