There was a period in the 2000s and early 2010s when new "Grand Theft Auto" games were often released. Indeed, "Grand Theft Auto 6" is now on sale, but it has been more than a decade since "GTA 5" was released.

If this pattern continues, it is reasonable to expect "GTA 7" to take 20 years to produce, "GTA 8" 40 years, and "GTA 9" 80 years. According to future legend, "GTA 11" was begun by ancient game craftsmen 320 years before "GTA 11" emerged from the earth's crust to overrun the land of "nu-Gameia."

At the risk of sounding glib here, there is no denying that the game development of "GTA 11," one of Rockstar's flagship franchises, has been considerably delayed. This is partly due to the longer development time for the industry as a whole, but also due to the fact that GTA Online, the live service for GTA 5, has made Rockstar enough money to buy God.

According to former developer Joe Robino, who worked on "GTA 5" as virtual cinematographer and senior camera artist, "GTA Online" was a huge success and helped sink plans for DLC focused on Trevor Phillips. This is very similar to the "James Bond Trevor" DLC that was data-mined by players and later confirmed to have once been in development by Trevor's voice actor, Steve Ogg.

In an interview with YouTube channel SanInPlay, Robino said that after the game's release, "A lot of the team went right into [Red Dead Redemption 2].

"It was really good, but what happened was that when 'GTA Online' was released, it was such a big earner and everyone loved it so much that it was hard to make the case that standalone DLC was comparable to it," Robino claims. Robino argues.

"It was hard to argue that stand-alone DLC was comparable," Robino claims.

"It was a business decision they made, and I was a little upset about it, and in fact, that was a lot of the reason I was a little grumpy at the time," Robino said, adding, "We were probably about halfway there, but GTA Online was too ...... people were so enthused, so we paused it," he continued.

GTA Online has (understandably) drawn the ire of fans due to various pay-per-views and cash-grabs over the years, but Robino at least attributes part of its cancellation to the sheer volume of work: "We were the first line of defense for story, mocap and editing, A lot of the teams around us grew out of that.

We have asked Rockstar for comment and will update this article when we hear back.

At the very least, we know that "GTA 6" is coming in the fall of 2025, and it appears that Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar still need to read the stars and consult their golden cow entrails as to when GTA 6 will be available on PC.