Big GTA VI leak shows how blockbuster video games are made

Last night a lot of videos leaked online which are probably from Grand Theft Auto VI, a video game currently in development and likely years away from release. The footage is crude, using little more than placeholder assets in many cases, and it’s both the most notable and the most normal you’ll see this week.

It’s notable, of course, for the scale of the leaks. This is one of the biggest video game series in the world. Rockstar is notoriously secretive. It’s rare to get any credible leak from a Rockstar game development studio; Getting footage like this is unprecedented.

But it’s also normal, because that’s what a video game looks like in development. It’s supposed to be rough because it’s not finished yet. Comparing the “game” in this footage to the finished product is like judging a pizza while you’re still sprinkling the cheese on top, or a house when all that’s left is the frame and some windows.

Every game you’ve ever played has looked like this (or the version of its period) at some point. The last of us looked like shit Skyrim looked like ass The witcher 3 would eventually have been nothing more than a few blocks and placeholder text. The only difference between them and Grand Theft Auto VI is that we have to see the latter while the game was still in development.

While some people have criticized the footage (on rare occasions to predictable extremes), I think the overwhelming consensus among fans was simply of great interest. Interested in seeing something new Grand Theft Auto Game specific, sure, but also just by sight any Kind of a great video game in this raw and unfinished state.

People love to see behind the scenes, it’s something the TV and film industries have known for decades, but for a number of reasons, video games have rarely felt comfortable trusting the average fan with the knowledge that a game is going through much of its development what butt looks like (in fact, one of the main reasons I run mine art Function is to combat this in a small way!).

So, along with the reactions of the average gamer this weekend, I also saw many developers lamenting the leaks and saying that this is not how we should get our first look at the game, that the footage did a disservice to the developers who deserved it proves to show their game as it will (or hoped to) appear in the final product.

Why wouldn’t anyone work at Rockstar? Yes, really But should that worry you, unless the only thing you were really worried about was maintaining the industry’s obsession with pre-orders and tightly controlled pre-release marketing? Set photos from Hollywood movies and major TV shows leak out all the time, showing everything from stars with prosthetic limbs hanging from their faces to green screens behind them, and we put up with it because we all think, well, like that films are made. A Marvel blockbuster hitting the big screen isn’t going to look like a blurry photo showing Chris Hemsworth in half a costume.

Video games are no different! They start on the back of napkins and years later end up as something cool that we play and enjoy. This process is not magic, it takes time work, and just because the average player never gets to see it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. These videos, as weird and jerky as they may look, are the work. I wish we could see more footage like this, both before and after a game releases.

I will always advocate for more transparency with developers and publishers, but I don’t want to sit here and argue that developers should always be This transparent. This is a colossal leak obtained through likely criminal means. and sMuch of the footage uploaded lacks the context needed to provide a truly useful behind-the-scenes look Grand Theft Auto VI. If I was working on a game and things were being poured out to the public like that without being able to frame it, I’d be pissed too!

What I want to say is that I hope this leak can at least be educational rather than just being sensational. That the circumstances were pretty crappy for the team involved in this particular case is part of a broader conversation about secrecy and transparency (one we’ve had for a decade) I hope this can be an important clue that most of us are sane enough to realize that this is how sausage is made.

And that will be one a lot of of people, because as turbulent as this may seem now, in September 2022 this is one Grand Theft Auto Game. Millions of gamers will end up buying and playing the finished product (the sausage) whenever it eventually releases, and then be able to look back at that footage (how it was made) and draw a line between the two.

Perhaps for many this is just a superficial exercise, many people saying “Look,” or simplistic YouTube videos showing differences in mission script. But I hope that in the long run it will also be a way of giving millions of people a greater understanding of how their video games are made, even if the resources they received for this lesson were less than ideal.