After a massive leak and blackmail situation in which development studios around the world came to Rockstar's support, GTA VI is officially confirmed and Sam Houser clarified that it will not be too long until we get a better sense of what the game's real setting and possible theme will be as a trailer is now announced for December of this year.

Beyond the announcement of what might only amount to a teaser trailer, which is what Rockstar usually does with the hype cycle for a new GTA, they informed several press outlets that they are spending approximately $1 to $2 billion on the game,which would make it the most expensive game ever made and the first reported video game budget to break the one billion dollar mark. Now, take that with a grain of salt, as most video game budgets are not disclosed to the public or even investors, and this number is self-reported and could possibly beinflated. For all we know, there might have already been a game project that broke the billion dollar mark.

Now, what Rockstar is spending that amount of money on is anyone's guess. Knowing them, stunt casting every character and having limitless scope are likely on the table, but even that would have limits. For reference, Cyberpunk paid for Keanu and that game's budget was still only slightly above $550 million. What some are suggesting is a large reason for the ballooning budget of GTA VI is none other than the game's planned GTA Online successor. It's highly likely Rockstar is planning for their next go at an online GTA world to be smoother than the initial launch of GTA Online, and there's a chance it might straight up start as a full-featured MMO.

And if you are wondering where Rockstar is getting the money to fund a billion dollar video game, GTA Online prints a shit ton of cash for them and their owner, Take-Two. Last year, GTA Online crossed the seven billion dollar mark in terms of raw revenue since its launch in 2013 and Shark Cards generated over half a billion dollars in 2019 alone. Take-Two also is happy to open the checkbook as they have a lot riding on a new Rockstar megahit after posting a $543.6 million loss last quarter that they downplayed after confirming that the future will be golden because a new GTA game is right around the corner.

On what planet is spending $2 billon to make a video game something to brag about to the press? Gross.

Star Citizen is reportedly at $590m. Given the amount of people and the sheer number of years that game has been in development, that $1bn figure looks miles out of whack.

Star Citizen isn't a video game tho. I believe more in Beyond Good & Evil 2 than that thing.

Anyway interested to actually see the game, even in a basic form (not the leak), for some reason the line "the next Grand Theft Auto" feels weird to me, I guess it will fall into place when I see what the game is like. The leak was kind of cool to see, but knowing Rockstar they probably retooled a ton as well as that leak was missing key aspects to understand what the game is really like.
I'd like to see if they're going for a more comprehensive tone like RDR2, that game just leaped out far and ahead of everything they've ever made in every way, that game was utter joy front to back. If that version of Rockstar is here for GTA, I will love this game.

Them flexing about the budget might be foreshadowing how the game might end up being bad when it comes out. I hope not. Given that they will take out a lot of the edgy comedy and satire among other things out of fear of bring cancelled, who knows.

Wow, that's a lot of money, I wonder how many "super games" you could get for that? Somewhere between 5 and 20?

Will they have all the hottest features like bedsheet deformation and heat-sensitive horse testicles?

I'm really curious about this one and what all that money went to, but given that it's Rockstar I expect the game will play like total ass while more canned animations than Dragon's Lair play out, but you can tell it's real-time because you can watch your characters' hair follicles grow while you try to figure out which button Rockstar decided to map reload to

I really hope this is Rockstar willing to have fun again, and more importantly, let the player have fun again. I'm a little tired of up-its-own-ass Rockstar.

I want the true (ish) sandbox back. Or an immersive sim.

@sparky_buzzsaw: bragging about the budget = up it's own ass.