Little is known about the duo, except that the Miami-inspired Vice City will play a part in their story, returning from the GTA game of the same name.
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While it was officially unveiled in December 2023, Rockstar experienced an unprecedented leak a year prior, with gameplay footage, story details and more making their way to the web.
Now that the trailer is out, we have a better idea of what our new leads will be getting up to. Lucia, specifically, looks to be paving the way as the first female protagonist in over two decades.
On top of this, the reveal trailer gave us some answers, but left us with a lot of questions.
Will GTA 6 be on PC? Will GTA 6 have online? Will GTA 6 be on PS4 and Xbox One? Just who is that girl in the bikini? And so many more. We aim to answer these questions.
So, let’s dive straight into everything we know about GTA 6, including when its release date could be, all the details you may have missed from the first trailer, as well as all of the latest news.
When is the GTA 6 release date? Speculation and estimate
Rockstar has confirmed that the GTA 6 release date is officially scheduled for sometime in 2025.
The release window was revealed in the first trailer. Rockstar has a history of releasing games within the latter half of the year, with October being the most common.
With that, we’d expect the game to arrive around September to October 2025. It’s worth noting that every mainline GTA has been officially delayed at least once, so that may end up pushing the game to 2026.
A financial call from Take-Two Interactive (parent company of Rockstar) is scheduled for 4th February 2024, with many fans speculating that we might hear more about a release date then. We’ll have to wait and see if this comes to pass.
Can you pre-order GTA 6?
Going off past releases, it’s likely that pre-orders won’t go live until a good six months or so out from the game, even if the likes of Amazon, GAME and such do upload placeholder pages in the meantime.
Is there a trailer for GTA 6?
Yes, the first GTA 6 trailer was officially uploaded by Rockstar on 4th December 2023. It leaked several hours earlier than it was scheduled to, meaning the developer was forced to publish ahead of time.
With Tom Petty’s Love is a Long Road playing in the background, the 90-second trailer gives us a good look at the state of Leonida, Lucia and her male partner.
Check out the trailer below:
We don’t expect another trailer until late 2024, at the earliest. It may even be 2025, depending on whether the game makes its intended release window or not.
Where will the GTA 6 map be set?
It looks like the rumours have been confirmed by the trailer: Grand Theft Auto 6 will be set in Vice City! At least, we assume that’s what the huge “VICE” sign that flashes up halfway through indicates. And the setting is very Florida. There’s even a clip of an alligator in a shop.
However, it sounds like the game could expand beyond Miami post-launch. A Bloomberg report claims: “Rockstar’s plan is now to continually update the game over time, adding new missions and cities on a regular basis.”
Punters have long suggested that the map will still be larger than both GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 and supposed GTA leaker Tez2 has noted that a recent GTA+ survey has asked select players if they’d use a fast-travel feature – which is therefore likely being considered for GTA 6.
A Rockstar statement can be read below, which was released back in 2022 as the game was heavily leaked:
“With every new project we embark on, our goal is always to significantly move beyond what we have previously delivered.”
Expect the game to be bigger and better than what you know and love in GTA 5.
Will GTA 6 story include first female protagonist?
We’re chuffed to say that these rumours are true, too! The game will feature two playable characters, one of whom is Lucia. She’s the first playable female protagonist since the first top-down two-dimensional game.
As for the story and characters in GTA 6, Bloomberg’s report covers that. The article claims that GTA 6 “will include a playable female protagonist for the first time, according to people familiar with the game”.
The report goes on to note: “The woman, who is Latina, will be one of a pair of leading characters in a story influenced by the bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde.”
Touching on how the GTA tone could be modernised by this new instalment, the report adds: “Developers are also being cautious not to ‘punch down’ by making jokes about marginalised groups.”
What platforms will GTA 6 be on?
The GTA 6 trailer has confirmed that you will be able to play the game on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, yet it remains to be seen if GTA 6 will also reach PS4 and Xbox One. After all, those previous-gen consoles could be pretty outdated by the time GTA 6 is ready in 2025.
A GTA 6 PC release date will likely happen at some point too, whether that’s at launch or a later date.
It’s fair to assume though that GTA 6 won’t come to Nintendo Switch due to its underpowered hardware. The only way we can see this being possible is via the cloud. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.
More like this
GTA 6 leaks
90 videos of what is to be believed early development footage of GTA 6 leaked in September 2022, meaning we have some idea of what the game might entail. Before being taken down, the footage seemed to confirm the new female and male protagonists, alongside showcasing some open-world gameplay.
Rockstar subsequently confirmed the validity of the leaks, and added that it is “extremely disappointed to have any details of our next game shared with you all in this way”. Despite the leak, though, Rockstar claims that its “work on the next Grand Theft Auto game will continue as planned”. The full statement can be read below:
“We recently suffered a network intrusion in which an unauthorised third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our systems, including early development footage for the next Grand Theft Auto.
“At this time, we do not anticipate any disruption to our live game services nor any long-term effect on the development of our ongoing projects,” said Rockstar.
“We are extremely disappointed to have any details of our next game shared with you all in this way. Our work on the next Grand Theft Auto game will continue as planned and we remain as committed as ever to delivering an experience to you, our players, that truly exceeds your expectations.
“We will update everyone again soon and, of course, will properly introduce you to this next game when it is ready. We want to thank everyone for their ongoing support through this situation.”
Rockstar’s woes are yet to conclude, however, as spotted by Reddit user u/Tobbelobben30 in the GTA 6 subreddit, publisher Take-Two has patented an animation system that allows for “highly dynamic and realistic animations”.
Tobbelobben30 went on to explain in layman’s terms what this means.
“Based on this patent, it seems like they’re using a clever system. They’ve built a library of small building blocks for character movements. These blocks can be combined in various ways to create a wide range of animations.”
All these “building blocks” could be combined to infer how the player and other characters should move and react.
“Think about a character in the game walking in the rain, feeling tired or getting injured. Instead of designing separate animations for each of these situations, they use these building blocks to put together the character’s movements naturally.”
Very exciting stuff, then! Red Dead Redemption 2 already has an extremely reactive animation system, and given the amount of obsessive detail that is in that game, a Rockstar release six or so years on from then should be a visual powerhouse.
Read more on Grand Theft Auto:
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