Rockstar Reveals Just How Far They Are Beyond Everyone Else With ‘Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look’

It’s been nearly a decade since Rockstar’s last game release, but now they’ve finally provided gamers with a proper look at their next project. Grand Theft Auto VI has been in the works so long that the game’s basically become a meme online, with people joking, “We got [insert unlikely event here] before GTA VI.” However, now that we have a look at it, it’s understandable why this game has been in the works so long.

After initially premiering on Netflix, Rockstar posted the nearly thirty-minute gameplay showcase on YouTube a few hours later. The trailer skips around, starting with what looks to be an early gameplay mission where a drug deal goes horribly wrong. From the very beginning, we see why Rockstar is hailed as a legendary developer, as everything from the character models and stage direction is simply on another level from what everyone else is doing. With the opening segment featuring several black characters, of particular note is how excellent the hair looks here, as most games tend to struggle with black characters’ hair.

The rest of the trailer provides a glimpse of a mix of missions and side content in the game. It shows the protagonists, Jason and Lucia, developing connections in the criminal underworld, getting into car chases, and playing bodyguard to a drug-addled client.

What stands out the most about this showcase isn’t just how good this game looks, but how impossible it would be for anyone else to try the same thing. It’s more than just Rockstar being dedicated; the success they’ve experienced on both GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2 has granted them unlimited financial resources. GTA Online generates more money in a year than most game developers can dream of. Combine that with the institutional knowledge that comes from working on open-world games for decades, and you quickly realize it’s not that other developers aren’t trying to achieve this; it’s that they literally can’t.

I think back to GTA V‘s release, and how a year before it came out, Square-Enix dropped the open-world crime game Sleeping Dogs. One of my favorite titles of all time, but it was roughly half the size of GTA V. Judging by everything shown in this showcase, even coming out with something half this game’s size would probably bankrupt any other studio, and still only get a quarter of the attention of GTA VI at best.

People thought releasing this gameplay showcase on Netflix was a mistake, especially considering it went live on YouTube six hours later. However, even that exclusive briefly crashed Netflix’s servers. There’s a reason barely anything is releasing in November, and from the looks of the gameplay so far, Rockstar is going to wind up with a generational hit once again.