The former technical director of Rockstar North says a big change is needed in animation, and he thinks this is the team that can start that revolution.

Not much is known about Grand Theft Auto VI. There was a big leak in 2022, then on December 4 last year (after a leak…) the first official trailer appeared, which quickly found its way into the Guinness Book of World Records, and then Rockstar has been completely silent about the game again. Obbe Vermeij, who was Rockstar North’s technical director from 1995 to 2009, says that the big leak of the game, which will be released for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series in fall 2025, isn’t that damaging and believes that there could be a big change in the animation:

“The leaks are not as important as people think. It’s just that there are millions of people waiting for any news. And Rockstar doesn’t give them any news. Whenever a big company says something, whether it’s Rockstar or Electronic Arts or Ubisoft or whatever, it gets analyzed and oftentimes it gets spun in a negative way. It becomes a negative thing. From their point of view, the best thing they can do is just keep quiet. That’s what they do.

I heard some rumors that Grand Theft Auto VI is going to use some pretty new technology that has to do with animation and AI and all that stuff. I think it’s time for a revolution where the animation might not be hand-animated anymore, but it would be more AI-driven and physics-driven. We did some of that in Grand Theft Auto IV, of course. I think if anybody’s going to take that step, it’s going to be Rockstar,” Vermeij said in the video below.

Vermeij doesn’t have any inside information about the game and believes that the new installment won’t be too different from Grand Theft Auto V, so people might be disappointed if it doesn’t have more innovation. We’ll see.

Source: PCGamer