According to one of the developers, this is the biggest problem in GTA 6.

GTA 6 It has everything it takes to be the big bomb of 2025, and Rockstar Games knows the bar is set very high. WITH GTA 5 still attracts the attention of millions of players around the world, despite the fact that it is more than 10 years old, and with GTA Online Having firmly established itself as a goldmine for the studio, expectations for the next installment in the saga are sky high.

So far the first step GTA 6 turned out to be very convincing: the gameplay trailer delighted everyone. Not only for returning to Vice Citybut because this clip clearly showed that Rockstar haven’t lost their edge when it comes to making fun of American culture and way of life.

But what next? Grand Theft Auto be the ultimate candidate for commercial success in 2025, not implies that those in charge do not face problems. On the contrary, the final stage of work on a long-awaited game is a critical and extremely stressful moment.

Ben Hinchliffeformer Rockstar Games developer with steps GTA 5, Red Dead Redemption 2, Los Angeles Noir And GTA 6explained the significant problems those responsible for the game faced during the last year of development before its launch.

“I would tell you that last year [al debut] For a game this big, you’ll have to tweak it in every possible angle. You have a lot of bug fixes to do, and you also have to do a lot of things right because you’re going to run into hundreds of side cases,” he explained, detailing the nature of playable games. GTA and his ability to let the public do whatever it wants:

“The worst thing about the game, although many might say it’s the best, is that you make it the way you want it to be played and the way you want the users to play it, and then 90% your job is to do things you don’t want them to do. You might want them to drive in a straight line from point A to point B or follow a car, but they don’t get out of the car and drive away and shoot someone. […] People like to do things differently, so literally 90% of a developer’s job is to prevent the player from doing something you don’t want them to do, or to implement that solution into the game. In my opinion, good games are those that don’t block or slow down players, but instead allow them to do what they want and still get work done. If we tell you to kill this man with a sniper rifle, but you prefer to take a helicopter and drop a box on his head, you will still complete the task. GTA “It is what it is because it gives players the freedom to do these weird things and be able to process them.”

Ben Hinchliffe, former Rockstar Games developer, on the challenge of creating GTA 6.

Guaranteeing players’ freedom of action is a great task GTA 6

It is clear that what Hinchliffe considers the greatest challenge GTA 6 the same as its predecessors: guarantee players’ freedom of action. While the former Rockstar member admitted that the studio has the tools to “force” the audience to follow certain patterns in order to achieve a goal, the distinguishing component is that the game can handle very different actions that end up producing the same result that pursues it creators.

This entails a lot of extra work in terms of content creation, animation, reactions and other issues that don’t have to be dealt with in a linear title. The developer gave an example of a mission Red Dead Redemption 2where if the user does not follow the official guidelines, he may end up finding an enemy camp that he says 99% of players have never seen. “You have to come up with a lot of what-ifs, and that’s what makes Rockstar games so good. There are all these details and additional content that most players don’t even know about,” he said.

GTA 6 will be released in autumn 2025 PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. The game has yet to announce a PC version, and all indications are that it may take much longer to reach the public’s hands. There were rumors then that the release could be delayed until 2026, but those responsible have not yet commented on this issue.