The next Rockstar game is already in the process of pre-production, according to a series of job advertisements that have surfaced asking for new animators and artists to join the developer in creating “next-generation” projects.
Following the recent success of their western sequel Red Dead Redemption 2, Rockstar Games appears to be already searching for new talent to drive their “upcoming projects” on the next generation of consoles. The job listings so far have included advertisements for a Technical Face Developer at Rockstar New York and a Senior Technical Artist at Rockstar Toronto.
While there was little indication of what the “upcoming projects” would look like, the former advertsement called for “new approaches” to facial animation, tracking, and recognition, suggesting that they are hoping to push the exemplary animations from Red Dead Redemption 2 to even greater heights in the next Rockstar game.
Moreover, job listings for various technical artists by Rockstar India are specifically searching for talent to “create next-generation worlds for some exciting projects,” clarifying that these games are expected to release on next-gen consoles. This comes after the news last week that the Xbox Scarlett and PS5 next-gen consoles are expected to be announced in 2019.
Rockstar Games is still actively working on Red Dead Redemption 2, in particular the game’s online sandbox Red Dead Online, and the team are likely to continue supporting this online platform for years to come. However, these job listings might suggest that Rockstar is also starting out in the development of the next Grand Theft Auto game, or potentially even a new IP.
Sadly, it’s unlikely that we’ll find out more details about the next Rockstar game until the studio is ready to share them. A voice actor has recently commented on the extent to which Rockstar preserves secrecy during development, with the actors completely unaware of what game they were recording for in the opening stages.
