Rockstar Games That Had The Longest Development Cycles, Ranked

Rockstar Games has a reputation for making quality games. Every Grand Theft Auto game is a bestseller and the Red Dead Redemption series is similarly popular. The developer is known for crafting games with immersive open worlds packed full of interesting characters and compelling stories.

Unfortunately, the developer is also known for taking its time. It's clear from the level of detail in Red Dead Redemption 2 alone that the folks over at Rockstar are definitely perfectionists. While that's not a bad thing, lots of fans wish they'd get a move on releasing Grand Theft Auto 6. As these games show, part of being a Rockstar fan is being patient.

Special Mention: L.A. Noire (7 Years)

L.A. Noire was developed by Team Bondi but published by Rockstar, and according to insider reports, Rockstar liked to stick its nose in throughout development. The game took a lengthy 7 years to develop; much of that was spent in development hell. Development hell is a lot like debt; it's easy to get into and almost impossible to escape from.

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There are a handful of reasons why the game took so long to finish. For a start, there were reportedly management issues. These included internal disputes at Team Bondi, as well as disputes with Rockstar over the game's progress, ballooning budget, and artistic vision. On a technical level, the game was also pretty ambitious, especially in its use of cutting-edge MotionScan facial animation technology, which added to delays. The game ultimately garnered favorable reviews, scoring an 89 on Metacritic, but in hindsight, the latter half feels rushed and signs of its development hell linger all these years later.

8 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

2 Years

Estimates vary, but these days, your average AAA game can take anywhere from 2 to 7 years to make on average. Some manage it in 18 months, but that's likely with a ton of crunch. It only took Rockstar two years to go from the great but limited-scope Vice City (which only took 9 months) to the mighty Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

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Whether Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the best game in the series is up for debate, but it's certainly up there. San Andreas might feel like a much more complex game to its older siblings, but in reality, many of its improvements were iterative, with Rockstar simply adding to what they'd already built. San Andreas used the same Renderware engine as GTA 3 and Vice City. Both of these facts meant Rockstar managed to push out San Andreas in a fraction of the time of their later releases.

7 Grand Theft Auto 4

3.5 Years

Rockstar has claimed in the past that they don't jump straight from one game into the next, allowing their developers some downtime to breathe. That explains the four-year gap between San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto 4 when the developer claims production took around 3.5 years. Three and a half years to build one of the longest Rockstar games wasn't bad at all.

Especially considering that, in a lot of ways, Grand Theft Auto 4 was a big step up. It used the new RAGE engine, introduced HD graphics to the series, and added advanced physics and animation systems (some of which are arguably more impressive than in GTA 5). The game also has one of the best stories in the series and has a mostly fleshed-out multiplayer mode. All in all, it was worth the four-year wait, even if fans at the time felt it was a lengthy one.

6 Grand Theft Auto 3

4 Years

By the time Grand Theft Auto 3 was released in 2001, it had been in development for around 4 years. That was a long development cycle for the time until one considers what the team pulled off. Grand Theft Auto 3 only had 27 developers working on it, and in four years they had to build and refine an engine capable of moving the series to 3D, create a dynamic and interactive open-world, and make sure it all ran well on the PS2.

Grand Theft Auto 3 was a mammoth undertaking and a massive risk for Rockstar. Of course, it paid off, and the game basically spawned its own genre of massively successful games. The investment was also worth the risk. The heavy lifting done for GTA 3 meant Rockstar could push out Vice City in just 9 months and San Andreas in 2 years.

5 Grand Theft Auto 5

Five Years

Here's a fun fact for anyone wanting to feel old today: Grand Theft Auto 5 was released way back in 2013. It took 5 years to make, and it seems likely much of that time was spent creating the game's deeply immersive open world.

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The game's graphics were also pretty gorgeous for the time, pushing both the Xbox 360 and the aging PS3 right to their limits. The game was also the first to feature multiple protagonists, which likely added to the development time. And, of course, let's not ignore the elephant in the room. It's very likely GTA 5 took so long to make because of the inclusion of GTA Online, which would have been incredibly resource-intensive. Making an interactive, highly detailed open world is one thing. Synchronizing it across multiple players over the internet is something else entirely. Love it or hate it, GTA Online is/was technically impressive, so it's no wonder GTA 5 took five years to develop.

4 Red Dead Redemption

5 Years

Considering how beloved the game came to be, it's kind of a no-brainer that the original Red Dead Redemption took a fair while to develop. While it was a spiritual successor to Red Dead Revolver, Red Dead Redemption was essentially a new IP, meaning there was a ton of world-building, character creation, and story development to get done.

Rockstar definitely didn't scrimp on the writing. Red Dead Redemption has an amazing story featuring one of the best endings in a Rockstar game. Likewise, the world-building was spot on and included dynamic ecosystems with realistic animal behaviors and interactions. Technically speaking, the game was a masterpiece, with countless systems and mechanisms interacting with each other in often unexpected ways.

3 Red Dead Redemption 2

8 Years

Rockstar could have churned Red Dead Redemption 2 out pretty quickly if they had wanted to. They'd done the heavy lifting world-building-wise with the first game, and, after writing a new story, they could have just pushed the game right out. However, that's not their style. For Red Dead Redemption 2 they took everything players loved about the original and dialed it up to 11, including giving fans one of their best ever playable characters.

Then they added a ridiculous amount of detail to the game's world, to the point that at times it feels more like a cowboy simulator than an actual videogame. Red Dead Redemption 2's world isn't just massive, it's filled with tiny little details. Some aren't that noticeable (they spent a long, long time analyzing horse testicles, apparently), but others are. For example, every NPC in the game is an actual character with their own individual daily routines. Arguably the only thing that was a miss was the online mode, which never managed to rival GTA Online but likely sucked up a fair amount of development resources.

2 Max Payne 3

9 Years?

Rockstar has always been pretty cagey about how long it actually took to develop Max Payne 3. We know it was "in the works" to some extent for around 9 years (including a 3-year delay) but was likely in "active development" for closer to four years. It's likely a good chunk of time was taken up by Rockstar buying the rights to the series from Remedy Entertainment and moving development over to Rockstar Vancouver.

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Max Payne 3 was also a pretty ambitious project. Not only did it move Max to a new setting and create a new, almost separate storyline, but it also incorporated some impressive technology. It was built on the same engine as GTA 5 and used the Euphoria animation system, both of which had to be adapted to the game's unique gameplay style. The game's impressive enemy AI and physics systems were also time-consuming to perfect. The result was a brilliant but often overlooked game that is one of Rockstar's hardest.

1 Grand Theft Auto 6

11 Years, Maybe?

Rockstar has confirmed that work on Grand Theft Auto 6 began back in 2014, and according to various leaks and official announcements, it is currently due for release in Q3/Q4 2025. If there are no further delays, that'll be an 11-year development cycle. However, with the current state of the industry fans probably shouldn't hold their collective breath that it won't be delayed again.

There's not much official information on Grand Theft Auto 6, but the official screenshots and teasers that have been released indicate Rockstar has taken a similar approach to Red Dead Redemption 2 - heaps of details and stunning graphics. If GTA 6 is as ambitious as GTA 5 and Red Dead 2 were, that long development cycle will make sense. It's also very, very likely that GTA Online's success has slowed down Grand Theft Auto 6's development. Rockstar is still dumping major updates for that game, even after ten years. As long as screaming 11-year-olds have pocket money to burn on Shark Cards, there's little motive to rush work on Grand Theft Auto 6.

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