Grand Theft Auto VI did not earn its reputation as the most detailed game ever made by accident. It's a fruit of labor that took a decade of research trips, a team of nearly 5,000 people and an obsession that runs down to how a character carries a six-pack of beer. A new interview pulls back the curtain on how Rockstar Games built its virtual Florida.
The story starts all the way back in Miami in 2015. Rockstar developers flew out for the first field trips more than ten years before launch, immersing themselves in the city's history and "vibe" before a single mission existed. Lead developer Rob Nelson, speaking at Rockstar North in Edinburgh, describes police ridealongs in South Beach, strange bars in the Florida Keys and nightclubs until 4am followed by a hungover lap of a racetrack. "We're always semi-undercover," he says, "but if you have a bunch of dorks going through a terrifying neighbourhood, you do stick out a bit."
The interview, published in the Guardian, arrives as the real Miami is transforms itself into Vice City as part of the extensive marketing campaign for GTA 6. The irony is not lost and the symmetry is striking. Rockstar studied the city for years. This autumn it flipped the place into one long advert, from a giant Vice City sign on the Kaseya Center to the Miami Heat playing a night as Vice City and Rockstar successfully pitching the city's airport and port on a makeover.
Rockstar's real-world Vice City takeover
Activation | What it was |
|---|---|
Kaseya Center sign | A giant Vice City sign on the Miami Heat's arena |
Miami Heat night | A Night in Vice City game and uniforms |
South Beach | Vice City beach gear and plane banners |
Airport and port | Pitched for a Vice City makeover |
Selfridges, London | A Vice City pop-up and a £1 million Cheetah |
A decade of Miami research came full circle as the real city turned into Vice City.
The same obsession shows up even at the smallest scale. In his demo, Nelson delighted in how Jason Duval bites a donut with one hand while sipping a beer with the other and how, breaking into a run, he hikes his six-pack into the crook of his arm with the liquid sloshing in the bottles. He got briefly annoyed during a jewellery store stick-up that a guard's foot was not placed right. The Guardian calls the detail "simply out of reach for any other game developer."
The amount of polish found in GTA 6 takes scale. The game was built by a team the Guardian puts at almost 5,000 people, higher than the 4,000-plus figure reported earlier in development, with a small core of long-serving leads at the top. Lead writer Rupert Humphries has been at Rockstar since 2008. "The game is so vast that no one person could hold enough of it in their heads," Nelson says. The detail is possible, the Guardian notes, thanks to Rockstar's money, time and the patience of parent Take-Two Interactive.
The method behind it all is consistent. The setting comes first. The story and characters grow out of the real place. Senior exec Jennifer Kolbe says the same approach built Grand Theft Auto IV's New York, sending lifelong New Yorkers to corners they would never visit, "then we give that experience to players." It is why Vice City and Leonida feel lived-in and why we have spent months cataloguing the detail, from the free-roam activities shown off as part of Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look to the Dazed deep-dive on immersion.
A bigger making-of feature is due from the Guardian this weekend, so there is more to come. For now, the picture is clear enough. GTA VI is the most detailed game ever made because Rockstar spent a decade and nearly 5,000 people making sure the beer sloshes correctly.