GTA 6 Will Be Unaffected by Actor Strike, Take-Two Says

Summary

Take-Two Interactive CEO confirmed that Grand Theft Auto 6 will not be affected by the recent SAG-AFTRA strike, dismissing the possibility of delays over labor disputes.
While the strike ended shortly after he made that statement, the remark itself suggests that the voiceover and motion capture work on GTA 6 may already be done.
This tracks with the widespread expectation that GTA 6 will release in 2025.

Grand Theft Auto 6 will be unaffected by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, according to Rockstar owner Take-Two Interactive. The publisher's perspective on the recently concluded union affair also offered an indirect hint about the state of its much-anticipated game, arriving mere hours after Rockstar confirmed that the first GTA 6 trailer is coming in early December.

SAG-AFTRA originally started its strike on July 14 due to a labor dispute with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Two months later, the union set its sights on video game companies, with 98.32% of its members voting in favor of going on strike against major developers and publishers. After reaching a new tentative three-year deal with top Hollywood studios, the organization officially ended the longest strike in its history on November 9, at 12:01 AM PT.

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By Dominik Bošnjak

Several hours beforehand, Take-Two published its consolidated financial report for the second quarter of its fiscal year 2024. During the subsequent earnings call with analysts transcribed by Seeking Alpha, CEO Strauss Zelnick was asked about the SAG-AFTRA strike and its potential impact on the development of GTA 6. The official labeled the project as "completely protected" from any negative effects of the strike, dismissing the possibility that the next Grand Theft Auto game could get delayed due to labor issues.

Rockstar May Already be Done Capturing GTA 6 Actor Performances

And while that worst-case scenario for Take-Two hadn't come to pass because the strike ended within hours of the company's earnings call, reading between the lines of Zelnick's remarks still offers some hints as to the current state of GTA 6. Specifically, the CEO's confidence that the project was insulated from the then-ongoing labor initiative is a strong indicator that the majority—if not entirety—of the voiceover and motion capture work on the game has already been completed.

That's an unsurprising implication, as the bulk of actor performances are typically captured around the middle stretch of AAA game development, depending on the exact project. By all accounts, Rockstar's much-anticipated title is well beyond that point, as underlined by the fact that the Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer is set to debut in a matter of weeks.

For reference, Rockstar unveiled GTA 5 in November 2011 before releasing the game in September 2013. However, that two-year gap between its reveal and release was originally meant to be much shorter, as the studio was initially targeting a March 2013 launch. A recent insider forecast suggested the company might once again be planning an 18-month reveal-to-release roadmap, predicting that GTA 6 will hit the market as early as spring 2025.

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