Rockstar: GTA 5 realism was showing its age

What Rob Nelson said

In Edge magazine, reported by GamesRadar+ on 31 October 2026, Nelson explained why GTA 5’s design no longer worked for GTA 6:

“As the resolution of the worlds goes up, I think there are things you can’t get away with in the same way.”

His example: in GTA 5 you could pull out a weapon right in front of someone and they would not react unless you aimed it at them. “To me, that was already showing its age in GTA 5 at that level of resolution,” he said.

What changes in GTA 6

Nelson also said running GTA 6 on GTA 5’s timings made the world feel “too fast”, which is why Rockstar slowed the day-night cycle (see our day-night cycle story). NPCs now react to what they see, backed by 600,000 animations and the Red Dead Redemption 2 style greet and provoke prompts.

Sources

• GamesRadar+: Rockstar had to up its game for GTA 6
• Edge hub on GTA6Geek

What to read next

• GTA 6 day-night cycle slowed down
• GTA 6 NPCs and 600,000 animations
• GTA 6 police won’t search the bus