GTA 4 tried giving NPCs their own lives and it was a mess, former dev says. got me thinking about GTA 6

Came across this interview with Obbe Vermeij, he was technical director at Rockstar North during the GTA 4 days. He was talking about how Leslie Benzies had this big vision for NPCs having their own lives. Like actual daily routines, jobs, the whole simulation thing.

Vermeij said it ended up being "so problematic" and didn't "really matter that much" in the final game. Which is kind of funny when you think about how ambitious that sounds on paper.

I played GTA 4 a ton back in the day and honestly I never once thought about whether the pedestrians had simulated lives. You're too busy dodging cops or trying to keep Roman from calling you every five minutes. The NPCs felt more alive than San Andreas for sure, but I couldn't tell you if they had schedules or whatever.

What gets me is how this relates to GTA 6. Rockstar's been hyping the immersion angle hard with the trailers. And RDR2 went deep on NPC interactions, people remembering you, reacting to your reputation. But even RDR2 didn't have full simulated NPC lives. Not really.

So did Rockstar learn from the GTA 4 experiment? Maybe they figured out players don't actually notice deep NPC simulation and the resources are better spent on other stuff. Or maybe with the PS5 and Series X they think they can finally do it right this time.

Vermeij's point about it not mattering much is the part that stuck with me. Most players just see a pedestrian and move on. They're not tracking where that NPC goes or what their "life" looks like. The detail is invisible unless you're specifically looking for it.

But then again, GTA 6 is supposed to be this massive leap forward. And Rockstar loves proving people wrong. Maybe they've got some new approach to NPC simulation that actually makes it noticeable this time.

Do you think Rockstar will try the living NPC thing again in GTA 6, or did they already decide it's not worth the effort?

Source: GamesRadar+ · Curated content.

npcs with 9 to 5s dont matter when youre holding down a block and the server cant keep up.

npcs with 9 to 5s dont matter

If the crowd doesn't sell the chase, it doesn't matter if they go home to a simulated dinner.

If the crowd doesn't sell the chase

Nails it. I don't need a guy eating cereal in his apartment. I need him to duck when I floor it down the street. With my two hours of playtime after the kids sleep I'll take good crowd reactions over hidden routines any night.

This. So much this.

If the crowd doesn't sell the chase

Exactly. Back in 2004 we didn't need pedestrians with tax returns to make Vice City feel alive. Just give me people who actually duck when the bullets start flying. All that simulation is developer theater.