Fans are hungrier for details about the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6 than ever before, and are digging through sources new and old for every little crumb of info. Over the years, LinkedIn profiles have consistently given some insight into the upcoming title, and relying on these sources has paid off once again.
Two Rockstar Games developers have revealed a little too much in their LinkedIn profiles, pointing at what may very likely be GTA 6 with feature details. Without naming any specifics directly, the developers in question have shed light on what to expect from the game by association alone.
Yielding the most interesting details are the profiles of Nathan Hunt and Ryan Schacter, both of whom list Grand Theft Auto 6 specifically in their portfolios. This isn't the first time the game was named in the profiles of employees, but while in the past these would be swiftly edited after the news made the rounds, in this case we don't expect anything of the sort since the game has been officially announced — or, at the very least acknowledged.
As is the case with many AAA titles nowadays, seamlessness seems to be the name of the game. Hunt is a Senior Cinematics Camera Artist and is working on cinematography and narrative flow to ensure seamless, immersive transitions from pre-rendered cinematic videos to active gameplay.
Blurring the lines between these has been a goal for major titles these past few years, with plenty of leaps having been made along the way. Some fans speculate that cinematic transitions allude to multiple protagonists again.
Possibly even more interesting is the profile of Schacter, who is working in animation. His profile indicates a specific role in Technical Gameplay Animation, meaning all the motion you'll actually see while playing, and the description includes one particularly exciting piece of technology — motion matching.
Motion matching right now represents the bleeding edge of digital animation, being a technique used to create highly realistic and fluid character animations. As raw graphical fidelity is getting uniformly higher and higher across AAA titles, the "uncanny valley" effect with animation is kicking in more and more prominently — when realistic looking characters move unrealistically, causing an immersion break.
Motion matching seeks to solve this issue, but isn't widely present in currently available titles yet. Just about the only outstanding AAA game with motion matching tech is The Last of Us Part 2. Divisive and controversial as the game may be for myriad reasons, you have to admit that the technical side of the animation department was on point.
If GTA 6 will sport motion matching technology in its character animations, you can expect huge improvements over what we saw in GTA 5 with closer to life movements. Realistic animations will go a long way to make the game experience more immersive, and hopefully mean moving away from canned loops.
Grand Theft Auto 6 is still a long way away, without a proper reveal, trailer or ever screenshots to show for itself — we just have official word from Rockstar that it exists. Most predictions still put any potential release window years away, so fans will likely have to wait some more for details more substantial than crumbs like these.
