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On November 19, Grand Theft Auto 6 will set the gaming world alight, Rockstar Games’ first release of the beloved series in more than a decade. As the much anticipated release date approaches, industry and marketing experts are reflecting on the game’s impact on popular culture —from turning Miami into its fictional Vice City to releasing exclusive game footage on Netflix and through South Park.

Since its debut in 1997, the Grand Theft Auto franchise has sold more than copies worldwide. The anticipation for Grand Theft Auto 6 has been just as extraordinary, with its second trailer over 475 million views across platforms in just 24 hours. Its predecessor, Grand Theft Auto V, generated a staggering $1 billion in retail sales in following its 2013 release.

To better understand the game’s influence and importance, we spoke with Carmine Guida, PhD, assistant professor and director of the game development program at 91��Ƶ’s Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems.

Much of the gaming world is buzzing for GTA 6’s long-awaited release. What are the excitement levels like for you, your industry peers, and your students?

I’ve always been more into playing games on my Nintendo Switch, like the Zelda and Metroid games, over Grand Theft Auto. But our students are definitely hyped for it. The release of this game has become such a meme, that I’m not sure if it’s all excitement, or is this thing actually going to happen. I mean, we got astronauts orbiting the moon again before GTA 6.

We’ve seen reports that GTA 6’s release could impact the US economy by because so many people are planning to take days off from work when the game is out. Has an event like that ever happened before because of a video game? What do you think the impact will be on the 91��Ƶ population and students taking an “early” Thanksgiving break?

When I was a kid, we had “Mortal Monday”—this was when the arcade game Mortal Combat was released on all the consoles (Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, Game Boy, and Game Gear) on the same day. If you watch the commercial, which as a teenager would get you totally pumped, you can see it was noticeably targeted to teens. The difference in this situation is that we have many more adults gaming than we did back then. GTA 6 will be played by people of all ages. In terms of our student population, I think a lot of them who are from out of town tend to head home that Thursday before Thanksgiving break anyway—which is perfect timing for the game’s release on November 19.

Are we seeing a growing divide between major studios that can afford decade-long development cycles and smaller studios that need to release games more frequently?

There is a “fail fast” mentality with entrepreneurs, where the idea is to focus on getting stuff out rather than it being perfect. You can find some really fun, interesting, and new game mechanics coming out of indie studios, but if the idea doesn’t work or doesn’t catch on, you can move onto the next thing. Of course, you do need something to catch on to actually stay in business. I mean does “plumber eats mushrooms and jumps on bad mushrooms and turtles” sound like a good idea to run with? You never know! But you just can’t do that with a company as large as Rockstar.

With so much time and money invested in a single game, are developers becoming less willing to take creative risks? Could this lead to fewer original titles and more sequels?

We’re already seeing less new game ideas and new IPs (intellectual properties) coming out. There have been a ton of remakes lately. I have to admit, I’m excited for the Ocarina of Time remake because I did not play the original one. But we’ve lately seen remakes of games (or graphics enhanced versions) that were released just a few years ago!

Are increasingly high expectations for blockbuster games contributing to longer development cycles? Has the pressure to deliver a nearly perfect game changed how studios approach development?

I think there is definitely pressure for a large studio to create a blockbuster, or even a “forever” game, with every release. That these games need to have hundreds of hours of gameplay, giant open worlds, and of course these open worlds then need things to do in them. We also have expectations for NPCs (non-playable characters) to be more dynamic, and so on. But, there are other factors at play in this current time span. Apple moved away from Intel and released their M1 chip in 2020. ChatGPT was officially released in 2022. When GTA 6 started development, none of these technologies existed yet. With a development cycle of more than 5 years, this could lead to developers wanting to switch to a new technology mid-development.

Is this approach financially sustainable for the broader industry, or is Rockstar an exception?

I’m wondering whether this is even sustainable for Rockstar. The company’s leadership has already said that their next projects won’t have eight- or 13-year gaps, but rather something closer to three years.

What do these industry changes mean for students interested in pursuing careers in game development? How can they prepare for an industry where projects are becoming increasingly complex?

A friend of mine who works in the industry, and who attended some of our Game Development classes as a speaker, mentioned that incoming college graduates do not get put right onto the game engine itself, or writing code directly for big console titles. Some of these game companies use proprietary engines and there is no way to have years of experience on something like that. He mentioned that a new developer might work on tools—something that is used to create quests or add text and descriptions to items. There are also other industries that use game technology. Think interactive experiences at museums, VR for training, AR for watching sports, they all use game engines like Unity. So, the students’ opportunities don’t just lie within the game industry itself all the time.