GTA 5: Rockstar's level of perfection not seen or understood in the majority of the industry - Benzies

Grand Theft Auto 5's pre-release polish helped bring the game to a level of perfection rarely seen or understood by the majority of the games industry, Rockstar North boss Leslie Benzies has suggested.

Speaking with Develop, Benzies stated that Rockstar North doesn't spend the last 5-10% of project development worrying about how each game is going to make money. It's all about adding as much polish as possible.

He explained, "We will never ever go 'Ooh, there's an avenue for revenue!'. If any of us say that... we'll go do something else. Everyone here, we sat at home aged 11 playing these games obsessively, we dreamt about making them, and here we are. I do this every day and it's my job. A dream job.

"That last five to ten per cent of work on the game makes a huge difference. This level of perfection is not seen or understood in the majority of the industry. We can all make a car drive down a street in a game, but can you do it in style? Everyone's got characters that are walking around but can they walk?"

This immeasurable effort means yearly GTA sequels aren't possible, or desired by the company. Benzies continued, "We won't be doing things every year in a cycle. A year just isn't long enough to do this job. It might have been on the old consoles, but not on this."

Going back to money - and let's be honest, GTA 5 has made a lot of it already - Benzies closed in saying, "Obviously money is in there somewhere. There is a guy who tells us our download stuff makes this much and our disc stuff makes this much. But that's the depth of it. That helps us decide if we'll do download packs to re-release on disc. But really... we'll make what we want. No, wait, don't print that: we'll make what people want, and that's the truth."

What do you make of that Rockstar polish? Does it make a big difference to your experience? Do other developers seem to misunderstand its importance? Let us know below.

Via OXM.

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