While waiting for the planned release of GTA 6 on November 19, 2026fans are dissecting every frame of the trailers. And that was all it took to relaunch an avalanche of theories. On Reddit, a user named MadHanini pointed out a seemingly innocuous sequence, where two characters play basketball in a park. But behind them, the city lives. Vehicles, passers-by, events. Too much, perhaps, to be simple decoration.
This detail was enough to fuel a golden hypothesis: Rockstar would have developed a truly autonomous open world, where events occur even if the player does not see them. An idea that fascinates as much as it questions.
Towards a world that lives without the player?
In this vision dreamed of by fans, GTA 6 would become a simulated ecosystemwhere everything moves, interacts and evolves in real time. A chase could break out on a street corner, a heist take place off-camera, or an NPC fight escalate without the player taking part.
But this ambition comes up against technical limits. As another Reddit user points out, No_Friendship_4158such complexity “would force Rockstar to maintain AI, physics, and outcomes for events the player never sees, which is extremely expensive and adds virtually nothing to gameplay.”
The risk of doing too much (and missing everything)
Integrating a world that continues to live outside our field of vision also means accept that the player may miss key moments. And not all players are ready to accept that.
As pointed out KhajiitKennedy“players would constantly feel like they are missing events, or even not realizing that an important point has occurred due to poor choices or omission of a trivial detail.” Does an open world that is too free risk frustrating perfectionists?
Rockstar facing the fantasy he himself created
From Red Dead Redemption 2the studio has proven its ability to create believable and responsive worlds. But GTA 6 is of another caliber: more urban, denser, more expected. Every implicit promise is now transformed into concrete expectation. And the bar is high.
The engine RAGEreworked for this new opus, could make it possible to push the interactions between AI, events and gameplay even further. But at what cost? Performance, accessibility, stability?
Either way, fans will have to wait until November 19. Until then, speculation will continue to swell… fueled by a simple image of NPCs playing basketball.