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 would like to provide an overview: What has already been leaked about GTA 6 so far and what conclusions can be drawn about the release, platforms, the release and co. from it.
Last update: 7 June 2021
New: GTA 6 will come with cryptocurrencies as a gameplay feature, according to industry insider Tom Henderson.
Be warned, however, that since this article is almost exclusively composed of unofficial information, it may sooner or later turn out to be outdated or simply wrong. Of course, we will keep our overview of the most important leaks and rumours about GTA 6 as up to date as possible.
Table of Contents
Everything we know about GTA 6 so farRelease:
What are the predictions for the release?
When it comes 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.
The well-known industry journalist Jason Schreier published a detailed report on the development of GTA 6, in which he speaks of the game being in an “early stage” at this time – however, Schreier does not provide a concrete estimate of the release of the Rockstar game.
This prognosis is supported by established Rockstar experts such as Tez2 or Yan2295, who have already convinced with their insider knowledge in the past: they also predict that GTA 6 will definitely have to wait a few more years.
However, Tez2, among others, contradicts Schreier’s report on at least 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 a certain period of time at the end of 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 a little less optimistic: Okami, for example, does not expect a release before 2025.
Hate to break it to y'all but GTA 6 is at least 4-5 years away.
I'd be shocked if we had it in our hands before 2025. https://t.co/2kZczYkhVQ
— Okami (@Okami13_) May 3, 2021
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, however, remains an open question.
Platforms: What could GTA 6 be released for?
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 that 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 will probably go empty-handed.
What about the PC? From experience, 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 delayed for up to a year.
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 dare 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.
Intelligent NPCs
A patent filed by Rockstar publisher Take-Two suggests that GTA 6 could have more intelligent and independent NPCs than previous games. Future titles from the publisher are supposed to move interactions or 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 the player’s actions 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.
Cryptocurrency as in-game payment
According to established industry expert Tom Henderson in June 2021, GTA 6 will offer cryptocurrencies as in-game payment, among other things. 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.
Just so there's no confusion, I mean in-game payments of bitcoin.
These payments will come from the more higher up characters that needs to transfer high amounts of "untraceable cash and fast".
— 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. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick already answered this question 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 that Take-Two only secured the domains gtavi.com and gtavicecityonline.com in August 2020: Above all, the latter naturally fuelled the rumours and speculations that GTA 6 would return to Vice City – more on this 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 provides a few details on the size of the game world: According to this report, Rockstar Games will at least focus on a smaller in-game world than in GTA 5 or Red Dead Redemption 2. 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, where employees suffered from performance pressure and tough 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 toned down the pressure to perform. This in turn has consequences for current and future development processes – and thus also for future 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” compared to other Rockstar titles – while being delivered after the launch.
Not in the Trump era
The clearest hint about the setting of GTA 6 came from Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser himself: After GTA 5 was set in the 2010s, Houser spoke out at the end of 2018 against not having the next Grand Theft Auto take place in the “Trump era”.
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 left Rockstar Games in February 2020, by the way. 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 resembling firearms from the 80s.
Modern setting according to industry insider
Modern setting instead of 80s? Contradicting speculation that GTA 6 would be set in the 80s, established industry insider Tom Henderson said in April 2021 that 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 is supposed to 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 is the truth about the Vice City rumours?
At this point, of course, we can’t forget the countless rumours and alleged leaks surrounding a Vice City return. Crucial to this was the infamous “Project America leak” from July 2019.
The story really 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.
No trailer – so far there are 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 be hinting at GTA 6 at least once. Because it is currently an open secret that GTA 6 is in development.
Virginia-Teaser
So, 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 to date, it was possible 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 reference to GTA 6 so far, which comes from Rockstar itself.
Hints on Vice City in the Cayo Perico Heist
In the Cayo Perico Heist itself, there are 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 light of the countless rumours and alleged leaks about a return to Vice City, however, the timing does seem a little suspicious.
El Rubio’s incompetent henchman,Gustavo is a throwback easter egg to Gonzalez in GTA Vice City. (PS- Calm down clickbaiters, it doesn’t mean anything of GTA 6, it’s just a throwback easter egg) from gtaonline
What are your expectations for GTA 6? What new features would you like to see? What old strengths should Rockstar Games draw on for the game? Let us know in the comments.
