Nearly ten years after Rockstar Games released GTA 5, the fans' anticipation for GTA 6 reached a record high. However, before a major earnings call from Take-Two Interactive, CEO Strauss Zelnick shared some new information about the upcoming video game. He explained how using generative AI has the potential to make the next GTA game a lot better than the rest.
Inverse reported that during an interview discussion at the Paley International Council Summit on November 7, Zelnick was asked about the advantages of using AI for the video game industry. His answer made him sound like he was optimistic about the tech but warned people by claiming, “it may be better, but it almost certainly will not be faster and cheaper.” He predicts that while adopting AI, Take-Two might be forced to make some major investments in order to develop its own.
However, this investment might be worth it since Zelnick claimed that an area where generative AI can greatly improve video games is NPCs. The technology can easily convince players to keep returning to the game and can add a lot more variety to dialogue trees. He said:
“Everyone’s working on that. You’re a playable character, you’re interacting with the non-playable character. That interaction is currently scripted. And the non-playable characters are generally not very interesting. You could imagine all the NPCs becoming really interesting and fun.”
However, we aren’t sure yet if GTA 6 will include generative AI either with its NPCs or by creating a bigger map similar to the one in Starfield. However, for now, Zelnick hasn’t revealed much about GTA 6. He stated, “I can confirm that Rockstar is working on the next iteration of the Grand Theft Auto franchise. More than that comes from Rockstar.”
Sometime after the event, Bloomberg reported that GTA 6’s first official trailer would be released soon. They confirmed the leak on Wednesday, claiming that the trailer is going to coincide with the 25th anniversary of Rockstar Games this December. The co-founder of Rockstar Games, Sam Houser, later said the following in a statement:
In 1998, Rockstar Games was founded on the idea that video games could come to be as essential to culture as any other form of entertainment, and we hope that we have created games you love in our efforts to be part of that evolution. We are very excited to let you know that in early December, we will release the first trailer for the next Grand Theft Auto .
One might believe that GTA 6 is definitely going to be a hit for Take-Two just like GTA 5, which sold more than 185 million copies, becoming the world’s second best-selling game after Minecraft. Zelnick said, “We’re looking over our shoulders at our competitors. We’re terrified at all times, or we’re not doing enough. There’s no one who says, ‘This is a perfect product, we’re really proud of it. Let’s take a deep breath, go to the beach.’ We have to wake up and do it again, the next step.”
The popular gaming creator Doug "Dagnabbit," who is the owner of an account called Modern Warzone with almost 840,000 followers said that he was confident in Take-Two and that they were making the right choice in adding AI. However, he’s not really sure if GTA 6 needs it. He said:
If GTA is willing to do AI it means that it will be good for their games or else it wouldn’t be worth the risk. GTA is very well known for how good their open worlds are and how great the random encounters with NPC characters throughout those worlds can be.
However, now that the trailer for GTA 6 is on the way, players will finally get an idea of what to expect from it. We might even get to see some of the features and mechanics, including the extent to which Rockstar Games has added generative AI into the game. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see what the trailer has in store for us!
