Later this year, Grand Theft Auto 6 may set the bar for the next few years in gaming. The first trailer for the game revealed even more realistic visuals than previous GTA games, but it’s just another step forward. According to Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of GTA’s parent company, Take-Two Interactive, animation that is indistinguishable from live-action footage may be arriving sooner than anyone expects.
During an interview with Bloomberg, Zelnick noted that games have not reached the ‘technological asymptote” of movies and TV shows, but he believes the industry is heading towards a future where games can truly replicate the appearance of reality.
“Our game, NBA 2K, if you squint, looks like real basketball,” said Zelnick. “But you still have to squint a little bit. It’s still animation. It’s terrific animation. But we don’t really have interactive entertainment yet that really looks like live-action. Technology will get us there, but probably [in] a shorter period of time than maybe even I expect. That doesn’t mean that every game is going to look like live-action. That wouldn’t make any sense creatively, but that will be another tool in our toolkit that’s generated by technology.”
Zelnick made similar remarks about games with realistic graphics back in 2019, before PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S were released. There have been significant graphical improvements during this console generation, but not yet to the level that Zelnick describes.
During another recent interview. Zelnick suggested that President Trump’s tariffs may significantly impact console sales, potentially including Nintendo’s upcoming Switch 2 launch. Zelnick also reiterated his belief in single-player games, despite the increase in live-service and multiplayer games.