There is not much information about GTA 6 yet, but at least some important information. We provide you with an overview.
No, GTA 6 has still not been officially announced at the moment. But thanks to numerous insider reports or (alleged) leaks, we already know one or two details about the upcoming Rockstar game.
Here we want to provide an overview: What has already been leaked about GTA 6 and what conclusions can be drawn about the release, platforms, the release and Co.
But be warned from this point on: Since this article is almost exclusively made up of unofficial information, it may turn out to be outdated or simply wrong sooner or later. Of course, we keep the overview of the most important leaks and rumours about GTA 6 as up-to-date as possible.
Everything we know about GTA 6 so far
Release: What are the predictions for the release?
With regard to the release of GTA 6, various established industry and Rockstar insiders agree: GTA 6 won’t be coming too soon and will still be a few years away.
Thus, the well-known industry journalist Jason Schreier published a detailed report on the development of GTA 6. In it, he speaks of the game being in an “early stage” at this point – however, Schreier does not provide a concrete estimate for the release of the Rockstar game.
This prognosis is supported by established Rockstar experts like Tez2 or Yan2295) who have already convinced us with their insider knowledge in the past: they also predict that GTA 6 will definitely be a few years away.
However, Tez2, among others, contradicts Schreier’s report at least in one point: While Schreier mentions an “early development stage”, according to Tez2, the game is already 50 to 60 percent advanced. However, it is quite possible that the two simply present different definitions of the development status.
Release at the end of 2023 at the earliest … In May 2021, the entertainment expert ViewerAnon spoke out. According to him, GTA 6 was internally scheduled for release at least for some time in late 2023. This would coincide with official information from the publisher Take-Two, according to which the title would be released in the financial years 2023/2024. Other insiders, however, are somewhat less optimistic: Okami, for example, does not expect a release before 2025.
… or not until 2024 to 25? By the way, this also coincides with the latest forecast by Tom Henderson The established Battlefield and Call of Duty insider speaks of GTA 6 being released in 2024 to 2025 at the earliest. A statement with which other experts like
Jason Schreier and Andy Robinson from VGC agree.
By the way: In May 2020, a financial expert’s analysis made the rounds, according to which GTA 6 could be released between April 2023 and March 2024. However, this forecast was officially denied by Rockstar publisher Take-Two. Whether GTA 6 will be released before or after this period remains open.
Reveal: Will GTA 6 be unveiled in GTA Online?
In July 2021, a job advertisement from Rockstar Games caused new speculation: According to the job offer, the developer studio is looking for a “Live Operations Coordinator”. Their tasks include the design and implementation of marketing campaigns that take place within live services – players of Call of Duty: Warzone or Fortnite know the principle.
Live events for GTA 6 in GTA Online? This has led to the speculation that GTA 6 could be teased or even unveiled in the course of in-game events of GTA Online. This is not officially confirmed at the moment, but it would make sense considering the continued success of Warzone or Fortnite.
Already happened with Cayo Perico: Furthermore, Rockstar has already ventured into comparable territory in the past: In the weeks leading up to the release of the Cayo Perico update, GTA Online’s “biggest heist yet” was teased in GTA 5’s multiplayer mode. For example, players could find washed-up corpses or other traces of the drug lord El Rubio.
Not necessarily a GTA 6 connection: Fans should note, however, that the hiring of a Live Operations Coordinator at Rockstar Games does not necessarily have anything to do with GTA 6. After all, according to insiders, the game has already been in development for years, so the new position could just as easily relate solely to the further expansion of GTA Online.
Platforms: What could GTA 6 be released on?
The further away the release of GTA 6 is, the less likely it is that the game will be released for Playstation 4 and Xbox One. At the moment, we are still in a transitional phase of console generations, in which both last-gen and current-gen are fired up. But it won’t last forever either.
So fans should expect GTA 6 to be released for Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X, while Playstation 4 and Xbox One are likely to come up empty.
What about the PC? Experience shows that video game consoles have priority over the home computer for Rockstar Games. For example, GTA 5 or Red Dead Redemption 2 were initially only released for the game consoles of their respective generation, while the PC release was up to a year away.
It cannot be ruled out that Rockstar will do something similar with GTA 6 and release the game only for Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X for the time being, while PC players will have to be patient. However, this is mere speculation based on the developer’s past patterns.
Gameplay: What does GTA 6 allegedly offer in terms of gameplay?
Male and female protagonist
According to Tom Henderson – who is actually considered a Call of Duty or Battlefield expert – Rockstar is to venture a novelty as far as the main character of GTA 6 is concerned: We are to be able to play both a male and a female character.
He did not share more concrete details on Twitter, but if this unconfirmed information is true, Rockstar could use a similar concept as in GTA 5. In that game, players slipped into the roles of the three characters Michael, Trevor and Franklin, changed roles and experienced common but also completely different adventures.
So far, female characters have been the exception rather than the rule in the GTA series, and in fact this would be an innovation that many fans would like to see in the sixth part of the series.
According to a patent filed by Rockstar publisher Take-Two, GTA 6 could have more intelligent and independent NPCs than previous games. Future titles from the publisher are supposed to move the interactions and movements of their NPCs to a server.
This would mean that titles would no longer be subject to the limitations of the corresponding hardware, resulting in more complex behaviour patterns and daily routines. A similar concept is currently being used in Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online. With this, it really only makes sense for Rockstar to take the next step for GTA 6.
City Revolution
The same patent talks about the design of in-game cities that the player can directly influence. Specifically, it is said that actions of the player have an impact on the environment.
You can imagine that, hypothetically speaking, your character in GTA 6 completes certain missions and thus ensures, for example, that a neighbourhood becomes more prosperous. A more rudimentary concept was also used in Red Dead Redemption 2.
By the way, this potential aspect for GTA 6 was elaborated on by Tom Henderson: According to the industry insider, GTA 6 should take an example from titles like Fortnite or Call of Duty: Warzone. In concrete terms, this means that the game world of GTA 6 will not only be expanded but also changed in the course of new expansions after the launch. You can read more about this in our corresponding report on the topic:
Cryptocurrency as ingame payment
According to established industry expert Tom Henderson in June 2021, GTA 6 will, among other things, offer cryptocurrencies as in-game payment. Specifically, this means that players can be paid by certain clients with currencies à la Bitcoin, if it is to happen just “quickly” and “untraceable”.
In the same breath, Tom Henderson talks about stock trading supposedly making its return in GTA 6. This would only make sense, as trading stocks and manipulating the same market was a great way to rake in millions in GTA 5’s single player. In GTA 6’s stock market, we should then also be able to trade cryptocurrencies.
If cryptocurrencies are indeed planned for GTA 6, it would definitely mean a modern present-day setting. Read more about the rumours and speculations about the setting of GTA 6 and what speaks for and against a return to the 80s below.
I heard recently that in GTA 6, some missions will reward you in bitcoin instead of cash for completing some missions.
The stock market feature will return, with the addition of a broker for different cryptocurrencies. If GTA 6 incorporates this right, it's huge for crypto.
— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) June 3, 2021
GTA Online is no competition / Vice City Online
That GTA 6 will rely on online components in some way is clear. For example, the GTA 5 multiplayer is already too popular and lucrative to date, so even originally planned single player DLCs were cut in favour of it.
With GTA 6 on the horizon, the question naturally arises as to how Rockstar will proceed with GTA Online. This question was already answered by Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick in June 2020: According to him, GTA 6 and GTA Online can always exist in parallel and would not get in each other’s way.
Of course, it is also exciting here that Take-Two only secured the domains gtavi.com and gtavicecityonline.com in August 2020: Especially the latter, of course, fueled the rumors and speculations that GTA 6 would return to Vice City – more on that below.
Map and game world: What should the open world offer?
Smaller game world than Red Dead Redemption 2
The insider report by Jason Scheier mentioned at the beginning of this article also contains a few details about the size of the game world: According to this report, Rockstar Games will be using a smaller in-game world than in GTA 5 or Red Dead Redemption 2, at least for the release of the game. After the launch, however, the game itself and the open world will be expanded in the course of several updates.
According to Schreier’s report, this decision has an important reason: Shortly before the release of Red Dead Redemption 2, controversial crunch reports about Rockstar Games made the rounds. At that time, a kind of “culture of fear” was said to have prevailed at the developer, with employees suffering from pressure to perform and bludgeoning deadlines.
Rockstar drew consequences from these reports: According to Schreier, the studio has since considerably improved its working methods for the benefit of its employees, and reduced the pressure to perform. This in turn has consequences for current and future development processes – and thus also for upcoming Rockstar games.
Schreier himself, however, appeased fans who feared a “small” GTA 6 because of this. Because GTA 6 is still supposed to be a big video game, merely “moderate” in comparison to other Rockstar titles – while being delivered after the launch.
“Not in the Trump era”
The clearest hint about GTA 6’s setting came from Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser himself: after GTA 5 was set in the 2010s, Houser spoke out against having the next Grand Theft Auto not be set in the “Trump era” in late 2018.
In an interview with GQ, Houser explained as follows:
“It’s really unclear what we would even do with it and how angry it would make people, whatever we would do. Both intense liberal progression and intense conservatism are very militant and very angry. It’s scary, but it’s also bizarre, and both sides seem to drift into the absurd on occasion. That makes it harder for satire. Some of the stuff you see these days is simply beyond satire. GTA 6 would be out of date in two minutes, that’s how fast everything changes. ”
Dan Houser, by the way, left Rockstar Games in February 2020. But that doesn’t have to mean that he hadn’t already steered GTA 6 in a certain direction in an early development phase, for example – quite the opposite.
After all, in addition to his duties as vice president, he contributed as an executive writer to stories of games like Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2, Bully, Max Payne 3 and GTA 5.
Stuntman post
Dan Houser’s statement then seemed to be backed up by an Instagram post from stuntman Tim Neff in early 2020: Neff had already worked with Rockstar several times in the past, which is why fans liked to take a closer look at his internet presence.
With the aforementioned internet post, many felt confirmed in their assumption that GTA 6 actually deals with an 80s drug cartel setting. The photo – which was quickly deleted – showed Neff in a motion-capture suit and props that resembled firearms from the 80s.
“Modern setting” according to industry insider
Modern setting instead of 80s? Contradicting the speculation that GTA 6 would be set in the 80s, established industry insider Tom Henderson said in April 2021 that according to Henderson, Grand Theft Auto 6 would be set in a “modern setting” and no longer in the past.
GTA Online as a signpost? The decisive factor could be the continuing success of GTA Online: Because a modern setting would offer more “crazy” gameplay content – as is currently the case in the multiplayer of GTA 5 – Rockstar should go in a similar direction with the next part of the main series.
It's not set in the 1980's and is modern. https://t.co/iav46Ty35V
— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) April 12, 2021
What’s the truth about the Vice-City rumours?
At this point, of course, we can’t forget the countless rumours and alleged leaks surrounding a return of Vice City. Crucial to this was the infamous “Project America leak” from July 2019.
The story took off over the course of the last few years, and as a result, one alleged leak built upon the next – while very few turned out to be remotely credible.
Where the rumours about “GTA VIce” come from, how credible they are and what fans should watch out for, we have already shed light on in our detailed analysis:
Does Dr. Dre appear in GTA 6?
Dr. Dre has already made a brief appearance in GTA Online: A cutscene for the Cayo Perico Heist, released at the end of 2020, showed the rapper paying a visit to Los Santos with his crew. Now fans suspect that Dr. Dre will not only be involved in the soundtrack of GTA 6, but could also appear in the final game.
Why fans suspect this? Rockstar secured the web domain “rapponator.com” in October 2020, which the insider (Tez2)(https://gtaforums.com/topic/972973-rapponator) pointed out in July 2021. The striking resemblance to the real website Beaterator – the music mixer of Rockstar Leeds – thus suggests that Rapponator could become an in-game feature of GTA 6. However, this has not yet been officially confirmed.
No trailer – so far there’s only mini-teasers from Rockstar
As already mentioned, there are currently no trailers or even an official announcement of GTA 6. But Rockstar Games seems to at least hint at GTA 6. Because it is currently an open secret that GTA 6 is in development.
Virginia teaser
Thus, in the course of preparing for the Cayo Perico Heist, fans have made a thoroughly exciting discovery: In the trailer for the biggest update for GTA Online so far, they were able to find coordinates that refer to the real US state of Virginia.
If you enter these coordinates on Google Maps and switch to the satellite image view, you can find a street whose shape quite clearly results in the Roman numerals VI. The most concrete hint to GTA 6 so far, which comes from Rockstar itself.
Clues to Vice City in the Cayo Perico Heist.
In the Cayo Perico Heist itself there are once again smaller Easter Eggs, but they mainly allude to Vice City and not necessarily GTA 6: A few clothes can be found that clearly allude to the 80s aesthetic of Vice City – sometimes more, sometimes less directly.
As already mentioned, this does not necessarily have to be an allusion to GTA 6. In view of the countless rumours and alleged leaks about a return to Vice City, the timing does seem a little suspicious.
