With almost 13 years since the release of the last major GTA game, fans are starting to grow impatient. Despite there now being les than six months until the launch of GTA 6 on November 19, one ambitious fan is attempting to make their own version of the game before Rockstar gets the real deal out the door.

Earlier last week, AI startup founder Ziwen Xu revealed his plans to build a version of GTA 6 using Claude’s latest model, Fable 5. He reckons that he’s capable of vibe coding a worthy competitor to Rockstar’s open world game before we get to that November 19 release date.

“Day 1 of building GTA 6. Still feels fake typing that out,” Xu wrote on June 10. “The goal: beat the real GTA 6 to launch. Ambitious, probably stupid, doing it anyway.”

On day one, Xu shared his progress so far, which consisted of a blue pill-shaped blob jumping around a couple of grey blocks.

Fast forward five days, and the project has seen significant progress. On June 14, Xu shared that the latest version of the game has a controllable protagonist with a character model, as well as a rendition of the city with moving cars, NPCs, and a phone loaded up with an in-game version of Instagram.

Xu has been forced to upgrade to the maximum tier of Claude’s AI subscription to make this project happen. Claude Max 20x costs $200 per month, and Xu has had to open two accounts to cater to the extensive number of processes he’s running on the accounts.

However, the project has been halted slightly after Claude’s Fable 5 model was shut down over ‘security fears’. Xu is back to using the older Opus 4.8 model.

Once the project is finished, Xu is hoping to make it available for gamers on Steam.

The reaction to the project so far has been mixed. While some X users are asking when the project will be available to play, others foresee intervention from Take-Two soon.

“You’re not actually building GTA 6. I won’t be surprised if Rockstar and Take Two shut this down soon. If you changed the name, maybe they won’t,” reads one comment on the platform.

Others are impressed at how quickly Xu and his team of vibe coders have been able to progress the project to its current level. “Day 4 and it already has real movement, a collapse system, and an intro video, Rockstar really took 8 years for this,” writes one user.

Another adds: “I knew that the AI potential is insane, but I never thought it would create games on its own. And not simple games like Tetris, but some serious projects like GTA.”

Whether this project turns out to be a real competitor to GTA 6 remains to be seen. Personally, I have my doubts.

Although the project is still in its very early stages, much of what we see so far can be equated to ‘AI slop’ – especially the generated introduction video that depicts a news reporter and a man riding an alligator through a river.

Given how most mainstream gamers have reacted to AI being used in game development so far, it’s unlikely that this GTA 6 inspired replica will actually compete with the real deal. But Xu seems dead-set on proving the world wrong.

Would you play an AI-generated replica of GTA 6 over the real thing?