Why? It’s not being released on PC at launch.

Or February 26th 2028, which would be 26/26/26. People might be upset at the wait, though.

An optimist I see.

Nah; we'll find out they reset development four times or something as scope expanded and hardware became more powerful; and so it's nothing but bugs and still rushed to the deadline. To me this screams scope creep, development hell, and constant redoing of existing work; and good luck not turning into design-by-committee when that happens.

(Edit: As the comment below points out, this happened to Windows Vista. There are plenty more examples though - Metroid Prime 4 was even announced by Nintendo, before being completely scrapped and rebuilt for another 6 years, finally coming out this year.)

Wasn’t it just a couple years ago now where they were in early dev stages which leaked thanks to some kid hacking their systems via slack or something?

Unfortunately I think it's inevitable.

Self-censor what?

You should look at the definitive edition of the trilogy they recently released to know the answer.

There have been so many high profile AAA flops lately. They can’t afford to release something bad. I think it’s crazy that everyone just assumes GTA6 will be a good game (aka, GOTY)

Delaying for a year is either fixing major bugs, or they’re scrambling to overhaul something.

NPCs better not be using AI, because every implementation I've ever seen of "AI NPCs" is absolutely terrible and immersion-breaking.

What do you imagine an open source world sim to be in this context beyond a "game engine"?

All the higher level systems and art and story that make GTA what it is would not apply to other games, really. At least not a generic open source way.

> This might be the last game they ever make.

why?

> I'm shocked there's not more of an effort to make an open-source world sim.

There's a shit load of open source open world games. But how is this related to GTA 6.

> It's also a shame that given that they will milk this for a decade at minimum

How can you milk something you haven't released yet. They've just been burning money (billions, if you believe the rumors) for a decade now.

> This might be the last game they ever make.

Well, I’m still holding out for Space Station Silicon Valley 2

Surely they will have PvAI single player by then!

> liberal activists that run the western gaming industry

wut?

GTA:SA (PS2) is also a good game, with a decent story, and also allows you to just enjoy the spectacle without having to engage in violent behaviour.

One of my favourite things to do after a long day was to jump in a Rustler and fly it into the sunset whilst listening to the game's country music.

GTA IV also has its quirks, with some of the best car physics to play with, where it took real skill to drive it properly, and pedestrian reactions felt more human and realistic.

GTA5 was pretty, but that was it. Situations would escalate from out nowhere. Car physics was laughable. Pedestrian animations were muted or canned.