Rockstar Games nearly doubled its staff to 4,711 while building Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA 6). Parent Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) is still down substantially this year, a month before launch.
Bloomberg reports analysts expect about 40 million sales and $3 billion in revenue within four months of launch. However, TTWO closed Friday at $205.28, down 21.86% over 12 months.
Did Rockstar Fix Its Crunch Problem?
Bloomberg News discussed the shift. Rockstar overhauled its production culture to curb excessive overtime. Even so, the studio could not avoid extra hours entirely, according to Bloomberg’s written report.
Headcount rose from 2,441 when Red Dead Redemption 2 launched in 2018 to 4,711 across 12 studios by August.
Meanwhile, GTA 6 took more than eight years and two delays, the second pushing launch to Nov. 19.
Rockstar believes that work could shorten development of its next major release.
Is GTA 6 Already Priced Into Take-Two?
Take-Two guides to $8 billion to $8.2 billion in fiscal 2027 net bookings, its measure of digital and physical sales. It reiterated that outlook in August, citing the Nov. 19 launch.
Net bookings fell 3% to $1.39 billion in the June quarter, the first of its fiscal year. Still, GTA typically makes up less than 15% of quarterly revenue, GameSpot reports.
Rockstar also priced the standard edition at about $80, $20 above GTA V’s 2013 launch price, GameSpot reports.
StoneX analyst Mike Hickey keeps a Buy rating and $300 price target on TTWO. He ties the declines to online mode timing, slowing console sales, and early NBA 2K27 sales concerns.
Leak concerns persist, with a pseudonymous GTA 6 leaker threatening to spoil the ending if caught. Separately, Xbox denied reports of exclusive cloud streaming rights for GTA 6 this month.
Ultimately, Nov. 19 will show whether a larger Rockstar can turn eight years of work into the sales analysts expect. It will also test the studio’s belief that its next release could arrive sooner.
