Although it has been a full 13 years since the release of GTA V, Rockstar states that players shouldn't have to wait as long for future titles like GTA VII or other projects, as the company now has the necessary conditions to accelerate development.
Rockstar Technical Director Phil Hooker explained in an interview with Bloomberg that the foundation laid during the development of GTA VI will help the team advance future projects, such as GTA VII, more efficiently. After all, as Hooker stated, they now have a mature team, engine, and available tools.
"The engine, tools, and team we've built for this project will allow us to move forward more quickly. I believe we can continue to develop on this foundation, expanding outward rather than just stacking upward, to create more compelling content."
Artist Aaron Garbut also agrees with this view: "We fundamentally changed many things in this project. Now that this work is done, we won't be tearing it all down again." Honestly, why would they need to?
It remains unclear which projects Rockstar's notion of "faster" will apply to: GTA VII, or smaller spin-offs like Vice City?
Vice City was developed in less than a year after the launch of GTA III. In any case, this is good news. The long waits between GTA releases have been, to say the least, quite agonizing, accompanied by massive layoffs and delays. It's somewhat reassuring to hear that we might not have to go through such a wait again.
Let's hope this all comes true. Let's hope GTA VII—or whatever Rockstar plans to release after GTA VI—arrives in less than ten years, or even five... However, considering the seemingly massive scale of the new GTA, I might be getting ahead of myself.