Getting your song into GTA 6 may not be as lucrative as you’d expect, as it’s confirmed 80s classic Temptation won’t be in the game. GTA 5 is estimated to have cost around $265 million to develop, which at the time made it by far the most expensive video game ever. Even now, 11 years later, only a few games – such as Spider-Man 2 – have exceeded it and yet there are rumours that GTA 6 will end up costing a staggering $2 billion .
That may not be true but it’s not especially surprising, given that GTA 5 made $1 billion in just its first three days on sale. Whatever the exact numbers involved, it’s clear that it’s a very expensive production – but that doesn’t mean developer Rockstar Games is being generous in paying the creators. There’s previously been no clue as to how much it pays the various artists that appear on its in-game soundtrack but judging from an angry tweet from Heaven 17 member Martyn Ware it’s not very much.
Ware was, and occasionally still is, part of the synth-pop trio Heaven 17 and recounted on Twitter how he was approached by Rockstar about including their 1983 hit Temptation in GTA 6. How much did Rockstar offer Heaven 17? ‘Naturally excited about the immense wealth that was about to head my way, I scrolled to the bottom of the email,’ recounts Ware . I was recently contacted by my publishers on behalf of Rockstar Games re the possibility of using Temptation on the new Grand Theft Auto 6 Naturally excited about the immense weal.