Comment by Scaevolus
5 years ago
I suspect that the core engine programmers moved onto other projects long ago, leaving GTA:O running with mostly artists and scenario designers to produce more DLC.
This bug wouldn't present in the first couple years with the limited amount of DLC, so by the time it got ridiculous there wasn't anyone left with the confidence to profile the game and optimize it. A junior dev could fix this, but would probably assume that slow loads are a deep complex engine problem that they won't be able to fix.
Alternatively, management would declare that there's too much risk doing more technical engine work, and not sign off on any proposed "minor" optimizations because it's too risky.
> This bug wouldn't present in the first couple years with the limited amount of DLC
GTA Online loading times have been infamous for a very long time. They were already unjustifiably bad when they released the game for PC, and at that point engine programmers would surely be involved.
The 1.5 minute default load time is also ridiculous.
This is very much the likely scenario. The money is in further DLC. The existing GTAO engine is "done" from their perspective.
I'd guess also that the next version of the base engine is in RDR2 or later and doesn't have these issues. But at the same time they likely wouldn't backport the changes for fear of cost overruns.