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GTA 6 ‘worth waiting for’ says Take-Two CEO as release date nears
The latest instalment in the ‘Grand Theft Auto’ series takes us back to Vice City
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Your support makes all the difference.Fans have been eagerly awaiting the release of GTA 6 for years. In late 2023, Rockstar Games unveiled the highly anticipated first trailer for the upcoming title but it has remained relatively quiet ever since. Fortunately, the wait may soon be over, with the developer gearing up to launch the game this autumn.
On 16 May 2024, Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Take-Two Interactive (Rockstar Games’s parent company), narrowed down the release window during an earnings call: “We do feel highly confident that we’ll deliver [GTA 6] in fall of 2025,” Zelnick said.
While fans are speculating that GTA 6 could be pushed back to 2026 after Zelnick told YouTuber Connor Mather the game will be “worth waiting for”, many are still trying to decipher clues about when the next GTA 6 trailer will drop.
The first trailer was released more than a year ago, coinciding with Rockstar Games’s 25th anniversary. At the time, it broke several viewership records on YouTube, and ironically now holds the record for the longest wait time between the first and second trailers for a Rockstar game.
So, what do we know about GTA 6? When could the game be released? And how much could it cost? We’ve got all the details about the upcoming instalment in the franchise...
‘GTA 6’ release date and trailer: When could the game launch?
While a firm release date has not yet been announced, the first-look trailer in December 2023 gave fans a release window – at the end of the 90-second teaser, when the titles flash up on the screen, underneath in bold white letters are the words “Coming 2025”.
Since the launch of the trailer, the 2025 release date has been removed from marketing materials but on 16 May 2024, Take-Two Interactive’s CEO Strauss Zelnick reaffirmed that GTA 6 will be released in 2025, and stated the company is confident of an autumn 2025 release window.
Could there still be delays, though? It’s worth looking at the release schedule for Rockstar’s most recent game, Red Dead Redemption 2, for more release date clues. Red Dead Redemption 2’s first teaser trailer was released in October 2016, and the company said the game would be released in the second half of 2017.
It was then pushed back twice, first to early 2018, before finally being given an official release date of 26 October 2018 – two years after the teaser trailer dropped. If the next Grand Theft Auto game follows the same release strategy and accounts for delays, the latest we could see the game launch is in 2026.
In March 2024, rumours began to swirl about a delay to the GTA 6 release date. A report published by Kotaku revealed insiders at Rockstar believed the game would be pushed back to late 2025 or even early 2026.
In February 2024, Rockstar mandated that its workers return to the office five days a week. Kotaku says that while security and quality were reportedly the main reasons, the publication was told by its sources that development on GTA 6 had started “falling behind,” with its sources stating the leadership at Rockstar was nervous about the game missing its 2025 window.
Kotaku added: “While early 2025 was at one point possible, it’s no longer the target for Grand Theft Auto VI’s launch”. That became apparent when Strauss revealed in May last year that the new target for GTA 6 is autumn 2025.
In December 2024, Zelnick stoked anticipation further when Mather asked him to sum up GTA 6 in a few words. He replied: “I think it’ll be extraordinary and worth waiting for,” later adding, “I think it’ll be breathtaking”.
‘GTA 6’ location: Where is Vice City?
In September 2022, a hacker leaked 90 videos and screenshots of GTA 6. The footage and screenshots were described as early development, but it all but confirmed the game would be taking place in Vice City. This was then officially confirmed in the first-look trailer.
Vice City is heavily based on the coastal city of Miami. In the trailer, we see news packages and road signs featuring location names, suggesting the Vice City map is going to be significantly bigger than the original 2002 game. Reddit users have already been mocking up maps of Vice City, based on the leak.
The trailer gives us confirmation Leonida is the state that Vice City is based in, with one social media post stating: “Only in Leonida is a crotch grab an apology for bad driving.” Other road signs read VCI Airport, Catalan Boulevard, Kelly County, Vice Beaches and Port VC/Keys.
‘GTA 6’ story and characters: Who will be the main protagonists in the new game?
Like GTA V, the latest title will feature more than one protagonist. A 2022 leak introduced us to GTA 6’s new protagonists, with much of the footage showing a Latin American woman called Lucia and an unnamed man, reportedly called Jason.
The latest game is rumoured to be based on the real-life criminals Bonnie and Clyde, according to someone familiar with the game’s development. We got a better look at Lucia in the first-look trailer. In the opening shot, she’s seen wearing a prison uniform talking to, we assume, a parole officer.
New York actor Gregory Connors is reported to be playing Jason in GTA 6. Though the casting hasn’t been officially confirmed, Connors listed a ‘lead’ role in a 2025 Rockstar game in a recent CV update. The speculation follows days after Troy Baker, the renowned videogame voice actor best known for his lead roles in The Last of Us and Uncharted, confirmed he wasn’t playing any of the main protagonists in GTA 6.
GTA V was the first in the series to introduce three playable protagonists – Michael, Trevor and Franklin – and the upcoming game is expected to follow a similar pattern, with players able to swap between characters in between missions.
How much is ‘GTA 6’ going to cost?
It’s not often you see discourse online about the price of a game years before its release, but with leakers and insiders suggesting the game has a budget of $1bn to $2bn, fans are speculating the game could be more expensive as a result. The leading rumour suggests the game will cost $150 (£120).
We think this is highly unlikely, however. Most AAA games start from about £69.99, with deluxe editions costing up to £100. We wouldn’t expect this to change, even if the budget was in the $1bn ballpark.
What console will ‘GTA 6’ be on and is ‘GTA 6’ cross-platform?
Right now, the only confirmed GTA 6 platforms are the PS5 and the Xbox Series X.
The question is: will it run 4K and 60fps on the PS5 Pro? Right now, the experts aren’t convinced. In September 2024, IGN asked Richard Leadbetter of Digital Foundry if the PS5 Pro could run GTA 6 at 60fps, the answer is a resounding no.
“No. Grand Theft Auto games have always run complex simulations that push the CPU hard, which is why every GTA game has initially launched on their target platforms at 30fps (or lower). The PS5 Pro uses the same CPU as the PS5 and it would be extremely challenging to hit 60fps if the base PS5 version is targeting 30fps,” Leadbetter explained.
What about the Xbox One and PS4? Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X will be five years old by the time GTA 6 is released, so, it’s not a certainty that the older consoles will be supported. Rockstar hasn’t confirmed whether the game will be available on the PC, and has not outlined whether it will support cross-platform play either.
Best ‘GTA’ deal
PlayStation 5 Slim with ‘GTA 5’: Was £499.99, now £488, Very.co.uk
While there are currently no deals on the standalone PS5 Slim console, if you buy the console from Very, the retailer will throw in a copy of the PS5 version of GTA 5 for just £10, saving you £10.
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