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GTA 6 developer: Rockstar's 10 studios, Edinburgh to Sydney

Take-Two credits Rockstar Games with 10 in-house studios, from Scotland to Australia. Rockstar North leads development of GTA 6 in Edinburgh, and a team set up in Los Angeles works on the game's pedestrians.

Sunbathers, retirees and a metal detector hobbyist crowd a beach by a yellow lifeguard tower
Vice City's pedestrians, the job handed to the Los Angeles team. © Rockstar Games

GTA 6 is developed by Rockstar North in Edinburgh and ships November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Take-Two counted 10 in-house studios at Rockstar Games in August 2026, and the public list names ten: North, Toronto, Lincoln, San Diego, Leeds, London, New England, India, Dundee and Australia, the last bought in March 2025. A Los Angeles team in Santa Monica directs the game's NPCs, according to GamesIndustry.biz.

Grand Theft Auto VI, due November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, comes from Rockstar Games, which Take-Two Interactive’s August 2026 investor presentation credits with 10 in-house studios. Development is led from Edinburgh by Rockstar North, run jointly by Rob Nelson and Aaron Garbut.

Take-Two doesn’t name the ten in that presentation. Wikipedia’s list, checked on October 14, 2026, has ten studios under the Rockstar name, outside the New York headquarters:

Studio Location Joined Rockstar Known for
Rockstar North Edinburgh, Scotland 2002 the Grand Theft Auto series
Rockstar Toronto Oakville, Canada 1999 The Warriors, Windows ports
Rockstar Lincoln Lincoln, England 2002 localization and quality assurance
Rockstar San Diego Carlsbad, California 2002 Red Dead, Midnight Club, the RAGE engine
Rockstar Leeds Leeds, England 2004 Liberty City Stories, Vice City Stories
Rockstar London London, England 2005 Manhunt 2
Rockstar New England Andover, Massachusetts 2008 Bully: Scholarship Edition
Rockstar India Bengaluru, India 2016 absorbing Dhruva Interactive in 2019
Rockstar Dundee Dundee, Scotland 2020 Crackdown 2, as Ruffian Games
Rockstar Australia Sydney, Australia 2025 the L.A. Noire remasters

Take-Two bought Rockstar North back in 1999, when it was still DMA Design, and the studio took its current name in 2002. The RAGE engine behind GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2 has been built since 2006 by an in-house group at San Diego. The same list adds Cfx.re, the FiveM team acquired in August 2023, and Rockstar Los Angeles in Santa Monica, with no founding date.

What sources say each studio does on GTA 6

Rockstar has never published who did what on GTA 6. Press reports fill in parts of it.

In Los Angeles, Rockstar assembled a team of writers, directors and producers to give each pedestrian individual art direction, GamesIndustry.biz reported on August 28, 2026. A day earlier, on August 27, VGC reported that the group’s worldwide teams had more than doubled since Red Dead Redemption 2.

Two heavily tattooed men pose for the camera on a sunlit street, gold chains and a red cap
Two street characters, the kind of passerby the Los Angeles team directs. © Rockstar Games

In Dundee, two job listings asked for staff to run “accessibility evaluations and audits,” Dexerto reported on July 19, 2022. That is still the only public trace of the work behind the game’s accessibility options. Two years earlier the studio was Ruffian Games: on October 12, 2020, VGC reported the name change, filed with the UK’s Companies House registry, with Take-Two holding more than 75%.

Sydney is the newest addition. Take-Two announced on March 3, 2025 that it had bought Video Games Deluxe, founded by Brendan McNamara of Team Bondi, the studio behind L.A. Noire.

The studios also show up in the labor dispute. Of the 34 staff fired in October 2025, 31 worked at Rockstar North and 3 at Rockstar Toronto, according to GamesIndustry.biz. On October 9, 2026, Charlie Kinloch, HR manager and co-studio operations director at Rockstar Lincoln, was cross-examined at the Glasgow tribunal, Eurogamer reported.

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