1) development times got bloated
2) perfect shitstorm of covid and Dan Houser's leaving
3) r* strategy of concentrating on one big game (read: GTA VI was in pre-production phase until RDR2 was out)
also even if official reveal will happen this year, no way it will be out in '24; if reveal won't happen, I have no idea when it will be out
1 and 3 go together- arguably this is really the result of GTA evolving over time into the Housers' quasi-Hollywood blockbuster directing opportunity + Take Two's online demands from Rockstar.
Yes I'm concerned- the games have gotten so demanding that Rockstar has expanded its scope in India massively to cheaply farm out production, they have sucked up all the activity from other studios so that everything is relying on those single releases now (RDR San Diego should have been free to work on the RDR franchise), and they have also become less flexible gameplay-wise and more reliant on on-rails cinematic gameplay.
Overall Rockstar almost needs a reset and reorganization- one might argue that Houser's departure is a good thing, but I have doubts with Take Two in charge.
Benzies was fucked by Housers on money tho, so that one was self-inflicted; I dunno about latter
it will be far worse, knowing their community puppets it will be something like "america bad, now laugh #transrights #defundthepolice"
BTW I wonder if real purpose of RDR2 crunch report was replacing Dan Houser with some mushbrained soylem following T2 orders
I hope Benzies's new game can get off the ground, though I have some doubts about its premise.
The RDR2 issues IMO were entirely self-inflicted and reflective of Rockstar becoming too bloated, and from that perspective, Take Two was almost too lenient on them.
There really is no reason for the game to have gone through gamedev hell for like 8 years, only to rush through gamedev in the last 2 years and end up cutting a lot of stuff in the end. Heck, they even botched the online version so much that it never got off the ground, even though the formula was right in front of them (single-player but with friends).