Waiting 10 years for GTA 6 to show up has made fans of the open-world action game series a little paranoid. And, more than that, it’s made them bored. As a result, fans regularly pore over details in GTA that former Rockstar designer Ben Hinchliffe says are sometimes meaningless.
In a new interview, YouTube host Dan Dawkins asks Hinchliffe about the arcane map apparently marked with alien symbols at the top of GTA 5’s Mt. Chiliad. Since 2013, players have failed to solve the Mt. Chiliad mystery, as it’s known, but the mystery’s active and dedicated subreddit with 44,000 members indicates no one is giving up yet, either.
Perhaps they should. Hinchliffe tells Dawkins that, while he wasn’t directly involved in concocting Mt. Chiliad’s mystique, “obviously, there’s always a desire to put in these really complex Easter egg hunts and trails that the really dedicated players will follow.”
But, “as with all Easter eggs,” he continues, “sometimes you just put them in to mess with people. They don’t actually do anything. You just mess with people, just to drive them a little bit crazy.”
That strategy has certainly proved effective in Chiliad’s case. And, in general, Hinchliffe says he often sees fan theories that are so inaccurate, they almost make him want to intervene.
Though, you do have to wonder… if aliens really were in GTA 5, would an authority figure like Rockstar tell us? I’m not sure. I want to believe.