After years of craving from followers, intense hypothesis, rumors, unthinkably huge information breaches, and even an FBI Investigation, co-founder and President of Rockstar Video games Sam Houser posted on the studio weblog and Twitter account on November eighth that the “first trailer for the subsequent Grand Theft Auto” might be launched in early December.
We’re very excited to let you realize that in early December, we’ll launch the primary trailer for the subsequent Grand Theft Auto. We stay up for many extra years of sharing these experiences with all of you.
Thanks,Sam Houser
— Rockstar Video games (@RockstarGames) November 8, 2023
In just some hours, the tweet had practically 100 million views, virtually 5 hundred thousand retweets, and over a million likes. All for an announcement of an announcement.
However how did hype for the subsequent entry within the vaunted sequence attain such a fever pitch? Let’s check out all the things we learn about Grand Theft Auto 6.
The Earliest Reviews
Whereas we didn’t get any concrete particulars about GTA 6 till a report from Kotaku in 2020, there have been murmurings about GTA 6 for over a decade – earlier than GTA 5 was even launched. Between hypothetical feedback from the newly-departed former president of Rockstar North, Leslie Benzies, in interviews with Digital Traits in 2012, and a TechRadar report in 2016 claiming that GTA 6 was in improvement, there’s been a quiet simmering of GTA 6 rumors within the background ever for the reason that launch of Grand Theft Auto V.
That simmering become a sluggish boil when co-founder of Rockstar Video games and brother to Sam, Dan Houser, spoke in regards to the issue of satirizing the then-present day, stranger-than-fiction panorama: “[It’s] actually unclear what we’d even do with [Grand Theft Auto 6], not to mention how upset individuals would get with no matter we did.”
Dan Houser’s (most likely very sincere) deflections apart, with the abundance of rumors and insider studies, it’s secure to imagine some model of GTA 6 was all the time in no less than pre-production at Rockstar for the reason that launch of Grand Theft Auto V. However we first heard reliably that GTA 6 was in improvement from a 2020 Kotaku report, revealed just a few brief months after the departure of Dan Houser from the studio.
Whereas this report was primarily targeted on Rockstar’s office tradition, it talked about that the subsequent GTA recreation was “early in improvement,” one thing confirmed to IGN by an nameless supply near Rockstar Video games. The report additionally talked about a doable lower in scope to assist alleviate crunch, with bigger title and map updates to be launched at a future date.
Whereas just a few extra leaks and rumors would come up within the subsequent two years, it wasn’t till February 2022 that Rockstar despatched out a press launch asserting that improvement on the subsequent GTA recreation was “nicely underway.” A decade’s price of smoke had lastly led to a really actual fireplace, and we had official affirmation from the studio.
First Particulars – The ‘Huge’ Report
Fortunately, the worst a part of the wait appeared to be over as extra information about Grand Theft Auto 6 began to drop fairly shortly quickly after. Our first concrete particulars of the sequel from outdoors of Rockstar had been reported by Bloomberg in July 2022, 5 months after Rockstar’s official announcement.
This report appeared to substantiate the altered scope of GTA 6, claiming that the sport would begin with one metropolis, Miami, with extra to be added later. However it additionally talked about that map dimension could also be traded for density, as this new entry contained extra indoor areas than any GTA recreation beforehand.
The opposite huge element within the report was about its duo protagonists, a pair of financial institution robbers likened to Bonnie and Clyde. Not a lot was talked about in regards to the male protagonist, however the feminine was stated to be Latina. If true, this is able to be the primary feminine protagonist in a GTA recreation for the reason that very first Grand Theft Auto, and the primary feminine protagonist in a completely 3D GTA recreation created within the fashion we all know at this time.
A lot of the Bloomberg report, just like the Kotaku one earlier than it, targeted on the adjustments in office construction that Rockstar had undergone since Pink Lifeless Redemption 2. A crackdown on crunch and the male-dominated office tradition appeared to be paying actual dividends for studio well being, however some had been pissed off with the dearth of progress the sport was making as a result of addition of additional producers and bottlenecks within the workflow, resulting in many workers members departing the studio, and casting doubt on the assumed 2024 launch window.
Nonetheless, it appeared GTA 6 was certainly nicely on its strategy to completion, barring any disaster.
Disaster – The Leak
On Sunday, September 18th and two months after the Bloomberg report, a large leak blew the event means of Grand Theft Auto 6 vast open. GTAForums consumer “teapotuberhacker” dropped 90 items of footage from the nonetheless unfinished undertaking, together with uncooked property and even recreation code. These leaks coated all the things from fight to enemy behaviors and even absolutely voiced conversations. And whereas lots of the leaked supplies have been scrubbed from the web to one of the best of Take-Two Interactive’s means, the leaks confirmed the sooner studies of the female and male protagonists, and the sport’s setting, Miami.
Rockstar themselves confirmed the hack’s legitimacy in a tweet the subsequent day, claiming that they might “correctly introduce… this subsequent recreation when it’s prepared.” The FBI even received concerned, as the identical hacking group appeared to be tied to the Uber, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Samsung hacks.
In July 2023 a youngster was arrested along with a number of of those excessive profile hacks, together with Rockstar’s. However the injury to Rockstar had been finished, as a lot of what was within the Bloomberg report earlier that yr had been seemingly confirmed.
A Message from Rockstar Video games pic.twitter.com/T4Wztu8RW8
— Rockstar Video games (@RockstarGames) September 19, 2022
Further info from the leak included particulars in regards to the advances in lighting, much like the tech developed for Pink Lifeless 2, new programs like Cash Laundering and Robberies (which will surely match with the Bonnie and Clyde theme), and tiny particulars like raccoons going by means of your rubbish. However all of those had been leaks of a recreation nonetheless distant from its closing launch, so all or none of it might be included within the closing product.
GTA On-line 2?
However what of GTA 6’s multiplayer? GTA On-line has turn out to be its personal entity separate from GTA 5, and continues to be going robust 10 years on. Rockstar’s guardian firm, Take-Two, filed a patent in 2021 that focuses on NPC habits and particularly mentions “digital navigation and administration of objects in a multiplayer community gaming group.” So this might have huge implications for the way forward for multiplayer GTA. However the patent’s particulars additionally point out Xbox One and PS4 consoles, so this might have been simply one thing they had been implementing all through their work on GTA On-line.
Regardless, whether or not it’s an evolution of GTA On-line, a brand new iteration of it, or a extra built-in dovetail with GTA 6, the net part of GTA stays an unlimited doable money cow and one which Rockstar isn’t more likely to ignore. It’s doable that with the addition of latest cities and missions, as is rumored, extra on-line parts will make their manner into the standard single-player marketing campaign.
GTA 6 Launch Date and Platforms
Again in 2021, Tom Henderson reported rumors of a probable 2024 or 2025 launch date, a window that was then corroborated by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, and VGC’s Andy Robinson on Twitter. Loads can change in two to a few years of improvement, however in Might of this yr, Take-Two Interactive shared their projections for its fiscal yr 2025, a interval working from April of 2024 to March 2025. In these projections had been some really staggering numbers:
“In Fiscal 2025, we anticipate to enter this new period by launching a number of groundbreaking titles that we consider will set new requirements in our trade and allow us to attain over $8 billion in Web Bookings and over $1 billion in Adjusted Unrestricted Working Money Circulate.”
IGN’s personal Rebekah Valentine reported on the press launch, saying that the previous fiscal yr for Take-Two “reached $5.3 Billion – a document annual excessive… so to attain $8 billion Take-Two would want to make vital acquisitions, or launch practically double the quantity of video games it traditionally has, or launch no less than one absolute behemoth of a recreation.”
Given all of the earlier info, and Rockstar’s current trailer announcement, it appears we are able to lastly anticipate Grand Theft Auto 6 to launch someday subsequent yr, if not quickly after. So far as platforms are involved, it’s exhausting to think about that as bold as GTA video games often are, and as far into the PS5 and Xbox Sequence era we’re, that we’ll see GTA 6 on the PS4 and Xbox One. However we’ll very seemingly finally have a PC model, even when it’s a staggered launch with the console variations as they did with GTA V.
We’re Lastly Getting GTA 6
It’s been an extended highway, however our first have a look at Grand Theft Auto 6 is sort of right here. We’ve been by means of each form of information story conceivable, to studio restructuring, insane leaks, the departure of long-time studio heads, to even FBI Involvement within the investigation of cybercrime. And the craziest factor is that Rockstar hasn’t even referred to as it GTA 6 but. Solely “the subsequent Grand Theft Auto.” So they may actually be cooking up something!
However all these detours result in the identical place: the reveal trailer of what’s sure to be one of many greatest video games of all time in early December.
