Over the years, Rockstar has become a name unrivaled in the industry, primarily due to their Grand Theft Auto series that has influenced and defined gaming for at least 4 console generations. While their games have become bigger and bigger, it also means their overall output these last few years has been much slower, with the only fully original title released being Red Dead Redemption 2 and the remastered version of Grand Theft Auto 5. We don’t know for sure what they are working on next, but we could have got a glimpse of some tech that will be behind it.
A recent patent was discovered that was filed by the company in April 2019 and officially published in October of last year, which you can see in full here. Entitled ‘System And Method For Virtual Navigation In A Gaming Environment’, it seems it is aimed at creating a new system for NPCs in gaming “not limited by hardware and software limitations” and would essentially give NPCs their own individual AI and paths through cloud networking technology to better simulate a functioning and reactive virtual world. Multiplayer is also mentioned in the patent.
It’s not too hard to draw a line here for why they would do this, considering the type of games Rockstar make. Whether this is for Grand Theft Auto Online, which has been confirmed to get more solo-friendly content in the future, or another Red Dead or GTA 6 is anyone’s guess. As is also often the case with patents, these types of things are filed and refiled all the time, so it’s also possible what this is will never come to any real fruition. We’ll probably get a better idea of what this is and how/if it will be implemented whenever Rockstar reveals their next major product.