Every big game now gets the same question. Did AI make it?
GTA VI got that question again this week. And once again the answer from the top was no. Not for the creative work anyway.
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick spoke to The Wall Street Journal at a tech conference. Insider Gaming covered the talk on November 5. The chat turned to AI in game development and Zelnick used GTA VI as his main example.
What Zelnick Actually Said
His main point was simple. The word AI covers too many things.
Fans hear the word AI and think of a machine making the game. Zelnick said that is not what happened here. In his words Grand Theft Auto is handcrafted. He also made the obvious point that games are made on computers with technology. That has always been true.
He said Take-Two has worked with AI and machine learning for a very long time. The company still tries new tools where they help. The goal is better games made in a smarter way. But tools helping staff is a long way from a tool building Vice City.
This Is Not the First Time He Has Said It
Back in February he was even more direct. He said generative AI has zero part in what Rockstar is building. The worlds are built by people. Building by building and street by street.
Rockstar North co-studio head Rob Nelson was asked the same question in August. Reports of that visit say his answer was one word. No.
So the line has not changed in nine months. The boss of the parent company says no. A head of the studio making the game says no.
Game AI and Generative AI Are Not the Same Thing
This is where most of the confusion starts. So let us split it in two.
Game AI is old. It is the code that makes people walk and cars stop at lights and police react when you pull a gun. GTA has used it since the early games. GTA VI will have smarter versions of it. The crowds in Vice City need it.
Generative AI is the new thing. It makes pictures and voices and text from a prompt. That is the part fans worry about. And that is the part Zelnick keeps ruling out for the creative work in this game.
Once you split those two the whole story makes sense. Yes there is AI in the building. No it did not create the world.
Why Fans Care So Much About This
We have all seen the fake stuff. For two years now social media has been full of AI made GTA VI screenshots and clips passed off as leaks. Some of them fooled millions of people.
So players want to know the real game is real work. The jokes on the shop signs. The fake brands on the cars. The adverts on the walls. GTA has always been full of tiny details that somebody sat down and made on purpose. Fans do not want that replaced by a prompt.
On the evidence so far it has not been. Rockstar has whole teams for single parts of this world. Teams for clothes and hair and tattoos. Teams for water and shadows and plants. We went through a lot of that in our piece on how Rockstar is building GTA VI.
What This Means for the Game You Will Play
It means temper your expectations in the right places. The world should feel made and not generated. Streets should look different from each other because a person placed things there.
It does not mean Rockstar works without modern tools. No big studio does. It means the creative calls still sit with people.
We do not have long to wait to judge it ourselves. GTA VI launches on November 19. Check the time for your country on our GTA VI Global Countdown and keep up with launch week on our Latest News page and the full GTA VI Hub.
Source: Insider Gaming report on the Wall Street Journal talk.
