Rockstar Games is of course known for its attention to detail, with previous Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption games raising the bar for realism. GTA 6, though, looks set to go further than any video game before it, with a dedicated system that determines how much the characters sweat.
Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier said in a new video accompaniment to his making of GTA 6 article published this week, that Rockstar told him of a scripted system in the game that makes dual protagonists Jason and Lucia — or, it sounds like, any character in the game — exert different amounts of sweat depending on how much effort they’re putting into whatever activity they’re doing.
So, in a nightclub, for example, Lucia will sweat more if she’s putting a lot of effort into dancing. Similarly, the harder Jason works out, the more he’ll sweat. We might have already seen GTA 6’s sweat system in action. In the Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look video released in August, we briefly see Lucia dancing in a nightclub, and there’s a distinct glisten to her skin that suggests she’s sweating. Or maybe it’s a trick of the light.
This shows the incredible level of detail in GTA 6 — above and beyond any video game ever made — but it also helps explain why GTA 6 took so long to develop (eight years in terms of proper development work), and why it cost so much money to make (not more than $1.5 billion, but no doubt the most expensive video game of all time).
Indeed, as the Bloomberg article reveals, Rockstar set up a new studio in Los Angeles packed with writers, producers, and directors, just to make NPCs.
GTA 6 has suffered a number of high-profile delays, each of which has been explained publicly as part of Rockstar’s mission to achieve video game perfection with this game. When you hear about the sweat that’s poured into it, you start to understand what this will actually look like when the game itself comes out.
In Pictures: How GTA 6’s Jason and Lucia Have Evolved Since 2023
With GTA 6 out next month, we’ve got plenty more for you to sink your teeth into, including our in-depth interview with Rockstar North’s Rob Nelson in full, our report on what sounds like the end of Cyberleek, and some of the unusual marketing rockstar has put in place.
Wesley is IGN’s Managing Editor. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
