Rockstar Games
GTA 6 did not cost 2 billion dollars, despite what half the internet says. This is where the rumor originated
We delve into the origin of the rumor about the alleged cost of Grand Theft Auto VI. It all goes back to the 2022 leak that Rockstar Games suffered.
The release of the spectacular second trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI has rekindled interest in the highly anticipated game, which is finally set to release in May 2026. This surge of attention has brought a flood of figures and details about the game, some verified and some unconfirmed. One of the most striking details is the alleged development cost of 2 billion dollars, an enormous figure that is unprecedented in the industry. However, there is a problem: there is no official source to verify this information. The figure actually originates from leaks suffered by Rockstar and Take-Two in 2022, specifically an alleged Skype conversation of the hacker involved.
Neither official nor credible, the $2 billion GTA 6 hoax originated from an unknown source
In September 2022, Rockstar Games publicly acknowledged an intrusion into its systems. Arion Kurtaj, a young hacker just shy of the age of majority, was found guilty of this unauthorized access. This was followed by the publication of nearly a hundred videos of a Grand Theft Auto VI build dating back to 2019.
This cybercriminal attempted to monetize the data theft by offering access to other hacker groups in exchange for money. According to screenshots of Kurtaj’s alleged conversations with these hackers, the budget for Grand Theft Auto VI is $2 billion, about ten times that of Grand Theft Auto V (2013).
“Sadly no docs, but GTA 6 has been in development since 2014, with over $2b spent on it so far,” Kurtaj commented in two separate messages. In other words, on the one hand there is the dubious origin of this chat, which also stated that there was no official documentation to support the data.
The $2 billion figure is unrealistic. Not only would it be the most expensive video game ever produced, it would also be the most expensive entertainment product ever created. This would multiply previous records by about four or five times, which seems unlikely. To put these numbers in context:
- Grand Theft Auto V (2013) had an estimated total cost of $265 million between development and marketing, and was, at the time, the most expensive video game of its time.
- Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018), another of Rockstar’s major releases, had an estimated total cost of between $370 million and $540 million adding development and marketing. Again, these figures broke a new record.
- Recent blockbusters such as Cyberpunk 2077 (2020) cost between $436 and $441 million.
Although Grand Theft Auto VI aims to be an extraordinarily ambitious video game with unparalleled realism, no one has confirmed the alleged cost. Furthermore, unverified information like this only generates noise around the launch, diverting attention from more relevant aspects for which there is solid information, such as the characters and the plot.
Everything indicates that the famous $2 billion is nothing more than an inflated figure from a murky context without any support from official documents. Remember that mere repetition on the internet and social networks does not make a hoax true, and the enormous magnitude of the project does not automatically imply such exorbitant expenditures as the suggested figure.
Amidst the myriad of rumors, half-truths, and outright fabrications, one thing remains certain: GTA 6 is poised to be one of the most significant and highly anticipated releases in video game history. We will find out for sure on May 26, 2026, when Grand Theft Auto VI arrives on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
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