While Rockstar Games and its parent company, Take Two Interactive, haven't announced an exact release date yet, Grand Theft Auto VI is getting closer and closer, and now, a former designer on the highly-anticipated game has suggested that Rockstar's focus right now will likely be on making sure everything is ready for the players who'll just want to mess around in the open-world adventure.
In a recent interview with the GTA VI O'clock YouTube channel, Ben Hinchliffe, a game designer who worked at Rockstar Games for over 12 years on titles such as Grand Theft Auto V, Red Dead Redemption 2, and GTA VI before becoming a lead designer at Just Add Water in 2022, was asked what the focus of the dev team at Rockstar would normally be at this stage.
"Talking generalities on a title that big, you're wanting to really tighten it in every corner," he said, when it's about a year from the game's console launch. He says that this comes down to "a lot of bug fixing" and making sure that everything is ready for players to explore in unintended ways.
Hinchliffe explains, that for developers, "90% of your work is actually doing stuff that you don't want [players] to do," as opposed to what's expected from players or what they're asked to do. "
"You might just want someone to drive in a straight line – 'drive from A to B, please, just follow that car' – and then they don't. They get out of the car, or they drive over there, or they shoot this person, or they turn around and go the other way. And it's just like, can you just do what the objective is telling you to do, please?," he said with a laugh.
"Good games are games that don't block the player or stop them, but actually allow them to do what they want to do and it still works," Hinchliffe added.
"That in my opinion is what makes GTA games what they are, is that freedom that it allows the player, and the game will still handle it and still allow the player to do these weird things.”
Hinchliffe also said that he believes that GTA 6 will "blow people away" and be a huge success when it comes to sales.
"It will sell an absolute ton, as it always does. People will be talking about it for ages afterwards, just like they do with GTA 5," Hinchliffe said. "I think they've raised the bar again. They always do, and they have done again with GTA 6."
Recently, Take Two Interactive confirmed in their latest earnings call that GTA 6 is still on track for a Fall 2025 release but fans will have to wait for an exact release date. The game is currently in development for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. The first trailer was released in December 2023, but Rockstar hasn't yet revealed when the second trailer will be released.
