Recently, another "inside" piece of information went viral in the Grand Theft Auto VI community. This time, an old statement by user Ayershole attracted attention.
He positioned himself as a "person from the industry" who spoke with a Rockstar employee. This "insider" claimed that the postponement of GTA VI is due to significant technical problems - allegedly, the developers failed certification 36 times: "some projects failed the check 5, maybe 6 times, but more than 30 times in a row is just wild."
ferzetto, who has experience with certification at Microsoft, responded to this - he explained why Ayershole's information is not reliable:
I used to be involved in certification and oversaw this process at Microsoft - no game passes certification 36 times, not even close. Although, indeed, some projects submit a build knowing in advance that it will not pass, simply because they need to meet the schedule. But on average, in my experience, it's 2-3 checks. Of course, there are exceptions - 5 or 6, if I'm not mistaken. Sometimes games really come "hot", straight from the conveyor belt. Certification takes place at the very end of development, and I wouldn't say that "many" games, whether AAA or indie, are not fully content-ready for this stage. If you don't have content ready by the time of certification, you have serious problems. And finally, GTA 6 most likely only went through certification once, when they were still aiming for a May release. This guy is just talking nonsense.