Rockstar North is developing its first next generation open world game.

Image Source/ Bang Showbiz 

The company behind the hugely popular ‘Grand Theft Auto’ and ‘Red Dead Redemption’ franchises is turning its attention to next year’s new consoles – Microsoft’s Project Scarlett and Sony’s PlayStation 5 – and a new job listing has hinted at their future plans.

The role is an Animation Systems Programmer, and the job description reads:

“We are looking for an experienced, talented engineer to help us in developing advanced animation systems for large open world character-based games.”

Furthermore, the listing confirms Rockstar’s attention is turning to next gen consoles with an outline of what the company does.

Under the ‘what we do’ heading, the studio adds:

“We develop animation technology, from performance capture through to a sophisticated runtime engine, for massive open world games.

“We are a global team of programmers and researchers who collaborate on pushing the boundaries of character animation on next generation hardware.”

This job is the first real confirmation Rockstar North are working on something for the upcoming hardware after their output slowed more recently.

For the current generation, ‘Red Dead Redemption 2’ is the only totally original title to be released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, alongside an improved version of ‘Grand Theft Auto V’.

It seems likely that the next release will be a ‘GTA’ sequel, with the later coming out in 2014 – around a year after its initial release on PS3 and Xbox 360.

The game sold over 115 million copies, so it seems inevitable that the team will look to put out a follow-up.