“At Least 10 Years Ahead” — the Programmer Behind 007’s Crowds on GTA VI’s NPCs
Berkay Dursun, the IO Interactive AI programmer who spent three years on 007 First Light’s crowd tech, says GTA VI’s NPCs put Rockstar “at least 10 years ahead of the industry” — because every character is simulated individually rather than faked as crowd filler.
This is a rival studio’s engineer analysing footage, not inside information — hence Reported. But it is an unusually qualified read: Dursun built exactly this kind of system for IO’s Bond game, and his point is about architecture, not polish.
Most open-world crowds, he explains, are largely decorative — characters loop movement patterns with no AI, schedule or behaviour underneath, which is how Hitman and Assassin’s Creed make streets look busy. What the Extended Look shows, he argues, is different in kind: individually simulated characters at city scale. His own comparison: 007 First Light “can’t even come close.”
It lines up with what Rockstar North co-head Aaron Garbut told The New York Times: GTA VI’s people carry over 600,000 animations, against roughly 55,000 in GTA V and 300,000 in Red Dead Redemption 2. The tech being a decade ahead is one developer’s opinion; the direction of travel is not.
Sources
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