GTA BOOM reports Rockstar set up a dedicated Los Angeles team to write GTA 6's pedestrians, and admits crunch has not vanished, though it is better than on Red Dead 2.
Sources gtaboom.com
To populate Vice City, Rockstar opened a Los Angeles office devoted only to non-player characters. That is what GTA BOOM reports, based on Rob Nelson's remarks in Jason Schreier's Bloomberg piece.
When the team worked out how many people it would take to fill the world with believable NPCs, the projections were, in Nelson's word, "horrifying". Rockstar quickly stood up a Los Angeles operation staffed only by writers, producers and directors "who'd be solely responsible for creating NPCs". Every pedestrian needs behavior, routines and dialogue, and GTA 6's denser streets and couple system push the total higher.
The studio had 2,441 employees when Red Dead Redemption 2 shipped in 2018 and has 4,711 today across twelve offices, per the same source. We covered those numbers in our piece on the 65 artists.
Head of publishing Jennifer Kolbe says the studio vowed not to repeat Red Dead 2: more people, tighter planning, more realistic deadlines, and paid time off or extra pay for overtime. GTA BOOM ties the two delays, from 2025 to 2026, to the same thinking.
Read also GTA 6: hundreds of explorable interiors, but not every building
She does not claim it is solved: "It's not been perfect, but it's certainly better than Red Dead 2 was." Some teams still worked long hours, and she says she will not argue with anyone who reports otherwise. That contrasts with studios that deny crunch outright.
Nothing changes for players on November 19, but the scale becomes readable: part of the budget and years of development went into writing strangers crossing the street. The exact number of NPCs or of staff in Los Angeles is unknown; neither Rockstar nor the source gives one. More in the journal.
Sources gtaboom.com
Reported Reported by the press, not confirmed by Rockstar
By Solange Rocheval · GTAVIFRANCE newsroom
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