But, regardless of all of these obstacles, amongst them Rockstar’s observe report of pushing again its greatest releases, we’re nonetheless listening to that GTA 6 will arrive on time. It’s protected to say anybody who has picked up a sport previously decade may have a tough time believing that.
Including to the mounting issues, Rockstar’s in any other case slick promo machine has fallen noticeably silent. Thus far, all we’ve got to go on is a shocking trailer that followers have dissected like vultures over a carcass, obsessively analysing each element – from the graphical constancy of hair to the potential of turtles within the sea.
The sixth sport within the Grand Theft Auto collection will embrace its first feminine protagonist, Lucia
Screengrab / Rockstar Video games / PA
When is GTA 6 popping out?
In December 2023, Followers using excessive on the first trailer’s shiny visuals could have been disillusioned when the sport’s tentative launch date was confirmed on the finish of the clip. Because the title flashed throughout the display screen, the textual content under revealed that GTA 6 would arrive in 2025.
Now, writer Take-Two Interactive has revised that launch date window additional by promising to launch the sport in autumn 2025.
“We’re extremely assured that Rockstar Video games will ship an unparalleled leisure expertise, and our expectations for the business affect of the title proceed to extend,” stated Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick on the corporate’s earnings name in Could 2024.
One other earnings name is due on February 6 and, if there’s an elevated threat of a delay, we might be able to glean some hints throughout that displays. Take-Two doesn’t actually need to appease followers, however shareholders? That’s one other story.
Mr Zelnick did converse confidently through the 2024 earnings name, although.
“We narrowed the timing as a result of we’re extremely assured within the timing,” says Mr Zelnick. He additionally famous how right now’s video games are all prone to “slippage”, the place points in growth imply a title will get delayed, and talked about the way you may even start to guage when a sport is definitely prepared for launch. And the way GTA 6 is slightly bit completely different.
“There are components you possibly can measure, such because the variety of bugs in a title. Each one in every of us will be sure that we’ve got as few bugs as potential earlier than we launch. Nevertheless, within the case of a unprecedented title, of which there are extraordinary expectations, it is probably not about bugs,” Mr Zelnick stated.
“It is about creating an expertise no-one has seen earlier than. And Rockstar video games seeks perfection in what they do. Perfection is certainly arduous to measure, it is extra subjective than goal.”
He didn’t drop any hints concerning the precise sport content material, although, saying we must always all simply watch the trailer once more – a video that has had upwards of 190 million views.
Let’s hope this seek for perfection doesn’t find yourself with a GTA 6 2026 launch date, when even the “fall 2025” launch window is a intestine punch for followers hoping to play it sooner after a gruelling 11-year await the brand new sport.
Maybe players can take solace in the truth that Take-Two is sticking to the 2025 timeline, following worrying stories that GTA 6 could possibly be delayed to 2026.
The sixth sport within the Grand Theft Auto collection is about to be launched in autumn 2025
Rockstar Video games
We already knew that it was full steam forward for the sport’s developer, Rockstar, because it readies the following chapter in its American crime saga. In February, Bloomberg reported that the agency had entered the ultimate levels of growth on GTA 6, with staff being ordered again to work from the workplace 5 days every week to finish it.
Nevertheless, a subsequent article from gaming web site Kotaku (that different stories have dismissed) claimed Rockstar modified its work-from-home coverage in a last-gasp sprint to forestall a expensive delay. With the sport reportedly “falling behind” schedule, the developer was “frightened” about “lacking the 2025 window and slipping into 2026”.
Might a jail break be a part of the GTA 6 marketing campaign?
Rockstar Video games
What platforms will GTA 6 be on?
Rockstar’s web site stated the sport would launch on current-gen consoles in 2025, together with the PS5 and Xbox Sequence X/S.
There is not any phrase on a PC launch however we would not be shocked to see it launch a number of months later within the vein of GTA 5.
Sadly for PS4 homeowners, the sport will not be launched on last-gen {hardware}. That is all of the extra motive so as to add a PS5 or Xbox Sequence X or S to your Christmas want checklist. Or, you could possibly await the PS5 Slim, which is arriving within the UK quickly.
Simply don’t go anticipating GTA 6 to launch on Xbox Sport Go. Whereas Take Two isn’t any stranger to subscription companies (see GTA+, which noticed a double-digit yearly improve within the newest quarter), it doesn’t appear eager on going all-in on the Netflix-for-gaming mannequin being pushed by Microsoft.
“I feel that providing a frontline title with a premium value in a subscription service, day and date, will push shoppers to that subscription service for a minimum of a time period,” Mr Zelnick instructed GamesIndustry.biz.
Nonetheless, he added, Microsoft’s technique does not change how Take-Two views the subscription alternative. “No, it will not have an effect on our choices,” Mr Zelnick says. “As a result of our choices are rational.”
We had already heard rumblings GTA 6 can be set in Vice Metropolis, a fictional tackle Miami, Florida, and the trailer confirmed that.
Prepare to go to the swamps of Florida-inspired Vice Metropolis in GTA 6
Rockstar Video games
Loosely primarily based on the cities of Miami and Miami Seaside, and set within the fictional state of Leonidas, it seems attractive. Given Rockstar’s penchant for creating huge, detailed open worlds, it’s no shock the sport will characteristic Everglades-style swamp areas.
Within the trailer, we see an airboat careening by way of a swamp. There are two fast scenes of this space. One is about on an attractive sun-dappled morning, the opposite through the day, with dozens of flamingos on-screen directly.
An odd buyer walks right into a retailer within the GTA 6 trailer
Rockstar Video games
There are additionally a few scenes of alligators intruding into retailers and folks’s properties. The checklist of oddball characters contains grime bike gangs, a convict lined in face tats, a hammer-wielding girl, with one other girl twerking on a shifting automotive.
As older followers will recall, Vice Metropolis was the setting for 2002’s Grand Theft Auto: Vice Metropolis. Early stories urged the sport world could also be bigger than that of GTA 5, whereas the earlier Vice Metropolis was a comparatively small assortment of islands.
What’s GTA 6’s rumoured story?
As is extensively reported, we’re getting the collection’ first feminine protagonist. One in every of GTA 6’s foremost characters is a girl named Lucia. We see her in jail and out of it, committing an armed theft together with her male associate (who was beforehand recognized in leaks as Jason).
Like a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, the duo is more likely to enterprise on a crime-fuelled odyssey throughout the state of Leonidas, taking in its deranged sights and sounds, and clashing with its underworld milieu.
As Tupac and Jay-Z famously sang: “All I would like on this lifetime of sin is me and my girlfriend.”
Co-founder of Rockstar Video games, Dan Houser, instructed the Guardian in 2013 why a girl wasn’t playable in GTA V – and the way the workforce may make it occur.
One factor’s for certain, the brand new sport will characteristic extra high-speed getaways
Rockstar Video games
“We didn’t actually give it some thought this time [of GTA V]. That’s to not say that we couldn’t or we wouldn’t,” he stated. “This character set is simply what got here to us: it wasn’t, ‘We’ve acquired X and Y so we’d like Z’, we weren’t attempting to do it off a guidelines – I don’t assume that may ever offer you one thing that’s plausible or participating.
“Sooner or later, may we do a sport with a lead feminine character? After all. We simply haven’t discovered the suitable sport for it but, but it surely’s one of many issues that we all the time take into consideration. It didn’t really feel pure for this sport however positively for the suitable sport sooner or later – with the suitable themes, it could possibly be improbable.”
Different rumours have hinted at the potential of a playable feminine character who’s the intelligent one within the group and is nice at utilizing expertise and hacking. Sounds nice to us.
What has Rockstar stated about GTA 6?
Other than the trailer, Rockstar’s different massive clue about GTA 6’s launch date got here final Could.
In a press launch, the corporate forecasted a record-breaking windfall in revenue for its fiscal 12 months 2025, which covers April 2024 to March 2025.
“We count on to enter this new period by launching a number of ground-breaking titles that we consider will set new requirements in our business and allow us to realize over $8bn (£6.5bn) in web bookings,” the gaming firm stated.
In February final 12 months, Rockstar confirmed {that a} new entry within the GTA franchise was within the works.
“With each new undertaking we embark on, our aim is all the time to considerably transfer past what we’ve got beforehand delivered – and we’re happy to substantiate that lively growth for the following entry within the Grand Theft Auto collection is nicely underway,” the corporate stated.
Rockstar could also be cagey about saying extra information following a number of high-profile leaks.
In September 2022, a UK-based hacker broke into the corporate’s servers and revealed virtually 100 movies of an early in-development model of the sport. A candidate for probably the most substantial pre-release online game leak ever, it confirmed the sport in a state by no means meant to be seen by the general public.
Months later, a TikTok account referred to as @i_see_in_4k shared two brief movies of the sport on Saturday, December 2.
Each clips confirmed what seemed to be the sport’s map. There was additionally a digicam panning to point out a bit of town with skyscrapers within the distance and a freeway to the aspect.
Quickly after the footage appeared on TikTok, gaming information web site GTABase reported that “it seems the ‘leaked’ footage has come from the son of a Rockstar Video games worker”.
Rockstar has not confirmed the authenticity of the leaked footage, nor has it spoken on who was behind it.
Then, in probably the most notorious leak but, the sport’s trailer was leaked on social media hours earlier than its auspicious launch date. The grainy, low-quality clip was watermarked with huge textual content that learn “Purchase BTC” concerning the cryptocurrency bitcoin.
Rockstar reacted by swiftly importing the trailer to YouTube, whereas the account behind the leak was banned from X.
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