Former Rockstar North technical director Obbe Vermeij believes the growing use of generative AI to port or decompile games could influence when and how Rockstar releases a PC version of Grand Theft Auto VI.
Vermeij left Rockstar in 2009 and says he has no insight into what the studio is thinking now. Speaking to Rock Paper Shotgun, he said generative AI has reshaped game development and left developers and publishers with a pressing problem: how to stop chatbots from copying their games.
The concern is already playing out in practice. Because modern large language models are trained on vast amounts of data, young developers and AI hobbyists chasing recognition are attempting ports that once seemed out of reach. According to the discussion, even GTA VI, among the most anticipated games in years, may not be safe from chatbots that can brute-force code through vibe-coding.
Vermeij said a PC port of GTA VI could come earlier than expected if Rockstar and Take-Two want to get ahead of an unofficial version appearing on the platform. He noted that most publishers prefer a simultaneous launch on all platforms because they only have to pay for one marketing campaign. Grand Theft Auto has long been an exception, however, and Rockstar has stuck to a console-first approach.
AI-assisted decompilation, however, makes it much harder to keep major releases like GTA VI away from PC. Bringing Rockstar’s game to computers this way would use a large number of AI tokens and would probably be worse than a properly developed port. Vermeij still thinks people will attempt a recompiled version. He said it would take a long time and likely tens of thousands of dollars in tokens, but he expects someone to try once the game is released.
Vermeij sees the threat of a vibe-coded GTA VI PC build as a possible push for Rockstar to accelerate its own porting. Generative AI can chew through existing codebases quickly, which means an official PC release may be nearer than expected. Whatever the timing, Rockstar will probably take steps to protect its PC sales.
Vermeij calls generative AI an existential worry for developers, and small indies like his GabberGames are the most exposed. Take-Two can use lawyers against decompilation, and a big game may be too much for AI. Still, he doesn’t see full protection as possible. A brave new world, he says, and the next two years will show how it plays out.
Vermeij remembers the early GTA days well. He never worked on GTA 1 or GTA 2, but his desk sat right next to the GTA 1 team’s. In those days, PC came first, and a studio in Dundee handled PlayStation. Then the sales numbers came in, and PlayStation was winning by a wide margin. By GTA 3, Rockstar had turned the plan around and started with the console version.
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