It has been ten years since GTA 5 hit the market and changed video games as we know it. However, even after a decade, no sequel is in sight. This is the biggest gap that the Grand Theft Auto franchise has ever taken between launching two significant titles. But if we believe the GTA 6 leaks and hints, the delay in the game’s release should be well worth the wait. The latest entry to the GTA franchise will feature a vast but familiar map, genuinely unique protagonists, and much more. So, let’s stop beating around the bush and unfold everything we know about Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA 6) so far.
GTA 6 Release Date: When is GTA 6 Coming Out?
Rockstar Games, the developer of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, first confirmed that the “next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series is well underway” in February 2022 via an official Newswire post. This post was made to announce community updates around GTA V but ended with a subtle note about the franchise’s future.
Then, later in June 2022, Rockstar Games shared an official statement stating they’re investing all their resources towards the development of GTA VI. It definitely reflects the developers’ seriousness towards the GTA franchise. This announcement puts their other projects like the GTA 4 and Red Dead Redemption remaster on hold until further notice.
Unfortunately, neither of these dedication-filled announcements gets us close to a release date. Instead, we have to thank Chris Klippel, a famous GTA leaker, for additional information about the GTA 6 launch date. According to Klippel, GTA 6 won’t release before the last months of 2024. He is not directly affiliated with Rockstar but has made reliable GTA 5 leaks in the past.
Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier also supported this release window in a separate Twitter thread. Keeping the speculations and lack of official announcements in mind, we believe that GTA 6 will be released in late 2024 or early 2025.
As per a leak citing Per Tez2, a reliable source of information when it comes to Rockstar Games titles, believes that the reveal might occur during the GTA 5 10-year anniversary. This certainly does not confirm anything, but both of these dates are worth keeping an eye on. You can read our in-depth analysis of the updated GTA 6 release date article to get a new realistic estimate of its launch.
On May 17, 2023, Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games will hold its financial earnings call and there’s a possibility it might drop hints about what’s next for the GTA franchise.
Will Grand Theft Auto 6 be Delayed?
Much like any other AAA video game title’s development, GTA 6 has several elements affecting its progress and release. Among them, the major one was the COVID-19 pandemic, which halted the entire world, and the internal conflicts at Rockstar Games made them rethink their company policies and re-shuffle their team.
Even though most sources point toward a late 2024 launch, there is a potential problem. A massive data breach hit Rockstar Games on the 18th of September, 2022. This breach led to a GTA 6 leak with 90+ gameplay videos and pieces of the game’s source code becoming available to the public. Due to the same, it was expected that the game’s release date could be heavily pushed back by months or even years.
Thankfully, Rockstar Games soon after confirmed that while they are disappointed by the leak, their “work on the next Grand Theft Auto Game will continue as planned.”
Though, many players also suspect that Rockstar Games is trying to milk the success and popularity of GTA 5 (and its online title) before bringing out its successor. And looking at the huge revenue of GTA 5, it isn’t surprising that the studio isn’t ready to shelf its best product just yet. But here’s hoping GTA 6 comes out even before our expectations.
GTA 6: Characters (Dynamic Duo)
If we look at Rockstar’s history, we have sixteen games in the GTA franchise. Only two of these titles, the first two GTA games, had playable female characters. Men have entirely dominated every other iteration of the game.
However, as it appears, GTA 6 will reportedly have a female protagonist named Lucia. She will be joined by a closely related male lead called Jason. This makes Lucia the first playable female character in GTA’s history. This also means that Grand Theft Auto will have two main characters that will likely progress through the story together.
A report by Bloomberg on Rockstar’s changing company culture further claims that this playable female character is a Latina. The couple will be possibly stylized in Bonnie and Clyde’s image. For those unaware, B&C was an American criminal couple notorious for their bank robberies. For this reason, the characters will most likely work in tandem for the storyline and might even have a shared inventory.
This claim has been backed up the GTA 6 leaked gameplay footage of September 2022 wherein we saw both female and male characters. Other leaked clips show gameplay from both character perspective hinting towards a switching system that will likely be even faster than GTA 5.
While there are no official images of Lucia by Rockstar, that hasn’t stopped fans from coming up with some. Character artist Hossein Diba compiled leaked GTA 6 gameplay and generated 3D renders of what he thinks the character will look like. The output images are lifelike and could in fact indicate Lucia as she will appear.
Given the sphere of changes Rockstar Games is making to its work culture by including more female representation, you can consider the above characters leaked almost confirmed.
GTA 6: Story/Plotline
While we have a lot to go on in terms of GTA 6 characters, the story itself mostly remains a history. The protagonist duo is supposed to be related in some way. We already know that the duo will most likely be stylized after Bonnie and Clyde.
However, it has been revealed by Tom Henderson, a game leaker with a reliable record that GTA 6 will take place in modern-day Vice City. This is partially confirmed as some leaked gameplay footage showed Jason entering a Vice City metro train. It could also back up some rumors that claimed that Lucia and Jason will supposedly build a drug empire together in Vice City. However, besides this, we don’t have a lot to go on at the moment.
According to a recent news piece by GameRant, GTA 6’s main story might be fully written at this point signaling that the game is ready to be moved on to the next phase. The publication bases its theory on new job listings by Rockstar for a full-time Grand Theft Auto 6 voiceover director for voicing and capture. However, we will have to wait and see for more information on GTA 6’s storyline.
GTA 6: Gameplay and Graphics
Talking about the gameplay mechanics of GTA 6 is hard at this point because of the lack of official announcements. So while Rockstar hasn’t provided any trailers, we do have some insights from the previously leaked gameplay footage.
Movement, Driving, and new items
For starters, movement and driving mechanics seem to have been worked on. Various characters including the protagonists now move with more fluency and have a natural gait. This is an improvement from GTA 5 where movement sometimes felt downright clunky. In the same vein, the leaked gameplay also shows better hand-to-hand combat when it comes to throwing punches and dodging. Gunplay also seems to have gotten better from the clips we have seen.
Rockstar has also worked on introducing new gameplay mechanics like the ability to carry bodies. Characters can now also crawl and go prone instead of plain crouching. We also see new items like painkillers, lockpicks, USB drives, and more. However, some things have been adopted from previous iterations including the GTA V weapon wheel that slows down time during selection.
Revamped Police
More recent leaked footage by a now-suspended leaker account also shows modified AI behavior in GTA 6 police. A now-deleted minute video showed a Vice City officer hiding while trying to approach Lucia. He then stands up and walks when near a safe distance. It appears the enemy AI in GTA 6 is going to be smarter and apparently more hostile toward Lucia and Jason.
GTA 6 police might also use a new spawn mechanic where the AI waits for a timed countdown before approaching the crime scene. Combining the movement and combat changes above, it should be a notable improvement.
Weapons and Inventory
Based on the latest speculations and leaks, we expect the following weapons to be available to use in GTA 6:
- Limited weapon storage with one slot for each type of weapon is a feature GTA 6 might have. Though, some missions like heist-based ones can feature additional storage for looted items.
- Following the trend of previous games, we expect most GTA 5 weapons to make a return in GTA 6. But, as per users with access to the leaked videos, there might also be some new weapons in the game, including a torch, speargun, golf ball, tracker jammer, pool cue, and specialized golf sticks.
- Some social media users also claim that the leaked footage featured the ability to shoot while swimming. It is a new feature for the franchise. However, like Modern Warfare 2, it might limit itself to pistols only.
New Game Engine
Every video game’s story is highly impacted by the capability of the engine used to develop that game. A game engine is the base platform on which the game’s world loads, functions, and interacts with the player. Keeping that in mind, Chris Klippel, the leaker who gave us GTA 6’s release timeline, has claimed that Grand Theft Auto is being developed using the new Rage engine.
This new engine is more potent than its counterpart, which powers GTA 5 and RDR2. If this claim is valid, then we can not only expect jaw-dropping graphics but also more elaborate missions. With powerful platforms and a smarter game engine, GTA 6 can give us more than the “go and kill” missions currently dominating the franchise.
Will GTA 6 Have Multiplayer Online Mode?
If the current GTA Online multiplayer (based on GTA V) game’s massive success is any indication, then GTA 6 Online is definitely going to happen. But we don’t just have to rely on speculations. Several new listings on Rockstar Games’ job openings website have also mentioned “online” gameplay in their descriptions. This key detail indicates the development of potential GTA 6’s online multiplayer content. Though it could also mean new content for GTA 5 Online, which is highly unlikely keeping their current team in mind.
GTA 6 Map: Going Back to Vice City?
Examining all the GTA games to date, we have 2 full-scale games based in Los Santos, several different titles in Liberty City, and only one major title in Vice City. Based on leaked gameplay and past patterns, it won’t be surprising to see GTA 6’s story play out in the iconic Vice City (map depicted above). The said rumor also fits Bloomberg’s report, which describes the location of GTA 6 to be based in Miami and its neighboring areas.
Possible Gator Keys Appearance
Many users shared the leaked footage pointing toward locations like Malibu Club and Ocean’s View Hotel making a nostalgic return with GTA Vice City. If that comes true, it won’t be surprising to see locations like Starfish Island might also make a comeback.
However, this time around Rockstar games might well push beyond Vice City and onto neighboring areas. One such location is “Gator Keys”, a location near Vice City. While it was scheduled to be included in the older GTA, Gator Keys got cut in final development. However, this time around we just might see it for the first time. This also means that GTA 6’s map will most likely be a mixture of different environments and if we get lucky, even seasons.
Furthermore, there have also been leaks of various other maps. One such case is this GTA 6 concept map that features a lot of details. Check it out.
GTA 6 Will Have a Massive Map
There are no official renders of the GTA 6’s map. However, Reddit users have been hard at work. Using coordinates from GTA 5 and combining the leaked ones from GTA 6, Reddit’s mapping community has created a rendition of what the new game’s map will look like. As you can see yourself, the new map is supposedly going to be absolutely massive and considerably larger than the size of GTA V.
I lined up the GTA V coordinates with the GTA VI coordinates found in the leak
by u/ChurchofGTA in GTA6
The proposed map features Los Santos amid the area which is supposed to house Vice City. However, going from the size and scale of the map, players might need to do some serious driving/flying to get to different areas. However, do note that the above map will most likely change depending on what Rockstar decides. Nonetheless, it’s going to be a serious upgrade.
GTA 6 September 2022 Leak
Note: We sourced all the information in this section from social media posts circulating all the major GTA 6 information of the September 2022 data leak. We don’t have access to the leaked material, so please take all the speculated features with a pinch of salt, and respect the developers to not download and reshare the leaked material. The entire team of Times Catalog highly condemns the situation.
- The leaked clips, supposedly, feature references to Vice City. There are cop cars with VCPD (Vice City Police Department) on them, and a clip also showed a metro train with Vice City written on its side.
- Rockstar Games’ RDR2 has a feature called “eagle eye”, which allows a player to see all the interactable spots in a specific location. A similar feature might make it into GTA 6 to support its highly interactive world and make it easier for players to spot cues and items.
- GTA 5 featured a useable mobile phone and internet system. Now, as per leaks, GTA 6 seems to be expanding on that, as some Twitter users mention seeing a WhatUp! Messenger notification in the leaked footage. If that turns out to be true, we might see chat-based communication between characters or online players.
- In terms of movement, the leaked footage, supposedly, features crawling animations, along with existing crouching and the ability to take cover. Of these, only the ability to go prone and crawl is completely new.
- Lastly, many Twitter users also pointed out better character movement in new GTA 6 leaks. They claimed that the NPC movement in GTA 6 feels more natural, just like it was in GTA 4. Though, we are unsure if GTA 6 is bringing back GTA 4’s physics engine or has developed an entirely new one.
GTA 6 Supported Platforms
The gaming industry has changed drastically within the decade-long gap between GTA 6 and GTA 5. Going by the company’s previous pattern, we expect the GTA VI to have an initial release on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. This means that older-gen consoles like the PS4 just might not get the game. So yes, there’s a good chance that GTA VI will be exclusive to PS5 and not be available for PS4 users.
Moreover, like GTA 5, Rockstar will most likely port the game to PC users. However, that might mean that GTA 6 will reach PC users only in late 2025 or early 2026. For context, GTA 5 was released on consoles in 2013 and on PC in 2015. In any case, it’s less than the time it took Marvel’s Spider-Man to release on PC.
However, Rockstar just might pull an unprecedented move and release the game on all next-gen platforms at once. This would definitely make all GTA 6 fans happy.
