An AI startup founder is trying to vibe code his own 'Grand Theft Auto' game

If you're not a gamer, it's difficult to describe just how much anticipation has built up over the upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto 6, some 13 years after the release of GTA V. The prior entry in the series sold more than 230 million copies worldwide, generating over $6 billion in revenue, which makes it the most profitable entertainment product of all time, ahead of every single Star Wars movie or any individual Pokemon game. And while parent company Take-Two Interactive has been tight-lipped about the budget, credible estimates range from $1 billion to over $3 billion, which is comparable to what Marvel spent on the entire MCU.    

Knowing all that, startup founder Ziwen Xu is taking on the monumental challenge of vibe coding his own version of Grand Theft Auto 6 using Claude Max 20x, Anthropic's most powerful generative model available to the average person. He began just four days ago, announcing his intentions on X: 

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Since then, he's been posting updates about Claude's progress and even sharing the code on GitHub in case anyone else wants to pick up from where he leaves off. "The goal: beat the real GTA 6 to launch," he wrote on X. "Ambitious, probably stupid, doing it anyway."

Are GTA developers Rockstar Games likely to feel threatened by his efforts? Absolutely not. But from day two to day three, there has been undeniable progress made, with the nondescript oval character from day one gradually morphing into a recognizably human figure and the background gradually taking shape into something vaguely approximating Miami, the inspiration for Grand Theft Auto's fictional Vice City.

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Sure, there are some glaring omissions as well: the slick cars, massive arsenal of weapons, and iconic GTA soundtrack, for starters. But if the November release holds (and that's a big if, if you're at all familiar with the history of Grand Theft Auto history), he's still got months of vibe coding left, which makes Xu's experiment a fantastic showcase of Claude's abilities and a great litmus test for how relevant AI coding currently is in the world of game development.