Now, it appears that all these efforts have paid off. An eagle-eyed Reddit user spotted something interesting in Take-Two Interactive’s latest patent. Specifically, u/CoryLVV thinks that Grand Theft Auto VI will have a massive map. This is after Take-Two filed an in-game system that would let players swap from one session to another seamlessly. This would suggest the removal of loading screens entirely, implying that GTA 6’s map is so massive that it would normally have to use loading screens as an excuse to give gaming platforms enough time to render different areas.
In an ideal scenario, this kind of gaming environment would let players join in and out of different in-game events without having to see a loading screen at all. It would create a seamless gaming experience that would be somewhat similar to what Insomniac Games achieved with Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. In that game, players can switch between different worlds seamlessly in a matter of frames, taking full advantage of the proprietary SSD technology used in the PS5. Of course, just because Take-Two recently filed a patent for this kind of technology, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the publisher is going to use it let alone on GTA VI. For all we know, Take-Two just wants to make sure that no one steals the idea from them until they’ve found the perfect game to use it for. But, if we assume that Take-Two will use this for GTA VI, it would be a double-edged sword. Already, the market is full of open-world titles that have so little to do outside of walking around a vast expanse. A larger world compared to GTA V doesn’t guarantee that GTA 6 will succeed even if Rockstar deserves the benefit of the doubt given how incredibly detailed the GTA games have always been. Not to mention, interlinking multiple areas as if they are just part of one massive sandbox is a recipe for hardware disaster. Ultimately, this is all just speculation, which means that we still have no idea about how large GTA VI’s world is going to be. The last that we heard about a potential GTA 6 setting is that it would take place in Vice City, which would make sense since GTA V was also set in San Andreas. Either way, where GTA 6 is set is less important than knowing when it will be released and what Rockstar Games has planned for fans until then. Here’s to hoping that Rockstar will release the rumored Red Dead Redemption remake and GTA 4 remaster sometime in the next 12-24 months to give GTA fans something to do while waiting for GTA 6. Otherwise, it’s going to be a long wait for a sequel to a game that Rockstar doesn’t mind milking for as long as possible.
