RAGE is a proprietary engine that Rockstar Games has used for well over a decade. It's the studio's go-to engine for all of its games, including the biggest titles, such as Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2.
Over the years, Rockstar has done an excellent job at updating the RAGE engine. In particular, Red Dead Redemption 2 looks like a game built for next-gen consoles even though it came out in 2018. But, it's not without its faults. The award-winning open-world western action game suffered from the same clunky movement systems and shooting that older Rockstar games did.
In an earlier leak, we came across info suggesting Rockstar will use an updated version of the RAGE engine for GTA 6, one that will address the issues that Red Dead Redemption 2 had and build on its strengths, such as how NPCs in the game appeared to organically interact with the world around them.
Now, the massive GTA 6 hack appears to confirm this.
Apparently, there's an interesting name in one of the lines of code. Tobias Kleanthous is currently an "Animation Expert of Production R&D" at Tencent. Before this, Kleanthous served as the "Lead AI/Gameplay Programmer" at Rockstar Games for over seven years. According to his LinkedIn profile, Kleanthous explained that he gave a presentation about the realistic horses in Red Dead Redemption 2 at GDC2021. SO, it's safe to say that he had a lot to do with Red Dead Redemption 2. Kleanthous' name appears in the leaked GTA 6 build and people who saw the illegally-released footage claim that the NPC bumping interaction is very similar to Red Dead Redemption 2.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to put two and two together, and make an educated guess about GTA 6 using an updated version of the Red Dead Redemption 2 RAGE engine.
After Rockstar Games announced GTA 6 in February, we haven't heard much about it since. The closest thing we have to an official announcement is Take-Two Interactive saying that it will "set a creative benchmark" in the entertainment industry. Also, Rockstar mentioned GTA 6 again when it effectively put Red Dead Online to pasture. But, given the recent GTA 6 leak, Rockstar might have no choice but to bring the upcoming installment up again. Although we were hoping that we'd get more GTA 6 news under positive circumstances.
Prominent video game developers and personalities in the industry have currently banded together to show their support for Rockstar Games and everyone involved in GTA 6.
