Rockstar 开发者 Phil Hooker 因路怒冲突偏离 GTA 6 主线任务两小时沉迷 NPC 互动

GTA 6 has been in development for a long time, but the wait is almost over, as it will launch in a little over a month on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S (and reportedly only a few short months later on PC). With the game taking eight years to develop, some are also dreading its release, as it will mark the beginning of what could be another equally long wait. However, Rockstar Games has seemingly laid a foundation that will let them build future entries in the series faster, one made even more impressive by how alive the world is going to feel.

Future Games Won't Take 8+ Years to Develop

"The engine, the tools and the team we've built during this project will allow us to do things more quickly," veteran Rockstar developer Phil Hooker told Bloomberg. "I feel confident that we can build on top of this and go more sideways than upwards to build more compelling content." According to the report, this is a similar case as Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, where the latter was built on the foundation laid for the former in just one year. "We foundationally changed a lot of stuff on this project," artist Aaron Garbut added. "But now it’s done, and we’re not going to rip it apart."

While this is great news even without having played GTA 6, which looks like it is going to raise the bar for open-world games with some very interesting simulation mechanics, another tidbit from today's Bloomberg report makes this reveal even more exciting.

A Game World To Get Lost In

Speaking about the multiple delays that led to the eventual November 18 delay, Rockstar Games co-studio head Rob Nelson talked about a challenging time when they realized they did not have the production capabilities to pull off what they were planning. The company threw money at the problem to solve it, building a new studio in Los Angeles focused only on creating NPCs.

“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,” Hooker said. “We could hit that schedule, but it won’t be the game we want to make.”

The delay was well worth it. "Late in GTA VI’s development, Hooker was playing through a build of the game and was supposed to be heading to a story mission when he bumped into another car, whose driver retaliated by ramming back into him and shouting," Jason Schreier wrote in the report. "They both pulled over to “sort it out,” and Hooker, low on health, decided to wander into a nearby convenience store to grab some restorative items."

"On the way, another NPC started insulting him, which led to a violent confrontation. Nobody was at the store’s cash register, so Hooker robbed it. Then, with the cops after him, he escaped, ditched his car, hunted for a new one, found another that was worth quite a bit, began driving off to sell it, was nearly crushed by a car blasting loud music, decided to follow that car, discovered a nearby compound, scoped it out, found a load of new goods to steal, headed to a fence to sell them and received another tip for something else to do," Schreier continued.

These interactions completely sidetracked Hooker, who was nowhere near starting the story mission two hours later. "I remember the sheer fun of it,” he says, “and everyone coming out of the review buoyed by the experience and despite all the concerns and doubts that plague you at that time thinking, If we stick to our guns on this, we have something really special."

Just imagining how this interaction played out is really exciting, and the prospect of such systems becoming the basis for future entries in the series that won't take 8 years to develop is one every fan should cherish.

As such, GTA 6 is setting out to be even more of a threshold than previously believed, and if it plays as well as it sounds on paper, the game will definitely deserve the massive success it is already poised for.

About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.

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