Key Summary
- Title: Grand Theft Auto VI (more commonly known as “GTA 6”)
- Series: Grand Theft Auto
- Developer: Various Rockstar studios
- Publisher: Rockstar Games
- Platforms: PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X (confirmed), Microsoft Windows (TBC)
- Engine: RAGE 9
- Genre: Action-adventure
- Release Date: 2025 (PS5 and Xbox Series X versions)
- Location: Vice City
Introduction to GTA 6
After spending nearly a decade in the mean streets of Grand Theft Auto 5, fans have their eyes set on the sequel. GTA 6 has, after years of radio silence, speculation, and plenty of leaks, finally been officially revealed by Rockstar Games with a release date of some time in 2025 (PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X only).
The next game in the franchise will take place in Vice City and the larger state of Leonida. But while the trailer confirmed many details regarding GTA 6, Rockstar still left plenty of room for speculation. Of course, being that this is GTA 6 we’re talking about, it was always bound to be subject to rumors and hoaxes.
Technically, GTA 6 was sort of ‘confirmed’ way back in 2013, the release year of GTA 5. In an interview, Leslie Benzies (president of Rockstar North at the time) indicated that the team already had ideas for the next game. While situations change – like Benzies departing from Rockstar – we know that the company went ahead with the continuation of the franchise.
In this GTA 6 overview, we’ll look at everything we know, everything we think we know, and all the rumors worth noting. Until any greater volume of official news regarding the franchise’s future is publicized, this will be your one-stop resource for anything GTA 6-related.
Fans have been thinking and talking about GTA 6 for many years now, as hype around the game has been building practically since GTA 5 launched. You could call that jumping the gun, but that’s what passionate fans will get you – as a result, anyone trying to look into the subject needs to sort through *checks notes* almost a decade of speculation, hoaxes, threads, posts, articles, captions and more to find out what they want to know.
Something important to keep in mind as you look through even our own reporting of the legitimate, or most legitimate-looking GTA 6 information, is that both in AAA development generally, and specifically with a project that has this long a development cycle, even leaks or details that may have been true at some point could have precisely zero footprint in the final product, whenever it launches; simply put, plans change. Even official sources sometimes put out info that ends up being different from what we eventually get – remember how Rockstar once announced story DLC for GTA 5?
There is a lot to be excited about regarding GTA 6, but even if something is “confirmed”, remember to keep that excitement in check – we still have a long way to go.
Timeline
We’re tracking every major GTA 6 development here, with the newest details on top.
- 2023/12/04 – Rockstar released the official trailer for GTA 6 nearly a day ahead of its scheduled reveal following an earlier leak. Rockstar confirmed that GTA 6 will be set in Vice City and will take place across a larger state named “Leonida.” It will feature two protagonists, Lucia and Jason, with a release date on PS5 and Xbox Series S/X set for 2025.
- 2022/11/24 – In its response to the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) concerning the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, Microsoft stated that it believes GTA 6 will be released in the year 2024. This is the clearest indication of a GTA 6 release date that we have received from any major gaming company.
Take-Two Interactive which publishes Grand Theft Auto V, remains many years after its release in 2013, and Red Dead Redemption 2. The highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI is expected to be released in 2024. 92 Both games are considered by major digital storefronts, such as Steam, to have shooter elements. Grand Theft Auto V is also available on PlayStation, whereas Red Dead Redemption is also available on PlayStation and Stadia.
- 2022/09/18 – In the biggest and first properly verified and proven leak countless videos from a test build of GTA 6 are posted online, both to Twitter and YouTube by the same hacker who claimed to have compromised ride-share company Uber not long before. These videos showed gameplay of a preliminary, work-in-progress build of the game that are far from finished. In an unprecedented and surprising move, Rockstar Games went on to officially acknowledge the leak, stating that the videos being posted online was the result of a breach. Since the leaked footage was not acquired by accident or negligence on Rockstar’s part, and rather by way of theft, sharing it became much riskier for outlets considering the company’s litigious history. In any case, what gets out online once can never truly be deleted, and the fandom will be feeling the repercussions of this leak for a long time yet. For more details on what exactly we learned, read on.
- 2022/06/20 – In an exclusive piece containing information from renowned leaker Matheusvictorbr, Xfire covered a number of alleged details about GTA 6, including news about the story and map as well as potential release window.
- 2022/05/29 – Motion matching technology possibly confirmed for GTA 6, as seen in the LinkedIn profiles of developers. Now that the project isn’t a secret anymore, employees are sharing more technical details about the game in their portfolios.
- 2022/04/13 – Possible first look at GTA 6 ever. An image file found in Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy: The Definitive Edition sparked rumors about actually being a screenshot easter egg depicting an in-game location from GTA 6, which subsequent data mining has seemingly confirmed, much as these things can be at this point. Generally it has been accepted as the first screenshot of GTA 6 to ever go public.
- 2022/02/04 – For the first time ever, Rockstar Games officially confirms that the ‘next game in the series’ is in development. In fact, the reveal worded the situation as the development being ‘well under way’. Rockstar stated that more official news about GTA 6, or whatever the game will be called, will be shared as soon as the developers are ready to do so. This is the starting point of essentially a new era in the game’s history – the moment from which its existence is official fact.
- 2021/11/21 – A clue is thought to have been found in The Definitive Edition – in GTA: San Andreas’ remaster, you can visit Lil’ Probe’Inn to find a bunch of in-game photographs which all share a UFO somewhere in the frame. Every single such photograph comes from a GTA game, except for one – players assumed that this odd-one out does indeed come from a GTA title, but an unreleased one. After a bit of community detective work, players lined up the house from the photo to one found in Miami in real life, which seemingly further cements the Vice City theory.
- 2021/10/26 – Blurred license plates in the trailer for Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition lead fans to believe that the remastered games are hiding some kind of easter eggs or obscure hints related to GTA 6 – the theory assumes that the “61SAL890” license plate rumor was true, and the devs are trying to make these harder to spot.
- 2021/10/22 – Rockstar Games post a new job listing looking for a 3D designer to work on a major project for Rockstar North, expected to be GTA 6. The text of the job posting refers to specific features, most interestingly destructible buildings.
- 2021/09/28 – A new leak from a source with no previous track record as an insider erroneously predicts that GTA 6 would be announced in November 2021, would include hurricanes, alligators and a much larger map. Fans at the time already dismissed it as fake, and true enough, November passed without an announcement.
- 2021/09/16 – Fans believe that Rockstar Games planted a GTA 6 hint in the first trailer of the Expanded and Enhanced port of GTA 5. An in-game license plate reading “61SAL890” was interpreted as “GTA 6 is a late 90’s” in allusion to the setting and era.
- 2021/09/06 – The AEW Dynamite event sees another instance of GTA 6 “protestors” asking for confirmation with signs.
- 2021/08/30 – The first, but not last case of fans demanding GTA 6 news in real life. A group showed up at a game show clamoring for official word about the title in Germany.
- 2021/07/05 – Tom Henderson releases a video detailing leaked information about GTA 6’s setting, release date and more which contradicts previous leaks, but due to Henderson’s reputation has more legitimacy. This is further reinforced by a confirmation from Jason Schreier and Video Game Chronicle indicating Henderson’s information is correct. This is essentially the first credible leak in the history of GTA 6.
- 2021/05/21 – A new set of leaks allege that the eventual GTA 6 announcement will happen as a GTA Online in-game event.
- 2021/05/04 – After a longer period of silence a leaker alleges that GTA 6 is still years from launch.
- 2021/02/08 – The largest and most credible-looking GTA 6 leak happens when someone claiming to be a developer but remaining anonymous posted a huge info dump of details about both GTA 6 and the Xbox Series X/S & PS5 native port of GTA 5. This leak contains in-depth information about the setting, story, characters and game mechanics of the game, and while it seems the most legitimate there are some points of contention.
- 2021/01/06 – Fans believe an easter egg hidden in the GTA Online DLC “The Cayo Perico Heist” is a deliberate hint towards the setting of GTA 6 being Vice City.
- 2021/01/04 – An alleged insider report claimed that an in-development sequel to Bully was cancelled to transfer development resources to GTA 6.
- 2020/06/08 – Take-Two officials confirm that the continued success of GTA Online won’t affect the release of GTA 6.
- 2020/05/29 – Take-Two addresses an SEC filing, clarifying that it is unrelated to GTA 6.
- 2020/05/26 – Huge SEC expenditure filing from Take-Two indicates GTA 6 may launch in 2023.
- 2020/04/16 – Kotaku report reveals that GTA 6 is well under development, and sized moderately to prevent crunch like during the development of GTA 5.
- 2020/03/01 – Rockstar website updated with new art, which fans thought may be related to GTA 6. It isn’t.
- 2020/02/03 – GTA 6’s protagonist has possibly been present in the franchise since GTA 4, with very subtle teases present in that title, its expansions, and GTA 5.
Release Date
Update #1: An SEC filing has given analysts credible clues to suggest that the most likely release date for GTA 6 will be sometime in fiscal 2024, more specifically in the second half of 2023. Click here for details.
Update #2: With the announcement of GTA 5 hitting the next-gen consoles in 2021, we probably shouldn’t expect any official news on the next installment until after that.
Update #3: A brief rumor about a major marketing budget SEC filing for the fiscal period between April 2023 and March 2024 had fans suspecting that is the launch window that Take-Two Interactive is aiming for with the game, since such spending spikes have, in the past, correlated with a major AAA release. However, an official statement denying this was issued soon after.
Update #4: The latest, somewhat credible looking leaks suggest that GTA 6 is still years away from release, countering many of the earlier rumors. With the upcoming release of the Expanded and Enhanced version of GTA 5 on Xbox Series X/S and PS5, it makes sense that Rockstar Games will focus on that for a while yet.
Update #5: With the release of the GTA 6 trailer, we also have official confirmation of the release date of GTA 6: some time in 2025.
After years without any official news on a release window, players finally have an official confirmation. GTA 6 is expected to release on current consoles, meaning the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, in 2025.
We’ve seen Rockstar tackle console generations in various ways recently. GTA 5 was released right at the end of the 7th gen, launching on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It then got ported to the previous-gen systems (PS4 / Xbox One) when they were released and eventually to PC. This allowed the developers to spread their product across the widest range of platforms possible. However, the game didn’t ultimately capitalize on the new hardware of the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One.
The current generation of consoles may not quite be “new” anymore – though, for many players, they still are due to production pipeline and stock issues in the early years – we’re hoping GTA 6’s release isn’t delayed to be so far away that it would launch at the very end of it, like its predecessor, only to see ports to the next-gen.
GTA Online shows no sign of slowing down, with player numbers and revenue increasing month over month despite its age. In January 2019, GTA 5 was still one of the best-selling games and even outsold the newer, but also highly popular, Red Dead Redemption 2. If the game continues to perform that well, Take-Two won’t feel a pressing need to rush a new installment out the door. GTA 5 was re-released on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S as Expanded and Enhanced, lengthening once again the title’s lifespan.
In April 2019, a former Rockstar employee briefly listed Grand Theft Auto VI in their online portfolio, indicating work on the unannounced game between December 2017 and April 2018. This would indicate that the game may have been in development since late 2017. It has likely been in the works for longer, but an average five-year development cycle paired with this info makes the later predictions of 2021 and 2022 more likely.
Trailers
Grand Theft Auto 6 received its first official trailer in December 2023, followed by the reveal of its protagonists, timeline, setting, and release window. Rockstar is known for its secrecy, though, so don’t expect any more Grand Theft Auto 6 media soon.
Location
Update #1: The most famously cited major leak from a source that claims to be a developer seemingly confirms that Vice City is indeed the setting of GTA 6. Easter eggs discovered in GTA Online lend further legitimacy to this claim.
Update #2: As further leaks gained publicity over the months, with some coming from well known reputable sources, it seems that Vice City being the setting of the game is just about the only commonality, which is a good sign for fans hoping it comes true.
Update #3: Rockstar finally confirmed that GTA 6 will be set in Vice City, a fictional city based on Miami City.
For years, a popular theory was that GTA 6 will return to Vice City just like GTA 6 returned to locations seen in San Andreas. Rockstar put all the speculation to rest with the game’s first official trailer.
One of the more legitimate-looking reports coming from The Know also indicates that while Vice City will be the main location of the game, with additional locations found in South America. The latter sections will make up a smaller part of the game but will still be significant due to a drug-running storyline. As a result, the game is reportedly being developed under the codename Project Americas and will retain the 80s setting of the original.
Given how large the state of Leonida is, it’s possible that players will visit other cities within the game, especially if Rockstar plans on releasing DLCs and expansions.
Over the years, different sources of varying legitimacy have named different locations. Previously, other options include the entire USA, portions of the USA including multiple cities, Tokyo, a return to London, or a futuristic sci-fi metropolis. We’ll have to wait and see if Rockstar has more in store for GTA 6.
Protagonist and Characters
Update #1: GTA theorycrafters are tireless, and a very plausible and well-researched idea regarding the protagonist of GTA VI made the rounds recently. The most interesting part of this theory is that the next playable character will be someone we already heard of in-game.
Update #2: An alleged former employee, without any proof, of course, took to Reddit and “revealed” that among the main characters of the game are Walther Wallace, a smuggler called Thomas Branigan with a custom plane called The Raven, and Marcus Burke. Take this with a mountain of salt.
Update #3: The previously mentioned alleged developer claims that the game will have one main protagonist, but players will take control of said protagonist’s father during flashback scenes, as the storyline will span multiple timelines.
Update #4: In the major leak which was the result of a data breach, gameplay footage of GTA VI implied that the game would feature two protagonists – a brother and sister. This footage was preliminary and a work-in-progress, so despite its legitimacy changes may still occur during development.
Update #5: The official GTA 6 trailer confirmed that the game will have two protagonists, with the female lead appearing to have a more prominent role.
GTA 5 introduced an iconic three protagonist system allowing players to switch between Michael, Franklin, and Trevor. Most games don’t feature this dynamic, and while it was executed well in GTA 5, it has the potential to backfire by diluting content and disrupting focus. With Red Dead Redemption 2, Rockstar returned to the standard single-protagonist system.
That said, rumors about this particular aspect have been swirling for a long time. The whole single protagonist vs. multiple protagonists debate has fans incensed. The most prevalent rumor, though lacking any sort of proof, indicates that the game will feature a female protagonist for the first time.
Another rumor indicates that the multiple protagonist system will return, but this time with just two characters instead of three, with one female and one male lead. Voice actors have also been rumored, with Eva Mendez and Ryan Gosling reported most often.
In December 2023, Rockstar confirmed that GTA 6 will indeed have two protagonists: lovers who appear to be running from the law.
The trailer doesn’t dispel previous rumors that one of the protagonists is a criminal while the other is an undercover cop or a former cop. Nevertheless, players are expected to control both at different points in the story. Rumors suggest that the two protagonists will oppose one another at some point. This aspect is more believable and would give the game an interesting spin.
Similarly unreliable as of now, the possibility of a custom protagonist cropped up. GTA Online already allows us to customize our own playable character since the multiplayer mode’s narrative is more free-form than the story mode. It is possible that an even more in-depth, almost RPG-like character creator may be introduced in GTA 6.
Virtual Reality
Throughout the past few years, virtual reality has proven that it is more than just a fad or a gimmick and is a new feature that is here to stay. Its popularity has spread, and many AAA games are embracing it, like DOOM, The Elder Scrolls, EVE Online, and more. Rockstar has done so as well, having released a VR spin-off for L.A. Noire.
While neither GTA 5 nor Red Dead Redemption 2 support VR natively, GTA 5 has had several VR mods developed for it, allowing you to enjoy the game with a greater sense of immersion. You just need to have an appropriate headset and enough technical know-how to set everything up. RDR2 might do something similar, via mods, in the future too.
Rumors indicating native VR support for Grand Theft Auto 6 sprung up after Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick spoke out in favor of the feature, even though he was initially skeptical of it. This new platform would allow players to become even more invested in the game’s open world and pay more attention to the finer details the developers have filled it with.
Boxart
Of course, no official boxart for Grand Theft Auto VI exists yet. That said, given the popularity of the GTA franchise and its fans’ dedication to it, several mock-ups are floating around the internet. We’ve collected some of the best for you below.
GTA 6 Facts
Concrete things we know about GTA 6 are few and far between, and most of the info we have is deduced from hints and related events. This is where we’ll collect all the tidbits and smaller trivia that doesn’t fit into the bigger categories fans are interested in, like trailers or release dates.
- Lazlow won’t be making an appearance – or at least not in the usual sense. Lazlow Jones isn’t just a fictional DJ living and performing in the world of GTA, but a real-life person who worked for Rockstar Games as a writer and producer for almost two decades. Jones has recently left the company and is unlikely to reprise his role.
- It has been in development for a long time. While the exact date when the project began cooking is unknown, various sources and forgetful former employees leaving the project on their portfolios have revealed that Rockstar has been working on the game for several years already. Some estimates place pre-production as having begun as early as 2012.
- Without a shadow of a doubt, the game will launch for PS5 and Xbox Series X.
- It will be a smaller release in order to make development more manageable, and to avoid crunch for the employees. If we were to make a guess, this means that the next title won’t bring its own multiplayer mode to the table since GTA Online is hugely popular and going standalone as of the next-gen launch. GTA Online will continue as its own entity separate from the mainline series. Thus adding a multiplayer mode to GTA 6 would lead to one product competing against the other.
- CJ, fan-favorite protagonist from San Andreas, probably isn’t making a cameo or any other appearance. His voice actor, Chris Bellard, posted a rather angry Tweet driving the point home that he’s done with the franchise and insulted Rockstar Games in the same sentence. We probably won’t ever know what went down in the background, but maybe that’s best.
- The voice actor of Cris Fromage, head of the Epsilon cult, is hoping to reprise his role in GTA 6 but is not currently involved with the project.
- GTA 6 will be released on PS5 and Xbox Series S/X in 2025 with a PC port coming later.
- GTA 6 will not be released on either the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.
