Hundreds of interiors and cash to protect: Schreier on GTA 6
Key points from TGG’s interview with Jason Schreier about GTA 6: hundreds of interiors, cash, NPCs, the protagonists together, delays and future content.
On October 17, TGG published an interview with Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier about GTA 6. The conversation runs for 1 hour, 14 minutes and 46 seconds. They discussed a showing of the game at Rockstar North, interconnected systems, development challenges and the project’s possible future. Here are the main points.
Interiors, cash and a living world
- Hundreds of small interiors. Rob Nelson described hundreds of spaces players can explore in the open world.
- Cash needs protecting. During the showing, Jason and Lucia stopped at an ATM to deposit money. Nelson called cash vulnerable and said Rockstar had tried to make money matter more than before. The account did not explain the specific rules for losing it.
- Rockstar formed a separate studio for NPCs. When the company assessed the amount of character work required, its existing resources proved insufficient. It assembled a team of writers, producers and directors in Los Angeles to work on NPCs.
- There are podcasts in the game. Schreier said he noticed them during his visit to Rockstar. He did not name any particular shows.
- Random events can take players far from a mission. Phil Hooker set out to test a story mission, but a road collision led to a chain of confrontations, a robbery, a chase, a search for a car to sell and another chance at loot. Two hours later, he still had not reached his original objective.
- The systems work together. According to TGG, Nelson is particularly proud of how NPCs, criminal profiles and the police interact. The separate systems are intended to combine into broader gameplay situations.
A workshop in the official An Extended Look from August 27, 2026. Image: Rockstar Games.
Jason and Lucia together
- Exploring the world together required complex companion AI. Rockstar had to work out how a companion responds to the world and the player’s actions, from walking around or visiting a gym to a robbery or an encounter with the police. That work took years.
- Romance is optional. Players can initiate kisses and hold hands, but do not have to make Jason and Lucia a romantic couple. Their shared activities in the open world remain a separate, important part of the game.
How GTA 6 grew and what might follow
- The moderate-scope plan changed. Schreier recalled an idea discussed around 2020: release a game relatively small by Rockstar’s standards and expand it later. While the team looked for the right degree of realism, other staff kept building locations, buildings and interiors. The project grew along with its development timeline.
- Management believed a 2025 release was possible. According to Schreier, executives expected to make it, while staff working directly on the game were more skeptical. The second delay, to November 2026, greatly surprised Strauss Zelnick, but the Take-Two chief supported the decision after hearing the reasons.
- The team hopes to make future content faster. Phil Hooker sees the technology, tools and team already built as a foundation to develop further. Rockstar wants to build on that work for future releases.
- Map expansions remain speculative. Schreier thinks the existing world could be developed further, but does not know the precise form future content will take. He mentioned Liberty City as an invented example, while TGG separately expressed its own wishes for additions. The interview did not announce such an expansion.
