The final time Rockstar Video games revealed one thing about GTA 6 it was the primary trailer, which premiered on December 4 and promptly shattered the Guiness World File for views of a videogame reveal on YouTube. Since then… nothing. And earlier than that… additionally nothing! A lot of the information we have gotten about GTA 6 over time is from that huge leak of gameplay footage in 2022, and when the December trailer leaked simply forward of Rockstar formally releasing it.
Based on Obbe Vermeij, technical director at Rockstar North from 1995 to 2009, nevertheless, enormous leaks aren’t as devastating as they could seem. In an interview with YouTuber SanInPlay final week, noticed by GamesRadar, Vermeij provided his views on leaks and Rockstar’s advertising and marketing technique, and likewise made some predictions about the way forward for videogame animation.
“The leaks usually are not as necessary as individuals assume,” he stated. “It is simply because there’s thousands and thousands of individuals ready for any information. And Rockstar would not give them any information.”
Vermeij stated within the interview that he “can completely perceive” why recreation publishers like Rockstar stay silent main as much as a brand new recreation launch, regardless of followers determined for any shred of latest data. “At any time when an enormous firm says something, whether or not it is Rockstar, EA, or Ubisoft, or no matter, it will get analyzed and it typically will get spun negatively,” he stated. “It turns right into a adverse factor. From their standpoint, their greatest wager is simply to be quiet. That is what they’re doing.”
Vermeij stated “it is a disgrace” that builders will not converse extra freely and extra typically, including “it isn’t simply their fault. It is also the fault of the general public. Everyone’s attacking the massive corporations on a regular basis, so that they’re simply higher off being quiet.”
Satirically, Vermeij hasn’t been quiet about GTA himself. He began a weblog final yr about his work on GTA 3 & 4, in addition to Vice Metropolis and San Andreas… and promptly bought an e mail from Rockstar about it.Â
“I genuinely did not assume anybody would thoughts me speaking about 20 yr previous video games however I used to be incorrect,” he wrote within the weblog’s ultimate entry in 2023. “One thing about ruining the Rockstar mystique or one thing.” On the identical time, Vermeij insisted it was his concept to take the weblog down. “No strain from R*,” he wrote. “My very own selection.”
However simply because he will not write about GTA does not imply he will not speak about it. Whereas Vermeij has “no inside data” about GTA 6, he did some hypothesis a few scene within the trailer that “blows him away.” It is the scene on the seashore, the place “everyone appears to be doing one thing else. Each character has its personal animation. I believe it seems to be fairly wonderful.”
It is attainable all these completely different animations aren’t hand-made. Vermeij stated he is heard “some rumors of [GTA 6 using] fairly new know-how having to do with animation and AI and all that stuff,” he stated.
“I believe it is time for a revolution the place animation is possibly not hand animated anymore however it will be extra AI-driven and physics-driven,” Vermeij stated. “We additionally did a few of that in GTA 4, in fact. I believe if anybody goes to make that step it should be Rockstar.”
Vermeij additionally stated he would not anticipate GTA 6 to be “wildly completely different than GTA 5” and suspects “individuals may be a bit of disenchanted” if there are no main improvements within the new recreation. Regardless, he stated it is nonetheless “going to be one of the best recreation on the market.”
You may watch the whole interview with Obbe Vermeij by SanInPlay right here on YouTube.