Unless GTA 6 “comes out and it’s terrible” no open-world dev can hope to top Rockstar, original Saints Row design lead says – but “there’s nothing wrong with trying to be a #2”

It’s impossible to overstate just how big Grand Theft Auto has gotten. We’re at the point where GTA 6 almost seems a lock to be the most important video game ever released, and woe be to any open-world developer who might hope to topple it. Chris Stockman, design director of the original Saints Row, knows a thing or two about trying to compete with GTA. His advice? Don’t do it.

As Stockman says to FRVR, any open-world game trying to tread in the same space as GTA has “‘gotta have its own identify back, it’s gotta have its own thing, but you can’t say, ‘I’m going after GTA’. You can’t. Not anymore. It’s impossible.” GTA Online has made the series more of “a lifestyle” than a straight-up video game, and as Stockman sees it, the only way anyone might have a hope of knocking off GTA 6 is if it’s a disaster of unprecedented proportions.