# #212 - John Ricchio On GTA 5, GTA 6, Rockstar, RDR1, Leadership, AI, Crunch, Cut Content etc.

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/kiwi-talkz-5929956/212-john-ricchio-on-gta-5-gta-6-rockstar-rdr1-leadership-ai-crunch-cut-content-etc
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/kiwi-talkz-5929956/212-john-ricchio-on-gta-5-gta-6-rockstar-rdr1-leadership-ai-crunch-cut-content-etc.md
Podcast: [Kiwi Talkz](https://stenobird.com/podcast/kiwi-talkz-5929956)
Published: 2026-07-11T18:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://rss.com/podcasts/kiwi-talkz/2978024
Audio file: https://content.rss.com/episodes/175970/2978024/kiwi-talkz/2026_07_10_18_14_17_91215b40-e974-4756-8e2a-74e5257405cf.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/kiwi-talkz-5929956/episodes/212-john-ricchio-on-gta-5-gta-6-rockstar-rdr1-leadership-ai-crunch-cut-content-etc
Duration seconds: 4516

## Resource

John Ricchio was a former producer at Rockstar on games such as GTA 5, RDR1 & Max Payne 3. In this interview he covers his time training people on QA, being a producer and a leader to teams at Rockstar, working on GTA, RDR, MP and more.. #gta #gta5 #rockstargames TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 01:27 - The Importance Of QA/Training QA People 04:30 - QA People At Rockstar/Advancing Your Career From QA 08:19 - Will AI Be Used To Save Time For QA 12:21 - Unicorn Dev Specialists/T Shaped Game Developers 14:30 - Managing Over 200 People On RDR & GTA 5/Producing Challenges 21:45 - Relinquishing Control/R* San Diego Changed Processes For GTA 5 24:40 - Cut Content From GTA 5 Due To Resources 26:10 - Working Through Constraints/Picking Your Battles 27:10 - Having Your Work Cut From R* Games 28:37 - Will GTA 5 Cut Content Be In GTA 6 29:21 - Cancelled Game Content Ended Up In GTA IV/Tech Changes 30:02 - New Ideas Usually Transcend Cut Content 30:57 - RDR Undead Nightmare/Hot Coffee Mini Game 32:05 - Rockstar’s Approach To DLC 33:17 - Managing R* Devs During High Times Of Stress/Crunch 41:20 - R*Can Get Away With Anything/Unionisation 42:15 - R” Are Good Because Of Iteration But It’s At The Cost Of Crunch 43:26 - Why John Left Rockstar/Crunch 46:45 - Leaders Initiate Crunch Either For Results Or Out Of Fear 52:40 - John Speaks About GTA 6 57:40 - The Future Of The Industry 1:00:11 - Q+A - Will R* Devs Lose More Creative Freedom As The Studio Gets Bigger 1:03:43 - Hanging Out With Dan & Sam Houser 1:05:10 - Following GTA 5’s Model For GTA 6 1:06:03 - GTA 5’s Launch 1:07:02 - Q+A - How Much Did The 360/PS3 Limit The Scope Of GTA 5 1:09:30 - Why R* Release On Console First Before PC 1:12:30 - John Is Currently Unemployed/Where To Follow John

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