GTA 6 Devs Had Freedom to Add Cool Details, Just Like RDR2's Horse Balls

Rockstar Games gave GTA 6 developers so much freedom to add cool details that even the studio's top executives aren't aware of everything in the game. According to Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, who recently visited Rockstar North in Edinburgh, Scotland, the team behind the upcoming Grand Theft Auto game had considerable autonomy to include details simply because they thought they'd be cool. Schreier suggested that "not even top developers" at Rockstar know every tiny detail added to Vice City and its many NPCs. He noted that giving large teams the freedom to flesh out every street corner is common in open-world games. With GTA 6's huge budget and lengthy development time, players will likely still be discovering new details years after launch.

Schreier shared a quote from Rockstar's Aaron Garbut: "There's no one person that has this whole thing in their head." This approach isn't new for the GTA team, as the video also recalled a specific detail from Red Dead Redemption 2. Players may remember that horses in the cowboy simulator had testicles with realistic physics—and the fact that they shrink in colder weather is still a fan favorite.

Garbut mentioned that this feature wasn't on some big list of details for Red Dead Redemption 2, nor was the team ever asked to spend extra time on it. Instead, the shrinking horse testicles, like many other details in the 2018 Western sandbox game, was something someone had enough time to work on and bring to life. Fans can expect the same strategy in GTA 6.

Schreier's video also revealed that Rockstar spent considerable time trying to move away from the weapon wheel used in past games. Worried that a game-y wheel on Jason and Lucia would remind players of what they can't carry, they attempted to create a new system. The team spent "months, if not years, trying a million different things," including trays, webs, and UI updates, before eventually scrapping those ideas and returning to the traditional weapon wheel.

As one might expect during the development of a major game, Rockstar's path to launch wasn't without roadblocks. Schreier said the "dark moments" saw the GTA 6 team struggle between about 2019 and 2022. The driving factor was Rockstar's desire to balance the realism of Red Dead Redemption gameplay with the traditionally more arcade-y systems GTA is known for. During this time, some team members felt they were just "treading water," leading the project to shed some designers before the vision started coming together toward the beginning of 2023. According to Schreier's reporting, some Rockstar artists have been working on GTA 6 since 2015, just two years after GTA 5 launched. That same year, the team began taking trips to Miami to plot out their reimagined Vice City.

Now, after all this time, GTA 6 is exactly one month away from its November 19, 2026 release date. To hype up everyone who has waited 13 years to see if it was worth the long wait, Rockstar has taken over Miami. One recent marketing example includes a collection of cars ripped straight from the game. For more, you can check out new details and screenshots from the GTA 6 launch trailer. Rockstar has insisted it won't take another eight years to make its next game, but as we wait during these last 30 days, you can read IGN's interview with Rob Nelson.