(Pocket-lint) – It feels like yesterday Rockstar Games released the critically acclaimed Red Dead Redemption 2, throwing us into a sprawling frontier world of bandits and gunfights. When it released the insanely successful Grand Theft Auto 5, it sure wasn’t that long ahead of schedule, was it?
Well, it’s pretty ok, actually. GTA 5 may have been re-released to extend its lifespan, but it originally came out in 2013. A lot has changed since then, we’ve got a new generation of consoles in our hands, including the PS5 and Xbox Series X and S, and we now definitely know another game in Rockstar’s most famous franchise is on the way.
We’ve gathered everything you need to know about Grand Theft Auto 6 here for your enjoyment – let’s get started.
GTA 6 release date
It’s worth giving you some background from the likely release date. Although GTA 5 was released in 2013, Rockstar couldn’t immediately turn its full attention to developing the sequel. It apparently did start working on GTA 6 in 2014, but at the same time was making the little things Red Dead Redemption 2, not to mention GTA 5 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, and Red Dead Redemption for PC and Google Stadia 2.
All of that started working, but now out of the way, Rockstar has finally broken cover and announced that it is indeed working on GTA 6, and while it doesn’t have anything to share right now, more news will be coming to the course.
Many of you have been asking about new entries in the Grand Theft Auto franchise.
With every new project, our goal is always to significantly exceed what we’ve delivered before. We’re happy to confirm that active development on the next entry in the series is underway.
— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) February 4, 2022
It’s good to know what we all suspected, and then – there will be a sixth GTA game, which is already in full development. Just don’t get your hopes up so high that it will come soon. In late May 2022, French journalist Chris Klippel said that Rockstar had revealed a mysterious upcoming project, so this could indicate a trailer for GTA 6 at some point.
In early July 2022, another Rockstar community update mentioned that the developers realized that “player expectations need to be exceeded, and the next entry may be the best”, so we’re interested to see how ambitious this project is. Game is.
GTA 6 Platform
Other key details included in the first major leak surrounding GTA 6 could be related to the platforms it might be released on. Apparently, GTA 5 came out at the end of the console generation, released on PS3 and Xbox 360, and then re-released on the next set of consoles with better performance and graphics.
Obviously, though, this pattern won’t be repeated in GTA 6. Leaks suggest the game will be exclusive to the Playstation 5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and S.
Given that these consoles will be out at least a few years after launch, it’s entirely plausible.
However, given that Red Dead Redemption 2 has been hitting PC gamers much less than GTA 5 a few years ago, it would be a bit surprising if GTA 6 didn’t make it to PC platforms as well within a year of its release.
GTA 6 gameplay
Waiting for the details of a new GTA game usually involves a major area of guesswork – where will it be set? While the characters and storyline are equally subject to interesting details, there is something about GTA’s setting that feels like the most critical choice Rockstar has to make. Whether it’s Liberty City, Los Santos, or any other metropolitan area, the playgrounds where players run wild is a big question mark hanging over the game.
Right now, that’s the focus of speculation, with GTA Online players at one point believing that GTA 6 will take place in Vice City, a neon-soaked Miami alternative to GTA 3’s beloved. What is the reason behind this? GTA Online’s racing DLC, Open Wheels, has a track that looks a lot like the outline of a map that includes a chunk of Miami and Mexico. As you can see in the image below, the outline does look fairly clear, but apparently Rockstar has reserved its own advice at this stage.
The idea was augmented with more detail through an alleged leak, which allegedly came from a friend of a disgruntled former Rockstar employee. If the news is true, the game will be set in Florida, with a map larger than GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 combined, covering three cities including Vice City. Players can obviously control four different protagonists, expanding GTA 5’s three main characters.
Another map leak appears to show more of the entire map, as well as parts that fans speculate may be based on the Kennedy Space Center, based on its layout. But, as usual, there isn’t much information that can be verified as real.
More information comes from a Reddit poster that collated various leaked images to create an idea of what the map might look like. It’s expansive, and has a huge ocean — so empty space that we highly doubt it’ll ever be a reality unless Rockstar takes the series in a very new seafaring direction.
Elsewhere it has also been suggested that Liberty City (from GTA III), San Andreas (from GTA: San Andreas, natch), and the Midwest might feature, or maybe even feature all the different parts of the above. Rumors for March 2022 also suggest that the game will be split into different time periods, not just short episodes like GTA 5’s prologue.
The game has been in development since 2012, but entered full development in 2014
There are 3 more protagonists in the main game.
The game (single player) is divided into 2 time periods.
Chapters 1-2 take place in 1985, and chapters 3-5 in modern times.
— Game Updates and Countdown I (@Onion00048) March 23, 2022
In any case, expect this game to break through the capabilities of new hardware from Sony and Microsoft. There’s no guarantee the game world will be larger and more detailed than the maps in GTA 5, but that’s certainly where things are going.
In a big Bloomberg story in July 2022, we learned that the game is indeed set in Rockstar’s version of Miami, which is an easier answer than all the detectives mentioned above.
Meanwhile, it’s also been rumored that the game’s character roster will include a female playable character for the first time in the series, which is long overdue in our minds. The information comes from Tom Henderson, a longtime leaker who has made accurate claims in the past.
For the first time ever, GTA 6 has playable male and female protagonists. #GTA6 #GTAVI
— Tom Henderson (@_TomHenderson_) January 10, 2021
Much later, Jason Schreier confirmed the detail in the same Bloomberg report in July 2022, along with the message that the heroine will be Latino, half of a pair inspired by Bonnie and Clyde.
GTA 6 Stories
The main story of every GTA game so far has usually involved crime, but the exact flavor always needs to change. When it comes to GTA 6’s narrative, a key piece of information is that Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser left the studio in March 2020.
That means the departure of one of the studio’s key taste-setters and writers, who, along with his brother Sam, shaped the franchise’s tone from the start.
Now, on the one hand, given the possible timing of the game, there’s a good chance that Dan Houser will be able to have a solid input and influence on the script and story before he leaves. On the other hand, if he’s leaving, it’s likely that he’s barely involved. That means we could change the voice of GTA 6, and reports that the story rebooted after Houser’s departure, and surfaced in November 2021, showed that.
It’s hard to guess how this will manifest, but it’s an interesting development for Rockstar, that’s for sure. Another recent rumor started with an old patent filed by Rockstar in 2017:
Now take a look at an excerpt from Rockstar Games’ 2017 patent.
It looks like we’ll be able to “improve” the community in the game, which will gentrify them.
Omg. pic.twitter.com/gRcT5nhCoR— Big Jim Colossimo (@chi_colossimo) January 16, 2021
It does sound plausible that Rockstar might want to tell a story involving gentrification and the spread of capitalism – dare we say that? However, the idea of an ever-changing city responding to player behavior in the story is a very compelling one.
One tidbit about the game’s story has to do with its timing. With speculation that it could return to Sin City, some questioned whether the game would be set in the 1980s again. Still, according to prolific leaker Tom Henderson, this will be a modern game like GTA 5.
It’s not set in the 1980s, it’s modern. https://t.co/iav46Ty35V
— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) April 12, 2021
Henderson has been proven right a few times in the past, so this is sure to be an interesting development.
We recently heard from leakers that the game could feature GTA 4’s Nico Bellic, who was referenced in GTA 5 but hasn’t been seen since his expansion ended. Like many GTA leaks, it may only be for GTA Online at some point, but it’s an exciting potential pairing between releases in the series.
So, for now, it looks like you can expect a dual-protagonist story set in Miami, and Jason Schreier’s July 2022 main report also suggests that the game’s jokes will be a little easier than past games, especially Is in the fight is worried.
Hopefully this means less jokes at the expense of minorities and disenfranchisement, and more fights against the oppressive system they suffer from.
We’ll continue to add more details to this roundup as new information emerges or actual announcements are made, so be sure to keep checking back.
Written by Max Freeman-Mills.