Aaron Garbut, Rockstar's long-time art director and one of the lead developers of GTA VI, stated that the team made no compromises on the game's scale, detail, interactivity, story, or open world. Faced with years of player anticipation and extremely high expectations, the team could not simply deliver a title that merely met existing expectations by taking the easy route.
Garbut described the scale of development as "building a pyramid on Mount Everest." The interview mentioned that the world size of GTA VI is close to the sum of several of Rockstar's previous titles, with the project being so massive that no single person within the company could grasp its entirety.
This level of investment is also reflected in specific systems. Jason and Lucia will sweat depending on the intensity of activities like dancing, and the game features approximately 600,000 unique animations. Rockstar has also assembled a dedicated team responsible for writing content for background non-player characters.
GTA VI will launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 19.