Former Rockstar Games developer Obbe Vermeij has revealed that they had a planned feature for GTA 4 that ended up being “problematic” and needed to be cut.
As we get closer and closer to the release of Grand Theft Auto 6, plenty of former GTA devs have started giving their insight on the current development phase, as well as revealing some secrets from years gone by.
Obbe Vermeij, who worked on a number of Grand Theft Auto games at Rockstar, has been one of them. The former technical director at Rockstar North is often quizzed about all things GTA on social media, and will often share some opinions and details about what goes on inside Rockstar’s studios.
That includes a chat with Edge Magazine, as Vermeij spoke about Grand Theft Auto IV, revealing that there would have been even more depth to Liberty City had the developers wrangled a “problematic” feature.
GTA 4 could have had more in-depth NPCs
“Leslie Benzies wanted all the NPCs [in GTA 4] to have their own lives. A place to live. A schedule. Every morning, they would drive to work,” the former developer said.
“We worked towards it for a bit, but it ended up being so problematic. There were so many bugs,” Vemeij added, noting that he personally “didn’t like” the idea as he felt it “didn’t matter” to the player.
“It wasn’t really important that everyone had their own schedule and their own life. I actually think that, psychologically, players are fine with NPCs being a little fake and shallow.”
Benzies left Rockstar back in 2016 and had a legal dispute with the studio over unpaid royalties from the Grand Theft Auto series. That was resolved in 2018, and he eventually went on to found the Build a Rocket Boy Games studio.
Elsewhere, former Rockstar developer Mike York said that GTA 6 will likely be 80-90% done at this point, and Rockstar won’t be adding anything “new” at this stage of the game.
An extended look at GTA 6 will come on August 27 on Netflix, with the gameplay rumored to be “next level” from an insider who says they attended a Netflix gaming event a few months ago.
