GTA 6 Before His Podcast Was Deleted, Former Developer Explains How Rockstar Games Creates Open Worlds

GTA 6 (Grand Theft Auto VI) is trending. Among the details that have yet to be revealed, a former developer from the company decided to speak out and explain how creating open worlds as immersive as Vice City requires immense work and dedication.

Mike York, who was part of the GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 team, revealed some secrets in an interview on the Kiwi Talkz podcast. However, for saying too much, his statement ended up being deleted.

The challenge of creating realistic open worlds like GTA 6

According to York, creating an open world like GTA 6, especially in a dense urban environment like Vice City, is quite a challenge. “Because it’s an open world, because it’s like a living city, right?” he explained.

The former developer emphasized that player interactions with the environment are unpredictable. “A lot of things can happen that you don’t really think about until some random kid in their basement tries it, you know?” York stated.

And he’s right: a game like GTA 6 requires much more than just a highly detailed environment. Interaction with non-playable characters (NPCs), objects, and even vehicles needs to feel realistic.

During the development of GTA 5, York revealed that the team tested the game for up to 10 hours a day, tweaking and identifying bugs to ensure a flawless experience.

However, as every developer knows, some flaws only appear once the game reaches the public. This is especially true for open-world titles like GTA 6, where interactions are nearly limitless.

In short, among the secrets revealed, Mike discussed the technical difficulties of achieving 60 FPS on current consoles. “I doubt they’ll be able to hit 60 FPS on current consoles. The target will likely be a stable 30 FPS, and even that will be a challenge,” he said.