Well, it happened. Finally. After years of delays, silence, leaks, and controversies, Grand Theft Auto 6 has finally been shown off to the world in a 26-minute display of Rockstar Games’ latest.
As a fan and an outsider looking in, it’s been a long time coming to see what GTA 6 is all about and watch it in action. I can only imagine what that feels like to be a developer who’s been working hard on the game for the past several years, and then finally seeing yesterday’s massive Netflix premiere unleashed on the public.
If you have issues with GTA owner Take-Two, that’s fine. It’s a corporation, and their end goal is to make a profit no matter what. Gamers and (more notably) its workers often take the brunt of many of the decisions that are made by that corporation along the way, such as the game only being available digitally and not on disc.
Rockstar Games is a multinational studio with a lot of money behind it, sure, but that studio is filled with people, human beings like you and I, whose job it is to make a video game. And those people have been waiting along with all of us to show the game to the world, so yesterday must have been very cathartic for a lot of people. And social media reflects that.
Along with people rightfully thirsting over Lucia (she’s smoking hot), my timeline last night and today has quickly filled with Rockstar developers from across the world and its many studios showing relief and excitement for their baby finally being put into the world. It’s been warming my heart to see it.
Here are just a few of the happy reactions I’ve seen posted by everyone from producers and graphic programmers to motion capture devs and QA testers:
Genuinely, it’s warmed my icy cold heart seeing the devs come online after years of having to be quiet about the thing they’re most proud of. And so far, they have every reason to be, because that gameplay showcase was a pretty cool spectacle to witness. With impossible levels of hype to try and deliver on, I hope they can all breathe a bit now seeing the overwhelmingly positive reaction to how GTA 6 is looking. But their work is still not finished, and Nov. 19 is rapidly approaching, so I wish them all the best in bringing it all home.
It’s important for all of us to remember that we want this game to be great, but no one wants that more than those who have made it. We will critique the game, play the game, break the game, blast it, make fun of it, and hopefully truly enjoy it. But always keep in mind (and this goes for every game) that GTA 6 is made by a lot of people, and without their hard work over many years, none of it would even be possible.
So for today, I’m happy for those people, and I can’t wait to see what makes them proud next.
