GTA 6 was delayed partially because the amount of NPCs was 'horrifying' and required a dedicated studio full of writers to handle

Grand Theft Auto 6, originally slated to be released back in May, was delayed to November—the reason given at the time was "to finish the game with the level of polish you have come to expect and deserve". And while that still very much holds true, the reality of the game's scope and stature was apparently kinda terrifying from a production standpoint.

Speaking with Bloomberg, co-head of development Rob Nelson commented on one reason for the delay—the amount of NPCs that were required to populate Leonida: "The projections they were giving us were horrifying." The solution? A kind of NPC emergency room, an entire studio set up in LA solely designed to handle the workload.

Another development co-head, Phil Hooker, comments: "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."

Being perfectly candid, for a moment: This fills me both with a sense of dread and relief. The former is acquired from the same residual existential fear I felt back in May of last year. Namely, the fact that videogames probably aren't meant to look this pretty or be this sprawling—that the industry simply cannot support them, and that GTA 6 is going to be the last of its kind.

The relief comes from the fact that, in an industry culture seemingly determined to figure out how to push creatives out of their seats as quickly as possible with AI? That a bunch of actual writers and producers were brought in to handle the load. There's this perception that background details in video games can be automated because, well, they're background details—they're not important, surely?

But in my humble opinion, those are, in fact, the details you want to get right. The background chatter and worldbuilding of a game is important because it'll lend said game its texture, even if you're just parodying Florida.

GTA 6 will be a better game because, when its developers panicked, Rockstar (which doesn't have the brightest industry track record, let's be clear) didn't cheap out on the massive writing load it'd accidentally saddled itself with, and that's commendable in a vacuum.

Now, is it healthy or normal that an industry giant can be so large it can pop-up an entire studio in LA full of writers just to handle a temporary task? Probably not, and it's certainly not something that's gonna last, particularly not at the industry's current price-point.

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