Rockstar: GTA 5 ‘definitely feels next generaton to us’

We're just a little over a week away from the launch of Grand Theft Auto 5 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, yet there's a small glimmer of hope remaining that Rockstar Games will announce a next-gen version of the game. Unfortunately, I'm beginning to think we really won't get one as the studio expressed its opinion that GTA 5 already feels next-gen to them.

“When we started we knew the scope of GTA 5 was huge and incredibly ambitious,” says Hooker. “Fortunately from completing GTA 4 we had a team that was already very familiar with the hardware," Rockstar North associate technical director and combat designer Phil Hooker told IGN.

“Every aspect of the game had to be better, richer in gameplay and more fluid and knowing we were launching on the same platforms meant we could focus on extracting the most out of those consoles and making the game as fantastic as possible.

“In the end we surpassed our own expectations and during development I think everyone working on the game has been astounded by improvements to the graphics, or new mechanics, or AI, or mission scope along the way," Hooker concluded. "Hopefully the gamers will see all of these improvements at once in one go, compared to GTA IV this definitely feels 'next generation' to us.”

There's no doubt that Grand Theft Auto 5 looks leaps and bounds better than previous GTA games, and although I'm more than satisfied with the graphics of the game that's not why I'm disappointed it's on current-gen consoles. With the PS4 and Xbox One right around the corner (launching in November), GTA 5's September release only leaves just a few weeks before the next-gen push.

The main problem is that neither of these consoles will be backwards compatible at launch, meaning I'll be forced to keep them if I wish to play GTA 5 again. If GTA 5 had released in spring as originally planned none of this would be a problem, but the idea of playing a current-gen console game for just a few weeks before the launch of next-gen consoles is somewhat deflating. Having said that, if Rockstar re-releases Grand Theft Auto 5 for PS4 or Xbox One — even if it's just a basic port — I'll likely purchase it.

Convince me to play GTA 5 on Twitter, @Matt_GZ.

[IGN via Videogamer]