An ex-Rockstar Games developer recently reacted to the popular GTA 6 trailer, bringing up its graphical improvements and animation work by comparing it to GTA 5. Mike York used to work as an animator at Rockstar New England for six years and helped develop Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 before leaving the company in 2017. This means that his opinion sure has some authority!
In a video published on his YouTube channel, York talks about the GTA 6 trailer at length. He pauses to talk about the enhanced density and detail in Leonida, Rockstar’s version of Florida, and the neon-soaked streets of Vice City, the company’s take on Miami. As per York, the contents of the trailer reflect what GTA 6 has in store for the fans once it eventually comes out at some point in 2025. York said about the trailer:
This is an in-game cutscene. A lot of the games you see are done with cinematics, and they cut to a scene and it’s not all in-game. It’s kind of pre-rendered and you see it. But everything you see in a GTA game is all done in-game. Every single cutscene. If you see that building way in the back, you can go to that building, you can climb it, you can jump off it. This game is very elaborate. That’s why it takes them so long to make.
The former Rockstar developer continues to talk about the company’s staff working on thousands of animations for previous video games, a significant job done to accommodate the players' whims. Highlighting the GTA 6 trailer’s Vice City beach clip, York said that it was full of people all performing their own actions to make the virtual world feel a lot more realistic and alive.
He insisted that this was a Rockstar Games trademark that was only possible due to the hundreds and thousands of animations. He then begins talking about the life-like nature of NPCs, some of which possess pretty realistic hair and even pockmarks on their skin, showing his appreciation for the GTA 6 graphics. He said:
I’m really impressed with how far they’re bringing the graphics in-game. A lot of times you see a cinematic - this is not that. When you play this game it’s really going to look like this. It’s going to look just like this. It’s going to be incredible. I can’t wait. Because the artists over there really know how to push the consoles and the hardware to the limits with their level of detail (LODs).
York believes that the GTA 6 trailer’s most-debated bikini-clad woman is an NPC (many fans have been wondering about this character’s identity, with some claiming that it’s the female protagonist Lucia with a different outfit and hairstyle). He further shares how impressed he is with the graphical quality Rockstar Games has brought to the people who populate the game’s world.
When will GTA 6 come out?
With the GTA 6 trailer officially out, many GTA fans now finally have an idea as to when the game will be released. While the trailer did give us a year, it didn’t share the exact date as to when players might expect Grand Theft Auto 6 to hit store shelves. However, we have reason to believe its release is much sooner than expected.
As hinted by Rockstar Games’ parent company, Take-Two Interactive, the game might be released during its fiscal year 2025, which goes on from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025. The company expects a huge revenue of $8 billion during this time, with there being a high chance it's due to GTA 6’s release. This means that GTA 6 might be released sometime between 2025’s January and March, so if you look at it this way, it’s only 12 to 15 months away!
