Rockstar Games spent months, and in some cases years, trying to replace Grand Theft Auto 6’s weapon wheel before eventually settling on the familiar system again, according to Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier. In a new video discussed by Dexerto, Schreier said the work formed part of a difficult stretch in GTA 6’s development between 2019 and 2022, when Rockstar was still deciding what kind of game it wanted to make.
The report ties that period to a broader clash inside the studio: how far to push the realism and immersion associated with Red Dead Redemption 2, and how much of the faster, more chaotic feel of Grand Theft Auto should remain intact. Schreier said some developers became frustrated enough with the pace and direction of the project that they eventually left Rockstar.
Rockstar kept trying to replace the weapon wheel
One of the clearest examples of that internal push-and-pull was GTA 6’s weapon system. Schreier said Rockstar wanted the game to adopt a more realistic approach, closer to Red Dead Redemption 2, where players can only carry a limited number of weapons rather than the broad arsenal associated with earlier GTA games.
That goal created its own problem. If Rockstar simply kept GTA 5’s traditional weapon wheel, players could end up seeing empty slots where guns used to be, constantly reminding them of the weapons they had left behind. According to Schreier, that concern sent the studio through a long string of prototypes and discarded ideas.
“And so they spent months, if not years, trying a million different things that would replace the weapon wheel,” Schreier explained.
He said Rockstar tested “trays and webs and all sorts of different things,” and even tried removing the interface entirely at one point. In the end, none of those experiments stuck. “After all that, they just wound up back at a weapon wheel and in the final game it’s just a weapon wheel again,” Schreier said.
The story fits with other reports that GTA 6 has long been shaped by Rockstar’s work on Red Dead Redemption 2, even as the studio has tried to preserve the identity of a Grand Theft Auto game. Rockstar’s open-world western pushed for more grounded systems and a heavier sense of realism, while GTA has traditionally leaned on speed, flexibility and larger-than-life chaos.
Frustration inside Rockstar North
Schreier said the UI work was only one part of a wider development period that did not feel productive to everyone involved. Developers spent substantial time prototyping features, only to abandon them later. That cycle, he said, led to frustration because the game appeared to be moving slowly and without a clear target for long stretches.
According to Schreier, the situation improved around late 2022 and early 2023, when GTA 6 finally began to come together. He also said the game’s first trailer in December 2023 gave developers a clearer sense of what they were building.
The report does not frame those years as a total reset, but rather as a stretch where Rockstar was still figuring out the balance between systems it inherited from previous games and new ideas it wanted to bring forward. In Schreier’s telling, that uncertainty was enough to leave some designers unconvinced that the project was making meaningful progress.
Dexerto’s report also places the weapon-wheel debate in the context of Rockstar’s broader attempt to modernize how players interact with guns in GTA 6. That includes limiting how many weapons players can carry and changing the way non-player characters react when firearms are openly displayed.
RDR2-style systems are still making their way into GTA 6
Even though the weapon wheel survived, the game’s gunplay is still taking on several ideas that echo Red Dead Redemption 2. Schreier’s report points to an honor-like Criminal Profile system, Dead Eye-style gunplay and the limited weapon-carry setup as part of the larger shift.
Those changes suggest Rockstar is not simply copying the western’s mechanics into a new setting. Instead, the studio appears to be pulling selected systems into a faster, more contemporary open world, while keeping some of the series’ recognisable interface design intact.
The returning weapon wheel was also shown during GTA 6’s 27-minute Netflix Extended Look, ahead of its November 19, 2026 release. The game is already drawing intense attention before launch, with GAMER2GO previously covering reports that preorder estimates could point to a massive debut and separate trailer analysis that suggested Jason’s military past, heists and prison ties may all play a role in the story.
For now, the clearest detail from Schreier’s latest report is that one of GTA 6’s most visible systems survived an extensive internal rethink. Rockstar experimented with the weapon wheel for so long that, after trays, webs and even no interface at all, the studio ended up back at the version players already know.
honestly the weapon wheel coming back is the least surprising part. if they really had limited carry slots, the classic wheel is still the cleanest way to swap without turning every fight into menu hell.
nah, the empty slots thing is real though. if they kept the old wheel with half the guns gone, it would look weird every time you open it and that can kill the flow.