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It was September 17th, 2013, a legendary day unlike any other. Rockstar Games had just launched their hotly anticipated title, Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA 5). The game’s launch was unlike any other at the time. Having received a Metacritic average of 97%, fans and critics alike flocked to their local game stores in droves to get a copy of Rockstar’s magnum opus (at the time). To this day, GTA 5 remains one of the greatest games of all time, due in part to its masterful storytelling, gorgeous graphics, and impressive cinematics.
In the 12 years since its release, GTA 5 stands as one of the highest-selling games of all time, at a cool 200 million copies sold. This achievement is, of course, partially attributed to the number of re-releases and ports GTA 5 has received across multiple different platforms. You can find the game on console and PC.
In the near decade and a half since GTA 5’s release, Rockstar has mostly stuck to putting out ports of older titles. This includes re-releases of older GTA titles. In fact, they’ve only put out one new game since GTA 5’s launch, that being 2019’s Red Dead Redemption 2, the sequel to 2010’s Red Dead Redemption 1. So it goes without saying that Rockstar likes to take their time with their games, and the story is no different for GTA 6.
Table of contents
GTA 6, When?
So let’s cut to the chase. GTA 6 was originally going to come out sometime this year (2025), at least according to Rockstar’s parent company, Take-Two Interactive. However, very recently, the game was hit with a massive delay. Its new scheduled release date, according to Rockstar themselves, is 26th May 2026. Be sure to mark that day on your calendar.
However, there’s a pressing issue to be discussed. When it comes to release dates for games, they’re never final. Due to the nature of game development, there are plausible chances that GTA 6 could be hit with another massive delay. But until Rockstar or Take-Two makes an announcement, we’ll just have to wait and see. With that being said, let’s explore the new details Rockstar has shared on the game.
Story
If you’ve played a Rockstar game before, you’ll know that they like to put an extra emphasis on stories. They dutifully craft complex narratives that are highly character-centric. Whether it be the tragic tale of John Marston of Red Dead Redemption 1 or the simple yet plucky underdog story of Jimmy Hopkins from Bully, Rockstar makes sure narrative comes first. In the case of GTA 6, this doesn’t seem to be any different. However, unlike GTA 5, which featured 3 main protagonists, it seems GTA 6 will be dropping one extra character to focus on two separate individuals. The first of which being:
Lucia Caminos
Lucia is set to be GTA’s first non-optional female protagonist. She was given a sizeable chunk of screentime in the game’s first trailer. From the trailers provided by Rockstar and her short biography on the website, here’s what we found out about her. Lucia is a hardened criminal who knows how to fight. Judging by the trailers, it seems she’ll start as a prisoner being freed by the game’s secondary protagonist, Jason Duval. While not much is known about her past, we do know that she has big dreams for the future and that she’ll do anything to make them a reality.
Jason Duval
Jason Duval is the game’s second protagonist. Unlike Lucia, who is shrouded in a little bit of mystery, we’ve been given some info on Jason’s past. Jason is an ex-army man who’s been trying to shake off his criminal past. Yet it seems as if he’ll start the game off as a local drug runner, shaking people down for money. At some point, he becomes associated with Lucia, and the two start a deadly romance.
Bonnie & Clyde
It’s hard to talk about the game’s two leads without mentioning the real-life inspirations that they take so much from. For those not in the know, Bonnie and Clyde were American outlaws active during the Great Depression. Not only were they well known for their criminal activities, but they’ve also gone down in legend as a deadly romance that wreaked havoc in America. Of course, Lucia and Jason seem to be no different in this regard. Going off the game’s first trailer, though, there may be some friction between Lucia and Jason that could spice up the narrative.
Satire
With the two main characters out of the way, another hallmark of the GTA franchise is its satirical nature. The games make it a point to poke fun at and mock contemporary American culture in interesting ways. In keeping with series tradition, GTA 6 seems to be no different. Aiming its sights at modern influencer culture through its host of wacky side characters and setting.
Gameplay
While we don’t have much info on the overall gameplay of GTA 6, it’s safe to assume it won’t be much different from previous outings. As always, it appears that GTA 6 will be the usual Rockstar open world. Much like previous entries, you’ll be playing as both criminals, Lucia and Jason. A majority of your time will be spent killing people, stealing cars, running from cops, or a mixture of all three. Of course, in typical GTA fashion, this will feel much larger than life, but that depends on the physics of the game itself. A majority of your playtime will most likely be spent on the story mode, where you’ll be interacting with the game’s major characters.
But what’s an open world without the setting? GTA 6 seems to be taking the franchise back to its roots, Vice City. Vice City is Miami if you added a splash of 80s synthwave all over it. The location will probably be bigger than previous entries in the franchise to match the scope of the game. Alongside Vice City, the player will also explore other locations such as Port Gellhorn and Leonida Keys.
Graphics
No big AAA game these days can be talked about without mentioning the graphics. Of course, while graphical fidelity is hard to measure in an age where the results are dwindling, we can still make educated guesses. GTA 6 will probably be based on similar technology to Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2. So expect a similar level of realism and animations to that game. It also seems to be a game that, according to the experts over at Digital Foundry, will be highly CPU demanding. This means that the game will probably feature a very interactive world with plenty of living NPCs. The cost of rendering all of this should be pretty high as well, which in turn brings us to our next point.
Platforms
As of right now, Rockstar has announced that GTA 6 will be coming to 2 platforms. Those being the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. This tells us two things. For one, the game will most likely avoid PC at launch. Rockstar has historically launched its games on console first and PC second. This could be due to optimization reasons. Or it could be due to Rockstar’s distrust of the PC modding scene. The other major console they’ll be missing out on is the Switch 2 and, obviously, the Switch 1. It’s safe to assume, due to the graphical fidelity of GTA VI, that scaling it down for the Nintendo handhelds may prove to be too much of a challenge.
The second thing we can gauge from this is the fact that GTA 6 will very likely be a super-demanding game. It’ll prove to tax the current generation consoles heavily. Hence the delay and Rockstar limiting themselves to two consoles at the current moment.
Leaks
If you would like to avoid certain gameplay spoilers, we’d advise you to skip this section of the article.
If you’ve been hanging out around the gaming sphere lately, you’ll have heard of a big event Rockstar went through. On 18th September 2022, Rockstar suffered a massive breach. They essentially had a large chunk of their dev code stolen. Amongst the files were early dev builds of GTA 6. The builds essentially confirmed what we already know, however, including the minor gameplay tidbits we’ve speculated on. So we won’t be going into them any further.
But those weren’t the only leaks to grace Rockstar. According to industry insider Jason Schrier, GTA 6 will have an ever-evolving map. Which means it’ll be expanded over time with DLC and updates. He also claims that, much like its predecessor, GTA 6 will come with a separate online component.
So, are you excited for GTA 6? Or are you anticipating another game release before it comes out? Make sure to tell us what you think. Visit Inside Tech World for more reviews, tips, and reader guides updated weekly.
FAQs
- How many trailers have come out for the game?
At the time of writing, two trailers have come out. You can find both of them on YouTube.
- Who will the voice actors be for the two main leads?
The voice actor for Lucia is Manni L. Perez. However, Jason’s VA is currently unknown.
- How much will GTA 6 cost?
There is much speculation going on about the price of GTA 6. However, the standard prices of games these days range from $60 to $80. Some people are speculating that the game will be $100.
- Will GTA V progress carry over to GTA VI?
It does not seem so, since GTA titles, despite being sequels, are usually stand-alone titles. However, progress from GTA+ may carry over if the game comes with the online component.
- What period will the games take place in?
GTA 6 seems to be taking place in modern-day America.
