According to a New York Times preview referenced by both GamesRadar+ and Eurogamer, Rockstar Games has built well over 600,000 unique animations for GTA 6, compared to 55,000 in GTA 5 and 300,000 in Red Dead Redemption 2. Eurogamer notes this makes GTA 6 roughly ten times the animation scale of GTA 5 and double that of Red Dead Redemption 2.
Both outlets report that Rockstar dedicated an entire office in Los Angeles specifically to developing NPC behavior, aiming to make every pedestrian feel distinct rather than repeating the same canned behaviors seen in past games. GamesRadar+ notes that in GTA 5, an NPC might drop an object and immediately forget about it, whereas in GTA 6, NPCs are hand-crafted rather than procedurally generated and will remember such details.
GamesRadar+ adds that this approach means NPCs will have individual personalities that shape their actions, potentially including firing back if threatened by the player, and that crowds will no longer mimic identical behavior, such as people on a beach.
Aaron Garbut, co-studio head and art director at Rockstar North, is quoted by both outlets describing the level of detail applied to in-game spaces. He said, "Every room in the game, somebody thought about this. Who's sitting where, what they're drinking, the marks that are left on the table. The pictures on the wall will have people that are in that room, with their tattoos on their arms and their family behind them. The whole thing has been made, and build, and photographed, and placed in this random room in a random building in a huge city, in a world."
Eurogamer notes that this animation detail was revealed alongside other elements from Netflix's GTA 6: An Extended Look premiere, including an overhaul of the series' Wanted system. GamesRadar+ separately mentions that the GTA 6 map is reported to be three times bigger than Red Dead Redemption 2's, and both outlets confirm the game is expected to release in November.