Rockstar North co-studio head Rob Nelson has reportedly shut down two of the biggest fears hanging over Grand Theft Auto VI.
Speaking on the Kinda Funny Gamecast, hosts Andy Cortez and Greg Miller said they put both questions straight to Nelson during their time with the game. And the answer was clear: there won’t be any microtransactions or AI in Grand Theft Auto VI.
The questions were framed around GTA VI itself. Nobody asked about a future online mode, and nobody answered about one either.
GTA V‘s campaign never sold virtual currency. GTA Online has been printing money with Shark Cards for over a decade, plus the GTA+ subscription on newer platforms. Rockstar even shipped GTA Online as a standalone product in 2022.
Red Dead Redemption 2 followed the same split: premium story game, separate online economy with premium currency.
So “no microtransactions in GTA VI” fits Rockstar’s existing pattern rather than breaking it. It also doesn’t rule out premium editions, paid expansions, or anything sold after launch.
The AI answer needs the same care. Every GTA runs on traditional AI for pedestrians, traffic, cops, and enemy behavior. Nelson’s “no AI” clearly refers to generative AI, meaning machine-made art, dialogue, voices, or music showing up in the finished game.
It also doesn’t tell us whether AI-assisted tools were used anywhere in the pipeline. “No AI in the game” and “no AI used to make the game” aren’t the same sentence.
Rockstar has said almost nothing about a next-generation GTA Online. Not the release timing, not the price, and not whether Shark Cards or GTA+ carry over.
