In 2002, Rockstar introduced Beach Neon after modern-day Grand Theft Auto III’s return to Vice City in 1986. If they choose to make GTA 6 (opens in new tab) By turning the clock back the same number of years, we’ll see… 2006, shortly before GTA 4 was released.Hopefully the next Grand Theft Auto won’t make us feel the grim of time so acutely, but hopefully it will There is a creative environment that keeps us away from Liberty City or San Andreas.
We now know that Grand Theft Auto 6 is in development (opens in new tab), but its setup remains a complete mystery. With the whole world at your fingertips and a new city coming to life with a huge budget, where (and when) should GTA 6 go?
Seattle (1962)
- population: 1.2 million
- Great landmarks: Space Needle
- You will play: Unlikely partners in crime: hippie Zack Kerouac and sci-fi fan Sara Starr
- Odds: 614:1
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Wes Fenlon, Senior Editor: Rockstar will almost certainly stick with the US in the next Grand Theft Auto, but I really hope it won’t stick to today. Here’s my take on something different: Jump back in time to the 1960s and set GTA 6 during a Seattle-like 21st Century Fair (aka the 1962 World’s Fair). The Space Needle and Monorail were built for the event. The fair was full of buildings and exhibits that conveyed the ’60s vision of the “world of tomorrow” that we now call retro-futurism. This is already a familiar aesthetic in the game, and would create a very interesting loose historical backdrop. At the same time, a hippie counterculture in America was on the rise on the West Coast.
Rockstar could easily joke about early room-sized computers and the Beat generation. There’s a major plot about corruption lurking behind the expo, and you’ll be hired to shut down overly greedy contractors.Brilliant quests will make you steal Firebird III Starting from the bazaar, he led the police on a hunt across the city. (It turns out it was your fault, GM never made the Firebird the card of the future).
Great Lakes (late 1980s)
- population: ~800w
- Great landmarks: Niagara Falls, Great Lakes, Robocop
- You will play: Harriet Debbie and Jean-Phillipe Bachelet are both rising stars haunting New York, fleeing drug lord and tin can lover Andy Borehole.
- Odds: 0.76% (Canada and Mistress? ! no way)
Dave James, Head of Hardware: I feel like I need some historical cues for my next Grand Theft Auto tour, but musical variety is such an important part of the game that I don’t want to go back and limit it. The late 1980s seemed like a good fit for me, but as much as I love Sin City, I don’t want to revisit its neon splendor. I’m after something tougher.Although it may not be that deep Brown Liberty City as GTA 4. That meant I wanted to see Detroit in the late ’80s because I desperately wanted a Robocop storyline lurking somewhere.
But I’m also very supportive of Rockstar’s growth. San Andreas is very ambitious in its scope, with three different cities and environments in between, while 4 and 5 stick to one detailed city. The surroundings of Detroit fit nicely into a big map, stretching in both directions across the Great Lakes to capture Chicago, and across the border into low-rise Toronto in the ’80s. You know, so you can have a little relief outside the darkness of America’s murder capital.
And, of course, the mounted police.
Florida (2016)
- population: 21.4 million
- Great landmarks: Miami, Orlando, Daytona, Disney/Epcot, Key West.
- You will play: Gunslinger, music producer and Florida native.
- Odds: 50:1. They might go to San Francisco or New York again.
Chris Livingston, Features Producer: Returning to Florida can give people a lot of good references to Miami in Sin City, but there’s no reason to stop there. Why not recreate the entire state this time? In addition to Miami, you can find stealth parodies of theme parks like Disney and Epcot in Orlando, Daytona for racetracks, bike gangs and spring break, and Key West for beautiful Beaches, Florida Reef for diving and diving, and the Kennedy Space Center for hijacking the space shuttle. I think the new GTA needs to be set very close to now, because I don’t see Rockstar giving up on smartphones. Otherwise, how does the game keep bugging me with new quests and reminders when I’m playing online?
Florida is full of snakes and alligators, wealthy retirees are fit for looting in Palm Beach and Boca Raton, backcountry shenanigans are narrow, and just off the coast, you have Cuba and the Bahamas (for DLC). The state is ripe for political observation of the American South, especially if it’s set in the Trump era, and I’d expect plenty of Floridians to refer to. Plus, Rockstar would never let go of a simple dick joke — Florida is America’s trump card, right? It just fits.
Las Vegas, Nevada (now)
- population: ~600,000
- Great landmarks: Avenue, Hoover Dam, Lake Tahoe
- You will play: A Las Vegas local who bullshit a casino controlled by some thugs
- Odds: 337:1
Morgan Park, Staff Writer: Open world games don’t have enough deserts. I had the most fun in GTA5 when I could leave Los Santos and go to San Andreas County to tear it up, but I’ve always wished the game was more focused on bounties. A Grand Theft Auto game inspired by Las Vegas and greater Nevada would be a dream scene. Rather than investing so much time in a sprawling city, Rockstar could unfold its worldbuilding in a small town with big people, as it did in Red Dead Redemption 2. It’s an area for bumpy car chases, weird characters, and the kind of small-town lawlessness I love in the GTA5 countryside.
Nice to see a nuanced portrayal of Las Vegas, a city that may be smaller than you think (just over 1 million people) and contains more than just fancy restaurants and Las Vegas avenue. And since Rockstar is no stranger to blending elements of American states into its fictional world, I’d also like recognizable parts of Utah, Arizona, or southeastern California to fill the edges of the map.
Beijing (2020s)
- population: 21.9 million
- Great landmarks: Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square
- You will play: Little liar forced to flee Taiwan
- Odds: 0.00001%
Rich Stanton, News Editor: The Grand Theft Auto series has always been set in the West. I’d like to see it look beyond, whether it’s the madness of Delhi’s raucous streets, the decay and grandeur of Moscow, or the breathtaking high-tech density of Beijing. Shopping districts, tech hubs, massive urban sprawl and population numbers… not to mention your friendly neighborhood communist overlord.
Yes, there will be some odd elements: English will be the primary spoken language in the game, no matter where the game is set. GTA’s over-the-top irony won’t be able to target the same things in the same way (which is probably a good thing), and the cultural familiarity that previous entries took for granted doesn’t apply here. But it would be a great place to drive around, the authorities would make big villains, and a small part of the place could make the whole game on its own. Of course, that’s never going to happen, for all these reasons: not to mention that the CCP might send some lads to talk to Sam Hauser.
moon, space (future)
- population: No one at the moment, but who knows? Maybe one day we’ll all be there.
- Great landmarks: I guess there are some rocks? Some craters? How many flags might there be? We should probably start putting more stuff in there.
- You will play: The kind of idiot who lives on the moon. What are you thinking?
- Odds: The moon is more likely to hit the Earth.
Fraser Brown, online editor: I’d go anywhere that wasn’t North America, but I’ve always wanted a sci-fi GTA. Doesn’t need to be on the moon either, but I do love putting our little neighbor in the spotlight. Cyberpunk 2077 touches this a bit, but it doesn’t try to be a sci-fi GTA, despite the comparisons. I want flying cars (not just online), robotic NPCs, futuristic crime and escape from a depressing planet.
Obviously it would be a huge departure, but the series’ traditionally satirical stuff won’t be thrown out just because it’s no longer in America. I’m sure outlaws, crime and capitalism will still be there when we’re walking through cities in moon boots.
The only downside is the possibility of chat car AI, which is probably more annoying than all those constant phone calls and texts. The solution is to make car AI a friendly dog, like the wonderful Cloudpunk. Are talking dogs also cars? Why aren’t they everywhere?