It’s been nearly a decade since Grand Theft Auto 5 was released—but what will the sequel bring?
The massively popular open-world action franchise has sold over 405 million copies so far, putting it in the pantheon of the all-time best-selling game series. And that success has ignited widespread excitement over the next entry.
Leaks, rumors, and sparse announcements from developer Rockstar Games have left fans to speculate on the highly-anticipated sixth installment of the series. Here’s what we know so far about Grand Theft Auto 6.
What is Grand Theft Auto 6?
Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA 6) is the tentative title for the sixth planned core installment of the smash video game series. Its predecessor, Grand Theft Auto 5, offered players both single-player and multiplayer game modes, where gamers could do things like embark on cooperative heist missions, assassinate targets, invest in its synthetic stock market, buy businesses, rob citizens, drive cars, and more.
No official trailers, videos, or images have been released yet, and Rockstar Games has not yet shared what platforms the game will be playable on, either.
When is Grand Theft Auto 6 coming out?
Rockstar Games confirmed that the next Grand Theft Auto game was in development in February 2022.
Many of you have been asking about a new entry in the Grand Theft Auto series.
With every new project, our goal is always to significantly move beyond what we’ve previously delivered. We’re pleased to confirm that active development for the next entry in the series is underway.
— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) February 4, 2022
Last year, Bloomberg reported that GTA 6 has been in development since 2014 but does not yet have a release date yet. Sources previously told Bloomberg that as of 2022, GTA 6 was “at least two years away”—so that means that the game could be released as soon as 2024.
In an August 2023 interview with CNBC, Strauss Zelnick—CEO of Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar’s parent company—said that the studio expects “record levels of operating performance” in its 2025 fiscal year, a comment that may suggest that GTA 6 could release sometime between April 2024 and March 2025.
“We leave the announcement of upcoming titles to our labels and we have said we have a very robust pipeline of titles and we have a great outlook for fiscal 2025 where we’ve reiterated our belief that we’ll generate about $8 billion in net bookings,” Zelnick said in the interview.
Rockstar Games’ longtime VP of Writing Michael Unsworth—who worked on Grand Theft Auto 5—left the studio in August after 16 years, IGN reported Friday. It’s unclear, however, whether Unsworth simply finished working on GTA 6 before he left, or whether his departure could slow the game’s development.
What was leaked about Grand Theft Auto 6?
In September 2022, a GTAForums user named “teapottuberhacker” posted approximately 90 pieces of leaked content from Grand Theft Auto 6 to the forum. While the content has since been removed due to a copyright infringement claim, it contained numerous leaks for the upcoming game that may have been swiped from bug reports from quality assurance (QA) testers, PC Gamer reported.
The teenager behind the hack, 18-year-old Arion Kurtaj of the cybercriminal group Lasus$, was convicted in the UK in August 2023 for hacking into Rockstar Games and leaking the sensitive information.
Last year, PC Gamer reported that in one of the leaked videos, a playable Latina character named Lucia as well as a white man named Jason, robbed a waffle restaurant and took hostages.
There was also the presence of a Vice City Police Department (VCPD) vehicle, a detail that suggests Grand Theft Auto 6 may be set in Vice City, a Miami-esque locale that first appeared in 2002’s Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Leaked footage also contains a reference to the Vice City Metro—another sign that Grand Theft Auto 6 will likely be set in that region.
And because one character was seen with a smartphone, it’s likely that Grand Theft Auto 6—unlike the 1980s-set GTA Vice City—will be set in a relatively modern time period.
Other possible leaks include some wild possible experiences players could encounter, like a “satanist house,” “UFO Animal House,” “Warehouse Sex Robots,” “Big Cat Mansion,” “Drug Lab,” and more.
What’s new in Grand Theft Auto 6?
Bloomberg also reported in September 2022 that Grand Theft Auto 6 will have a female character as a playable protagonist—a first for the franchise. This is likely Lucia, with Jason being the second playable protagonist.
The game could also have an “evolving” world, meaning that Rockstar may implement seasonal changes or other continued updates to transform the game’s maps over time.
Rumors have been swirling for years that GTA 6 could offer players in-game crypto rewards, or otherwise feature cryptocurrency in some way, but these rumors currently remain unsubstantiated.
In May, Game Rant speculated that a fake cryptocurrency may not actually be deployed in GTA 6, but that the sequel may simply make crypto “the butt of many jokes.” Such an assessment aligns with Bloomberg’s perspective that GTA 5 is “a satirical depiction of America” and offers “a nihilistic parody that threw insults at everything.”
Considering that Rockstar Games banned crypto and NFTs from fan-run Grand Theft Auto 5 servers in November 2022, it’s unlikely that any real cryptocurrency like Bitcoin would make its way in Grand Theft Auto 6 via some kind of blockchain integration, let alone as a synthetic in-game currency.
However, Take-Two Interactive is working on NFT games through Zynga, which it acquired in 2022, so the company’s broader stance on crypto and NFTs remains unclear.
As Grand Theft Auto 6 rumors continue to spread, fans will have to continue to wait until Rockstar releases another statement—or the game itself. In response to a fan asking GTA 5 voice actor Ned Luke—who plays “Michael” in the game—about GTA 6, Luke had a simple response: “Gonna be worth the wait.”
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