rockstar made san andreas on a clair obscur expedition 33 sized budget and still cleared 600 million

GamesRadar just ran a piece comparing old Rockstar budgets to the GTA 6 era, and the headline number is kinda funny. San Andreas apparently cost about as much to make as Clair Obscur Expedition 33, and it went on to pull in $600 million. That's a ridiculous return for a game from 2004.

The article also points out the Hot Coffee controversy didn't just cause a ratings mess, it actually dented sales too. I remember stores pulling copies and Rockstar having to reissue a patched version. Even with that, the game still cleared half a billion plus.

Makes you wonder what the math looks like for GTA 6. Rockstar has been working on this thing for years, and the scope is supposedly massive. If San Andreas could do those numbers on a shoestring, what does a game with a modern Rockstar budget need to sell just to break even?

I know inflation makes old numbers look tiny, but still. $600 million off a budget that size is the kind of thing publishers dream about. And that was before GTA Online existed as a money printer.

Do you think Rockstar will ever release actual budget numbers for GTA 6, or is that info just never coming out?

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Source: GamesRadar+ · Curated content.