GTA 6 doesn't have to be romantic if you don't choose to engage with it that way, and we can thank the best man in video games, Red Dead Redemption 2's Arthur Morgan, for that.

While Grand Theft Auto 6 follows the two central characters of Jason and Lucia, the game never really forces their relationship in directions that aren't steered by the player. Jason and Lucia can become romantically tangled if you choose or they can remain partners in crime. Or they can become a romantic couple and then break up entirely.

"We start them wanting to be together, and wanting to give this relationship of theirs another shot. But, as the game progresses, it's yours to keep or yours to lose," co-studio head and lead developer Rob Nelson explained while speaking to the latest issue of Edge Magazine.

A huge part of GTA 6 is also having these characters feel like they have interiority separate from the player themselves. "These games, maybe some people think 'oh, they're power fantasies'. Sure," Nelson said. "But what if these characters want something else?"

According to the developer, that question first popped up during the development of Red Dead Redemption 2. Rockstar Games' huge open worlds almost always throw excessive amounts of in-game money at the player, but the studio's Western sequel made players think a little harder about where they want to spend that cash.

"Do I go and spend it on myself, on cool outfits and horses and saddles? Or do I go and give it to my adopted family in the gang?" Nelson explained that the devs wanted people to feel Arthur Morgan's internal "selfishness versus selflessness" struggle wherever they were, even outside of cutscenes - Arthur Morgan can't escape himself, he's Arthur Morgan "all the time."

And that's eventually how Rockstar landed on the push and pull between GTA 6's central couple. You can nudge these characters closer together by holding hands and such, but ignore one too many late-night phone calls from your partner and things may go awry.

GTA 6 map size is so big it rivals GTA 4, GTA 5, and Red Dead Redemption 2's combined – and Rockstar devs are still discovering places they've never seen

With BioWare gone after more than three decades of genre-defining hits, all eyes are now on the loveable worlds and universes the developer created. But is there any hope for an outside company to buy or invest in either Dragon Age or Mass Effect?

BioWare veteran and long-time producer Mark Darrah was asked that question shortly before his former employer's tragic shutdown, in an interview with Eldorado.gg, and he essentially explained that Dragon Age probably isn't as valuable as Mass Effect because it shares too much in common with other popular fantasy franchises.

"I would say Mass Effect as an IP, without the people attached to it, is more valuable than Dragon Age," Darrah says. "With Mass Effect, you're getting the worldbuilding. It's not that there's not a ton of worldbuilding in Dragon Age, but the worldbuilding in Dragon Age versus the worldbuilding in any Lord of the Rings game, or a Baldur’s Gate game, or a Witcher game - they are similar enough that it would be tempting to just do it again, just make another one, just make another new fantasy."

Darrah explains that a potential buyer would have to consider how much the Dragon Age IP costs to acquire, and then how many additional sales the Dragon Age name would even attract. "So let's say Larian [developer of Baldur's Gate 3, Divinity] decided they were going to buy Dragon Age and make another game. The question they have to ask is, 'If we were to do that, is it going to sell enough more copies than us just making Wyvern Era, a Dragon Age game with the serial number filed off, call it a spiritual successor to Dragon Age?'"

For most companies, the numbers don't quite add up, Darrah says. The majority of companies would likely be better off making their Dragon Age-inspired games, instead. "Because I think that the IP certainly carries a fan base, carries a legacy, and it carries an existing audience," he adds. "But unless you're like [former lead writer] David Gaider or someone with a track record with the franchise, you're not going to get those people coming along to a new Dragon Age game for free."

Dragon Age could have had its Baldur's Gate 3 moment, former lead says, but BioWare chose "simpler" RPGs that were "more accessible"