We’re all set to head back to Vice City in the upcoming GTA VI after over a decade of waiting for the next instalment in the GTA franchise. Although GTA V came out in 2013, its renowned success makes the anticipation of GTA VI that much more intense, and its delays are nothing more than a little bump in the road. The fact that GTA V still sells over five million copies every three months and has generated around $7.7 billion in revenue means that there’s ample potential for GTA VI to completely break the scales. With the advanced quality of the updated Rockstar Advanced Game Engine and new standards in physics and NPC behaviour thanks to AI developments, the next GTA experience will be like no other.
The Release Date
Grand Theft Auto 6 is set to be released in Fall 2025 on PS5 and Xbox Series X and S, and PC sometime later. However, we could be looking at more delays.
In 2023, British teenager Arion Kurtaj went on a hacking spree and consequently leaked dozens of clips from GTA VI. From the leak, fans saw big changes coming to the casino, battle royale mode for online play, and an unofficial game map reveal. Like with no-deposit casinos on casinos.com, gamers can gamble with their in-game money and enjoy an equally engaging, risk-free virtual experience. The ramifications for Rockstar Games were dire – staff had to put in thousands of hours of effort, and it cost the company $5 million to recover. The increased pressure and curiosity from the public also meant that they needed to start releasing official trailers and information, which unexpectedly accelerated plans.
Rockstar released its announcement on Twitter (now rebranded as X) on December 1, 2023, and the first official GTA VI trailer was released on December 4, 2023. It made YouTube history for being the most-viewed trailer launch on the platform and broke a Guinness World Record for being the most-viewed video game reveal on YouTube, garnering over 93 million views in 24 hours.
Setting and Map
Although most people believe that GTA 6 is going to take place solely in Vice City, the game actually has an expansive setting in the broader state of Leonida, which includes Vice City.
While Vice City represents Miami, Leonida is expected to represent a fictional version of Florida. Rockstar has boldly stated that we can expect the “biggest, most immersive evolution of the Grand Theft Auto series yet.” What captivated many people in the trailer was the inclusion of a variety of real-life viral meme events in Florida and other states, like the alligator in the pool, a Florida man doing yard work in the nude, the notorious dine-and-dash car accident, and the arrest of the Miami Joker.
Storyline and Characters
The official trailer introduces us to one of the protagonists, Lucia. It’s clear that she’s been in some sort of trouble with the law, given that she’s in an orange jumpsuit in her first appearance. We’re then presented with incredible scenes of the world and high-quality NPCs before we see a couple of scenes of Lucia with a mysterious male character. One of those scenes features them in a car and Lucia holding a wad of cash. In another, they’re walking through a bodega with bandanas covering their faces. Then, we see them in a hotel room talking about trust, and finally, we get a brief scene of them conducting an armed robbery. Their initial bond and interactions lead us to speculate a Bonnie and Clyde-inspired relationship.
If Lucia and our unnamed male protagonist are the sole main characters, we could expect a tighter and more engaging storyline without the fragmentation we had in GTA 5 with Franklin, Michael, and Trevor.
Gameplay and Graphics
As we suspect the world will be possibly double the size of GTA 5’s Los Santos, we can expect potentially more varied and robust gameplay. There are also rumours about a dynamic map changing based on DLCs and an evolving map that changes with every update in GTA Online mode. Rockstar has also kept a lot of the gameplay favourites from past instalments – but with enhancements. Movement mechanics include crouching, crawling, and face covering, while vehicle operation now features the ability to change wheel positioning and chair angles.
From the leaks, players will also get the opportunity to take the Metro to travel across the city.
Most of the trailer shows off the environment – nightlife scenes, highways, stretches of ocean, natural land, skyscrapers, beach condos, cars doing donuts, and people in their beachwear – and these scenes show us just how photorealistic and detailed the scenery and character models are going to be. Rockstar’s plan is clearly to use realistic mechanics like they did in Red Dead Redemption 2.
As GTA 5 was developed in a lot less time – three years to be exact – it’s not outlandish for fans to gear up for a one-of-a-kind, otherworldly open-world experience with the new GTA. Even if we have to wait a few additional weeks (or months) for a highly polished product, it looks like Rockstar Games will do whatever it takes to make the game worth the wait. As famed Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto once said, “A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.” So, although YouTube’s The Slow Mo Guys commented below the trailer saying, “At this rate I’ve got about 3 GTAs left in my lifetime,” it only means we can safely expect true quality.
