It feels like only yesterday that Rockstar Games was releasing its critically-acclaimed Red Dead Redemption 2, letting us loose into a massive frontier world of bandits and shoot-outs. It surely can’t have been that long beforehand when it set loose the insanely successful Grand Theft Auto 5, can it?
Well, it very much can, actually. GTA 5 may have since been re-released to lengthen its lifespan, but it originally came out in 2013. A lot has changed since then, and with a new generation of consoles finally released, comprised of the PS5 and Xbox Series X and S, and we now know for sure that another game in Rockstar’s most famous franchise could be on its way.
We’ve gathered everything we know about Grand Theft Auto 6 right here for your delectation – let’s get down to it.
GTA 6 release date not confirmed
Starting with possible release dates, it’s worth giving you a bit of background. While GTA 5 was released in 2013, Rockstar couldn’t immediately turn its full attention to developing a sequel. It apparently did start work on GTA 6 in 2014, but meanwhile had the small matter of Red Dead Redemption 2 Games to make, let alone the PC, PS4 and Xbox One versions of GTA 5, and the PC and Google Stadia versions of Red Dead Redemption 2.
All of those take work but are now out of the way, and Rockstar has finally broken cover to announce that it is indeed working on GTA 6, and that while it hasn’t got anything to share right now, more news will come in due course
It’s great to know what we all suspected, then – there Games will be a sixth GTA game, and it’s already in full development. Just don’t get your hopes raised too high that it’ll appear soon. At the end of May 2022 French journalist Chris Klippel said that Rockstar had a reveal for a mystery project planned soon, so it’s possible this is pointing toward GTA 6 getting a trailer at some point.
GTA 6 platforms that you can download for free
Probably the other key detail contained in that first big leak around GTA 6 concerned the platforms it’s likely to release on. Obviously, GTA 5 came out toward the tail end of a console generation, releasing on the PS3 and Xbox 360, then being re-released with better performance and graphics on the next set of consoles.
Apparently, that pattern won’t be repeated with GTA 6, though. The leak suggests that the game will be exclusive to the Playstation 5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and S.
Given that those consoles will have been out for at Games least a couple of years upon release, that’s entirely credible.
However, given that Red Dead Redemption 2 took a lot less time to come to PC players than GTA 5 did years ago, it would be slightly surprising if GTA 6 doesn’t also make its way to PC within a year of release.
GTA 6 gameplay
Waiting for details on a new GTA game generally involves one major area of speculation – where will it be set? While characters and storylines are just as subject to interesting details, there’s something about GTA’s setting that feels like the most pivotal choice Rockstar has to make. Whether it’s Liberty City, Los Santos or another metropolitan area, the playground in which players will run riot is a big question mark hanging over the game.
At the moment this is where speculation is focused, with GTA Online players at one point becoming convinced that GTA 6 will take place in Vice City, GTA 3’s much-loved, neon-soaked alternative version of Miami. The reasoning behind this? GTA Online’s racing DLC, Open Wheels, has a race circuit that looks suspiciously like the outline of a map that would include Miami, as well as a chunk of Mexico. The outline does look fairly clear, as you can see in the image below, but obviously Rockstar is keeping its own counsel at this stage.
GTA 6 story
The main story of each GTA game so far has involved criminality, as a rule, but the exact flavour is always up for change. A crucial bit of information when it comes to GTA 6’s narrative is that Rockstar’s co-founder, Dan Houser, left the studio in March 2020.
That means that one of the studio’s key tastemakers and writers has departed, someone who, together with his brother Sam, has shaped the franchise’s tone from the very beginning.
Now, on the one hand, given the likely timing of the game, there’s a good chance that Dan Houser was able to have solid input and impact on the script and story before his departure. On the other, if he was on his way out it’s very possible that he wasn’t nearly so involved. That means we could be in for a change of voice for GTA 6, something that was indicated by reports that the story was rebooted after Houser Games left, which surfaced in November 2021.
