With the launch of it's very first teaser trailer, Grand Theft Auto 6 instantly became the new internet sensation which almost guarantees that it's destined to be the biggest game of all time, when it finally releases in 2025. And there's no doubt that Rockstar's latest entry in the longstanding and genre-defining series of Open World titles will once again raise the bar of everything that we've come to expect from a Videogame and more----from groundbreaking gameplay innovations to dazzling technical wonders, from nuanced character driven, branched storytelling to never-before-seen elements in it's Open World design that'll make it seem far more lived-in than we've ever seen in a game till date. I'd even go as far as to say that GTA 6 could very well turn out to be a huge leap of evolution in the medium that completely blows us all away and then some.
But personally I'm not too concerned about the ambitions of Rockstar's upcoming videogame juggernaut but rather on it's impact, especially on the very people responsible for making it the way it'll be----namely the developers themselves. In the last decade of Videogames, more so in the past few years, we've seen a massive surge in crunch time and other extreme and unfair working conditions in most of the massive AAA entries----from Cyberpunk 2077 to even Rockstar's own Red Dead Redemption 2. While Corporate scheduling is most likely to blame in these cases but we've been seeing more and more of these cases that suggest making Videogames may not be as we thought it was or perhaps the industry may have undergone a kind of radical shift when it comes to developing these large scale AAA titles.
Of course, there's a lot of reasons to put the blame on the Corporate culture which has become symbiotic with the Videogame industry as we know it, for better or for worse. The unforgiving deadlines and the crushing work schedules have Corporate handiwork written all over them, and it's the unfortunate truth about the insides of an industry that's run by a harsh factory-grind-reality that demands much more than it gives back. It's the way of the machine and as long as Videogames continue to be the tour-de-force consumer products that entertains millions around the World, that's the way it'll be.
Rage against the Machine nonetheless, it may also be us Humans, whose never-ending appetite for 'the next best things' and the sense of instant gratification are finally taking a toll onto themselves, as it's meant to. And to satisfy it's nigh-infinite 'consume'-er-ism, Humanity is steadily becoming a burden on itself, and the devs (who are also part of the spectrum) end up paying the most for it.
Personally, I wouldn't mind having to wait about 6 more months or heck, even a full year for the next Grand Theft Auto to release if it means no crunchtime for the developers. As a fellow gamer myself, I really wouldn't mind any extra wait down the road for the game as a trade-off for the well-being of everyone working at Rockstar. Cause in our constant rush for experiencing the latest and the greatest that Videogames can offer, what should never be overlooked is the people themselves who tirelessly work to make it all happen.
But it's just me anyway, so let me know your thoughts in the comments section.
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