GTA 6 release date has not been announced till now, but we do have leakers and industry insiders providing us details on this upcoming title.
GTA V has enjoyed mind-blogging success ever since its arrival on the scene in 2013. One result of this was that fans started clamoring for a sequel, namely, GTA 6. Although Rockstar Games said nothing on the issue for long, they have since provided us with some information on the game.
Here is all that we know so far about GTA 6.
Is there a GTA 6?
This discussion would be pointless if there wasn’t going to be a GTA 6 in the first place. So, we would like to say that yes, GTA 6 is very much a thing. Rockstar confirmed in February this year that it was in “active development.”
They also revealed this news on Twitter. Rockstar said that they strived to make each sequel better than its prequel. They advised us to keep up with the Rockstar Newswire for more information on GTA 6.
Take-Two also issued some statements giving us hope that we will be getting more information eventually. However, some fans were disappointed as they wanted more than a mere confirmation, but for now, leaks are our only friends.
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GTA 6 Release date
Delay possibilities
AAA game releases are rarely straightforward. There are always last-minute delays, although justified given the scale of the project. So, even an official GTA 6 release date can’t be taken to be 100% accurate.
Announcement
A Kotaku Report which mentioned that GTA 6 was under development was the first we heard of this title. The report said that the game was moderately large. But even so, it will be a large game. Rockstar’s strategy is to release the title and then increase its size through updates.
Marketing budget of Take-Two for GTA 6
Take-two will spend $89 million on marketing between April 2023 and March 2024, says a report by VentureBeat. By any standard, that amount is a spike in their regular budget. The speculations of this are obvious: this is the interval in which GTA 6 will release. Industry analyst Jeff Cohen takes this stand as well.
And finally, leaks
Tom Henderson, a well-known industry data miner, says GTA 6 will not release before 2024 as Rockstar’s focus is “employee well-being,” meaning they don’t want to put their employees on a time crunch or have them working overtime.
Also, the early GTA 6 release will mean GTA V will become almost obsolete. Rockstar does not want to ruin what’s going so well.
Chris Klippel, another leaker, said that the developers won’t be telling us anything till the end of 2024, even though GTA 6 has been developed a lot already.
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GTA 6 trailer
As of now, there is no news of a GTA 6 trailer, which is odd. Usually, official announcements precede official trailers. Not in this case, it seems.
Some said that a trailer will be revealed on the 16th of May Take-Two and Rockstar live stream. However, that didn’t happen.
GTA 6 setting
At the moment, all that we know about the settings of GTA 6 comes from leaks. Here they are.
Project Americas
The biggest leak about this, a video from The Know, tells us that the code name of GTA 6 is Project Americas. It suggests that the characters will have to keep “commuting” between the US and South America. The US will be where the majority of time is spent, however.
This complements the leak that Vice City will be a setting in GTA 6. Players will be running a drug business. A deleted Reddit post also said the same. This post also told us about a possibility of an interesting aspect: the game will be set in different time periods.
Protagonist in GTA 6
The mentioned deleted Reddit post says Ricardo, a drug lord, will be the only protagonist in GTA 6. However, all this information should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Time Travel and Future Settings
Christian Today, in 2016, suggested a futuristic setting. That would mean teleportation and time travel. However, this doesn’t suit the theme of GTA games.
A Reddit post said that Rockstar had job positions related to making 3D art open. This means they are working on something already.
The counterargument is that Rockstar always has job openings so that they never run out of talent. And that’s the way things are right now.
A modern setting in GTA 6?
Henderson’s stand is that GTA 6 is set in modern times, and not in the past. Vice City, to him, is a real possibility, though it might not be as big as the rumors say.
Henderson argues that given how GTA Online is going, the developers would find it easier to incorporate GTA 6 in the online mode with a modern setting.
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GTA 6 map
The most significant leaked map image of GTA 6 was on 4chan. People are saying this could be true. These leaks lead to speculations that Colombia, Rio De Janeiro, or Everglades might be in the game.
However, some doubt the authenticity of these images. Just so you know.
Leaked GTA 6 map video
An apparent leak of a map, in the form of a video, was circulating on the internet. Someone asked Tom Henderson his thoughts on it and he replied, “wouldn’t expect any leaks like this for a couple of years.” Later, this video was discredited.
Vestawa Island
In October 2020, a supposed leak showed a blurry and clear image of an island map, supposedly belonging to GTA 6. Many, however, think of this as a fake due to its quality.
Rockstar QA Tester
A Rockstar QA Tester testifies that the claim that GTA 6 will require players to travel between Liberty City, Vice City, and maybe more places. Highways would connect these places.
The QA tester’s post was removed, but a cryptic message “GTA6LSVCLC” was left. The most obvious full form would be GTA 6 Los Santos, Vice City, and Liberty City. RealityDesign created the concept art of a map based on this.
UFO screenshot from GTA Trilogy
A painting-like image from the GTA Trilogy version of San Andreas might give us a hint of GTA 6’s location, plus a screenshot. This image was of a wall of a UFO-themed Lil’ Probe’Inn. Considering Rockstar’s fascination with UFOs, this could be an easter egg.
The location on the painting was not in GTA V, say fans. Could it be from GTA 6?
The painting is of a house near Miami, in Boca Raton. Again, a Vice City setting comes to mind.
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Vice City rumor on Instagram
Tony Mesones, soundtrack manager and music supervisor at Rockstar, posted Miami’s South Beach, the caption reading “who said it could be cold???”.
Of course, it could be a vacation pic. But given that the man works at Rockstar and tagged Rockstar in the post, we are inclined to believe something else.
London’s possibility
Co-founder of Rockstar Games, Don Houser, said in 2013, “At the moment, it feels like GTA’s DNA is contemporary-ish, American-ish, English-speaking-ish, because that’s what it has been… But that doesn’t necessarily limit it to those, that’s just what we’ve done so far.”
And this led to many speculating London as a possible location. But Houser later denied this.
Florida’s possibility
A post on the GTA 6 subreddit said a scout from Rockstar Games wanted to take pictures of the local business. A letter asking for permission from a Florida store for this was circulated on Reddit.
People were skeptical of this until a photo of the official document was posted on the internet. At the bottom “Leah’s IMDb” could be seen.
It turns out, in a podcast named “Film Florida Podcast,” Leah says this about their work in Florida: As you are aware we’ve had changes of types of productions that are coming to our state. So, I’ve also been very fortunate to get a large client that has hired me to arrange flight tours and visits. It’s a general media company and I’ve signed an NDA so I can’t disclose who it is, but they’ve been exploring various cities in our state and other states in the southeast and I’ve been planning and arranging those visits for their personnel.
Fans like to think this leak is real.
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GTA 6 Story leak
Someone on Reddit claimed to have extensive information on the storyline of GTA 6. The post was rather long. It stated that the main characters are three: Ricardo, Kacey, and Rose. Here’s what the post says.
Ricardo
A Cuban drug smuggler in Vice City, Ricardo works for a Hispanic company. He will kill the husband of Rose and a police caption eventually. He gets a price on his head due to this. So he goes underground, making him unplayable for that time interval.
Kacey
A minor criminal in Carcer City, Kacey is in his early 20s. He works with gangs and other criminals. Afterward, he makes his gang, takes down the rival gang, and becomes the king of Broker. But he gets caught by the police soon. This is the second act.
The third act goes back to the start of the game in Vice City, where Ricardo and Kacey hijack a prison bus. They have some hatred between them, but eventually, they become a duo.
Rose
Rose is in love with Ricardo, while working at the police station. She is actually on Ricardo and Kacey’s side, secretly helping them. And she also leads an investigation against them. Rose’s missions mainly have the players going after criminals, like serial killers.
The post said that the map size was that of GTA V and RDR2 combined. Also, there will be golfing, gambling, tennis, and such activities.
Even though this leak is detailed, it did invoke a skeptical response from the community. However, we can’t dismiss this entirely out of hand.
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Other GTA 6 leaks
This section deals with leaks about screenshots, game engines, etc.
Rage is what Rockstar tends to use. Due to this, files of other games can be found on some other games. In late 2019, someone came across some files called MISC AMERICAS SCRIPT STATS in RDR2 files. The name later changed to MISC SCRIPT STATS.
This name becomes interesting when the code name Project Americas is recalled. There were also scripts on guns, skydiving, and parachuting.
Plotline of GTA 6
Here’s how the previous leak sheds light on the development of GTA 6. A self-claimed insider has put forth the statement that the plotline of the title has been completed before Dan Houser left the company. The next in the GTA franchise will retain the “soul” of a Rockstar game is what Chri’Liberty93 from Rockstar Mag said in a post.
This would mean that GTA 6 will be releasing a lot sooner than when most suggest. But Chris is adamant about the opposite motion. Even RDR2’s story was completed in 2012, he cites as an example. And yet, before its launch in 2017 and 2018, many details were added.
Things speeding up
Chris Klippel, a French journalist, said about GTA 6, “an important step in the development of GTA 6 has been reached.” Things should speed up now, he says, and an official announcement at the end of 2022 is a possibility. But he still believes the game won’t be released before the end of 2024.
RAGE9 Game Engine
The engine Rockstar’s using, says Klippel, is “ahead of its time.” People responded positively to this argument, as Rockstar’s games always have great graphics.
According to Chris, RAGE6 would outperform Unreal Engine.
Got to keep things fresh, says Take-Two CEO
“You always have to be willing to be fresh. You always have to be willing to bring consumers what they want. The minute you try to protect the past, you become irrelevant,” said Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two’s CEO.
Zelnick said that the next title in the GTA franchise going to be great and it will outperform the previous titles.
GTA 6 on old-gen consoles?
The short answer to the above question is no, GTA 6 won’t be on old-gen consoles. This game is going to surpass every other in performance. That wouldn’t be possible except on next-gen or current-gen consoles.
AccNGT, a renowned leaker, said only GTA 6 will be released on current-gen consoles. Rockstar will go for quality over quantity. So this move makes sense.
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GTA 6 Development problems
About #GTAVI #GTA6- Some people don’t realize how chaotic the development is.- I really think there will be a disappointment for many people for some aspects (ofc not the graphic side).- If the game is announced this year / early 2022, we can really be worried.
This is what AccNGT tweeted in December 2021. If AccNGT is saying Rockstar’s having development problems, then it could mean that Rockstar was going through something at the time. And he said that if this game gets announced in early 2022, then we are in trouble. And since that did happen, we are in trouble.
Will there be more delays? Only time will tell.
GTA 6 is less edgy?
Co-founder of Rockstar, Jamie King, in an interview with Killaz, a YouTuber, said future games won’t be as funny or edgy as previous ones.
These are his further words: And if it’s maybe not quite as edgy or quite as funny. I just think maybe there’s more opportunity for them to do something cheesy cause they never do. Maybe not. There’s a beautiful machine there that you’d have to try real hard to f**k up.
I just look at the success of GTA V and GTA Online and Red Dead Redemption 2, and I think that they’re just going to be fine, period. But I think culturally, internally, both up at Rockstar North and at Rockstar New York, missing Leslie Benzies and Dan Houser, yeah, there’s a difference, for sure.
VFX job listing
The job listing on the official Rockstar site for next-gen VFX makes it look like GTA 6 will be out of this world. The description said the employee would “help bring extra life to the environment, characters, weapons, vehicles and more.” Ambient effects for insects and rain dripping off buildings were to be used. Also, buildings tumbling to the ground was another effect.
The description said “our technology is used to tie the world together” and “weapons create bullet impacts, vehicles kick up dirt and smoke and leave debris when they crash, objects get dirty when they fall in the mud.”
The candidate has to “develop assets optimized for current and next-gen consoles.” Rockstar’s leaving no stone unturned.
Female protagonist in GTA 6?
Tom Henderson said that there will be multiple playable characters in GTA 6 and there will be a female one too. She will be the “bright one,” having expertise in hacking and technology. It will be interesting to see this development.
GTA Online Map
Henderson revealed in an already mentioned leak that every time players download GTA 6 DLC, the map of the game would also change, much like Fortnite. But it is wise to take this with a pinch of salt.
Cryptocurrency in GTA 6
Henderson claimed that cryptocurrency will be a form of reward in GTA 6. He said that it will be like a stock market “with the addition of a broken for different cryptocurrencies.” Also, GTA 6 will focus more on the darker side of this currency.
“I’m not joking. This is what I heard from someone that I trust,” is what Henderson said.
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Rumors of Florida and Cuba
Tim McDowell on The Medium said that this game will be set in Cuba and Florida, and claimed to have screenshots from 4Chan.
A fan, however, proved these images to be photoshopped.
Single-play gameplay
Zelnick, in an earnings call (Q3 2021) said, “The folks at Rockstar Games intended to create a powerful single-player experience a story-driven experience. And Rockstar has always been known for great stories and great single-player experiences and then developed in addition, a massive multiplayer opportunity over the past years.”
Virtual Reality in GTA 6
A LinkedIn post tells us that Video Games Deluxe is “gearing up for a new project,” following their work on La Noire VR. And fans have inevitably conjectured that this “project” might be GTA 6.
But the chances of this are small right now. However, this “project” might likely be GTA V. But if this proves to be wrong, then who knows? We might see a GTA 6 in VR soon.
New AI for NPCs
In October 2022, Take-Two filed a patent that will copyright a “system and method for virtual navigation in a gaming environment.” The official guys at Take-Two want to remove the limitations that the current technology imposes on NPCs. Limitations that supposedly this new patented AI will surpass. It deals with how NPCs talk with the environment.
This new AI for NPCs will allow for a more dynamic model. So with elements like speed limits, accidents, traversing objects, and the usual stuff in GTA games, the NPCs’ reaction to them will be more enterprising. Also, the patent talked about driving skills like braking times, top speed, and such.
But don’t take this information as 100% true. This is Take-Two we are talking about, not Rockstar itself.
Renewal of domains
In August 2020, a Reddit post informed us of the renewal of the domain names gtavicecityonline and gtavi by Take-Two. Before you get ahead of yourself, it is important to keep in mind that it is a common tactic among companies to purchase domains that resemble their games to redirect users toward their websites. Or they just want to not let other people use them.
Houser no longer works at Rockstar
Dan Houser was the head writer, producer, and voice actor at Rockstar. We were told that he was on extended leave since the spring of 2019. But then Take-Two gave us the shocker and said that he had left Rockstar Games on March 11, 2020. That left his brother Sam as the president. What this means for GTA 6 will be discussed in the next leak.
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Relationship between GTA Online and GTA 6
The common man would assume that if a company had a title that was super popular among fans, they’d not care to release the next in the franchise. In the present scenario, the first title would be GTA Online and the sequel, GTA 6.
GTA Online has been massively famous on all types of consoles, be it old, current, or next-gen. But here’s the pickle. Straus Zelnick was asked in an interview at the Bernstein Annual Strategic Decisions Conference what their stance would be in such a scenario. Here is Zelnick’s reply: Any time you look at a business and you take the position, ‘This is great, it’s the gift that keeps on giving. I’m just going to stick with it and I’m not going to worry about innovating because everyone loves what we have,’ you are just moments away from being destroyed by your competitors.
Zelnick continued, “I am not remotely worried about being in a position that we have a great line of live services and a new release and that there’s somehow maybe some internal competition. That to me is the definition of a high-class problem.”
What we can say from this is that GTA 6 was very much the focus of Rockstar Games all along the way notwithstanding GTA Online.
CJ returning with GTA 6?
The answer to the above question is an unequivocal no. CJ’s voice actor, Chris Bellard, said that he and GTA 6 aren’t in any relationship on Instagram.
What after GTA 6?
Dualshockers posted an article that hinted at GTA 6 being the last title in the franchise, to which claim Henderson agreed, saying that the combination of GTA Online’s fame and an evolving map could mean a single-minded focus on the former after GTA 6.
GTA 6 to feature flashbacks and Red Dead Redemption-style dialogues
A leak from Pastebin tells us that commuting between cities would be possible in GTA 6 and that flashbacks between missions are a real possibility. Plus, you can also use the Red Dead Redemption format of greet/antagonize. Hypothetically, that is. Also, the leak claim that this title won’t be available for PS4 or Xbox One. That’s no shocker for us at this point, right?
The yellow crop duster over Miami
Reddit saw an image rise in popularity in July 2021. This image had a crop duster sailing over Miami with a minimap at a corner of the screen. Now, people thought it would have been from Crew 2 or Microsoft Flight Simulator. But as of yet, no one has been able to pinpoint this location in either of these games. Score one for the leak.
However, the minimap is the same that was leaked as the RDR2 map much before its launch. The idea behind putting this minimap in the image could’ve been to convey to RDR2 users the insincerity of the leak. So strike one for the leak.
Cities: Skylines image leak in GTA 6
A sunshine-filled image grasped the Reddit community as being from GTA 6. But soon we got to know that this image was just the latest in a really long line of fake leaks and was from the game “Cities: Skylines.”
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Soundtrack in GTA 6
A leak concerning GTA’s soundtrack surfaced on Twitter from the account @NEWSLEAKGTAS recently. Short audio was sent to whoever handles that account which had the protagonist utter something with John Mayer’s Last Train Home in the background. If this is true, then the nostalgic vibes while playing this game will be extra strong. GTA’s choice in music has always been Country, R&B, Alternative Indie, and Soft Rock.
There is also the sound of planes flying on the city’s skyline. This led to the mildly far-fetched speculation, at least in terms of its source, that the map will be a huge one. But who knows if this leak is sincere?
Return of Niko Bellic and Michael De Santa is possible?
Redditor “GTA_VI_Leak” said that Niko “The Serb” Bellic was never caught and might return in GTA 6 as a small reference of him made its way in GTA V. This Redditor is known for some accurate leaks in the past.
The voice actor of Michael De Santa, Ned Luke, might also be involved with GTA 6, so continues this leak. Luke is currently working with Rockstar Games. The pretext is that he has a role in GTA Online. But maybe there’s more than meets the eye. Could De Santa return in GTA 6?
And on that note, we have covered everything till now about GTA 6 that has wormed its way onto the internet. The leaks won’t stop, friend. We will just have to find a way to sift through the fake ones and get to the real deal.
We will update you with the new information, so keep following Gamevro.
