https://tech4gamers.com/around-2-billion-budget-is-allocated-for-gta-6/ The link also shows the twitter posts. Mind you Rockstar been working on it with a big workforce of (500-1000+ people) since 2014 and with their already very developed in house Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE). They already spent 2 Billion USD $ on GTA 6 since 2014. Though some sources in twitter and other places are arguing that it has been allocated so far, not already spent (meanwhile some others are also saying "actually spent", after getting in touch with the leaker and Rockstar is very annoyed by their financial leak not because of the gameplay). I reckon, they will probably spend few more (another 1 USD $ ~ I guess by 2026) on the end push and marketing (if is same as GTA V another 1 Billion USD $ ~ ) later on. Yet, People criticises CIG to be so long in development. Before 2014 they didn't have "studios". Not to mention they got a fork of cry engine from Crytek around that time, and license to use it with lumberyard with no support whatsoever from any of those studios. They had to build their own studios, hire workforce, build and maintain codebase (when people leave) and through LIVE Alpha patches (instigated from the need of getting more funding from backers), upgrade everything to make it bespoke to their needs (many actual back end changes, graphical changes, architectural changes, performance changes), making sure they have a Digital content team (to inform pledged backers and to instigate more of them to pledge) and these even before they can think about how the game will become and be. Not to mention, they didn't start with 500+ workforce, only around mid-late 2019 we started to see some of sort. Further more, their "500 mil revenue" has only been reached after 10 years of pledges. Not From Year One. Therefore, their scope changed dramatically from 2014 to 2018 (scope increase stopped at 2020, I reckon), just for the fact that now some stuff are "more feasible" as they have more funding. They are still renovating and improving every single architectural aspect of the game to this day to ensure it can gracefully scale in the future. Not to mention they are literally renovating and polishing From 1st person shooter to 3rd person view and gameplay, and making a single player AAA standard campaign (in addition to AC, SM, and different other game modes eg. TOW) besides making the MMO SC PU. I am sure GTA 6 will be the greatest MMO ever made, around 2026, considering how GTA V was done (not even 2020+ Cyberpunk had an AI or NPC system that even come remotely close to GTA V 2014's AI system). Yet, now considering Rockstar and the huge money gap ( 2 Bilion USD $ + GTA 6 standalone whether is just "allocated or already spent" vs 500 million USD $ + SC universe games PU / SQ 42 ) , with already developed and refined engine, a giant workforce since the beginning, and nearly similar time frames as CIG and Star Citizen Game Franchise (PU, SQ42) CIG doesn't look that bad now, does it?