Despite how much work has gone into Grand Theft Auto 6 over the years, it’s probably unsurprising that Rockstar is still plugging away even with the delays. Speaking to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, head of development Phil Hooker noted that, “The game’s never completely settled. We never have an exact blueprint. Even within the last few months, we’ve changed things.”
This isn’t to say that the delays didn’t help, especially since they brought the team closer to what it had envisioned years before. That includes the sheer number of NPCs roaming the world. Given their detail and extensive animations, which required new tools and pipelines, the studio realised it severely lacked the resources.
“The projections they were giving us were horrifying,” says Rockstar North co-studio head Rob Nelson. Hence, the new Los Angeles studio focused purely on creating Leonida’s diverse population.
“I think when it became apparent that some areas weren’t going to make it, that’s when we decided to make the shift of date. We could hit that schedule, but it won’t be the game we want to make,” Hooker added. To say that it worked wonders would be an understatement, as NPCs have different fashion styles, body types, heights, and mannerisms, resulting in the most diverse line-up seen in a Rockstar game yet.
But that’s not all, as it had a dedicated team of “pedestrian dialogue writers” in LA, resulting in “snatches of a hundred different conversations.” The result is a more realistic world with extraneous details than you’d expect, to the point that “No one you meet is an extra; they’re not only full characters, everyone you meet is the main character in their own story,” says open-world writing director James Horton.
Grand Theft Auto 6 launches on November 19th for Xbox Series X/S and PS5. Thus far, all signs point to it becoming a massive success, but it wouldn’t have been possible without Rockstar taking its time. Apparently, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick understood that struggle, even if his initial response to a second delay was humorous. Head here for more.
