GTA 6 is expected to surpass its predecessor on every level, not only in scale and scope, but also in revenue.
Already, both PlayStation and Xbox, the two platforms the game is initially releasing on, have said the game has become the most pre-ordered title in their digital stores’ history.
This may be partly down to its huge size (212GB), meaning many are pre-ordering to “pre-load” the game, ready to play it immediately at launch rather than waiting to download it.
The hype has spilt into the real world, with London’s Selfridges transformed into a Vice City-themed pop-up attraction and fictional GTA brands appearing on billboards across Miami, the city that inspired the game.
“Everyone is extremely excited for this,” says MacDonald.
“It’s hoping to be a shot in the arm for the general games industry, but also every player is looking to see what Rockstar’s been doing for all this time.
“It’s very rare that we have this one massive game that everybody’s going to be, if not playing, then certainly interested in.”
Do Jones and Baglow ever wish they were still working on the game now, given the huge amount of global attention focused on it?
“I think everybody loves having their time on it, for one, two, three versions,” Jones says.
“But eventually you want to go off and do other things as well.”
Baglow adds that watching “the rest of the world fall in love with the game over the last 29 years has just been joyful”.
“It means so much to so many people – it’s been fantastic.”