The GTA 6 trailer wasn't just cinematics, according to a former Rockstar developer who says "It's really gonna look like this"

Now that the initial disappointment over why we got the GTA 6 trailer early has begun to fade, plenty have begun to unpick the trailer to discover what teases lay in store. Plenty of fans are doing the work, but some former Rockstar devs have also joined in to offer an exciting glimpse of what’s to come.

One of those former staffers is an animator called Mike York, who has racked up experience working on GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2. Alongside everything else he has going on these days, though, he runs a YouTube channel, and you know he ran the rule over the GTA 6 trailer.

He starts off with a trip down memory lane, where he recalls what it was like to help put GTA 5 together, remarking that he knew something special was unfolding. Things get interesting, though, when York starts to go through things screen by screen to demonstrate how Rockstar is pushing “consoles and the hardware to the limit with their level of detail.”

“I’m really impressed with how far they’re bringing the graphics for an in-game kind of version of this,” York explains (thanks, VG247). “A lot of times you see [cinematics used], this is not that, when you play this game, it’s really gonna look like this.”

Rockstar typically uses a first trailer to give everyone a vibe of what’s to come. While that’s something you see from other developers, though, plenty may opt for a cinematic, leaving you to wonder how things will look in-game for another time. Rockstar usually leans on what they’ve cooked up with their in-game engine, though each new game offers a graphical leap big enough to leave you to wonder if they’ve repeated the trick. If York’s analysis tells us anything, though, it’s that they totally have.

Did you know? GTA 6's trailer date was teased months ago in a cryptic GTA Online t-shirt.