At a time when the gaming industry is seeing many players complain about "fatigue" from overly long campaigns and beg for shorter experiences, Rockstar Games, with GTA 6 (Grand Theft Auto VI), seems ready to swim against the tide.
You can check out more GTA 6 content in the video from our partner SanInPlay:
Having followed Rockstar Games’ development cycles for years here on Portal Viciados, I see that the current community debate about the game’s length is focusing on the wrong metric.
The Evolution of Playtime in the GTA Franchise
To establish a solid basis for comparison, fans have compiled the average time it takes players to complete just the main story in previous installments. The pattern of growth is evident:
- Grand Theft Auto (1997): ~13 hours
- Grand Theft Auto 2 (1999): ~12 hours
- Grand Theft Auto III (2001): ~15.5 hours
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002): ~19 hours
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004): ~31 hours
- Grand Theft Auto IV (2008): ~28 hours
- Grand Theft Auto V (2013): ~31 to 32 hours
Many are looking at Grand Theft Auto V’s 31-hour story and projecting something similar. However, the true benchmark for the company isn’t its latest GTA, but rather Red Dead Redemption 2.
The internet fears that a GTA 6 with over 50 hours of main campaign could become tedious. In our view, this fear overlooks the immersion engineering that the developer has perfected.
Likewise, Rockstar Games doesn’t fill the map with generic missions like other studios do. The focus isn’t on artificially stretching out the story, but on enriching the experience.
GTA 6 will be massive!
Let’s be realistic about the data we’ve analyzed. After more than a decade of development and an astronomical budget from Take-Two, delivering a story of just 30 hours would be a step backward.
Our prediction is very clear: get ready for the studio’s biggest campaign yet, which will easily require over a hundred hours to fully enjoy. The market’s fast-paced consumption pattern doesn’t apply to the biggest release of the decade.
Check out:
- Have we reached the limit? A GTA 6 fan measures oxygen levels and noise levels and counts cars outside Rockstar’s headquarters
- BestBuy accidentally reveals GTA 6 pre-order date
- BestBuy accidentally reveals GTA 6 pre-order date
- For GTA 6? Vacancies suggest DLCs and Season Passes in Rockstar Games’ future
- Rumor: Is the crunch back? Rockstar employees report nightmare in GTA 6!
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