GTA 6 news, rumours, leaks and everything else

Where is GTA 6? Arguably, one of the biggest questions on the web. What exactly will Rockstar's next Grand Theft Auto look like? When will the game be released? What will it look like? How about a trailer? Or even some gameplay? These are the important questions that we are here to answer. 

After nine long years, Rockstar officially confirmed the existence of GTA 6 in February 2022, sending millions into a frenzy of excitement that it's actually happening. No speculation. No rumours. No what-ifs. Just that the next entry in the GTA series is in "active development" and is "well underway". 

Originally launched in September 2013, Grand Theft Auto V has gone on to become one of the best-selling games of all time at over 155 million copies sold. Incredibly, it's also the most profitable entertainment product of all time, so we all knew GTA 6 was going to happen at some point. Every week new information, rumours and potential leaks make their way to the web, meaning there's always plenty to discuss – and hey, we've even had official word now, so that's something. 

Anyway, that's exactly what we're here to do. Anytime GTA 6 trends on social media, we'll find the answer. Anytime someone on Reddit appears to have found out something crucial about the game, we'll break it down. Anytime a YouTuber shares 30 seconds worth of information in a three-hour podcast, we'll investigate. And, finally, when Rockstar does decide to pull back the curtain and reveal everything about GTA 6, we'll have all the details right here. Let's dive in. 

GTA 6 – what is it

What GTA 6 actually comprises is still very much shrouded in secrecy. Some rumours point to a multi-city map, some say it could be an evolving map like Fortnite and many say it will be closer to Vice City. The honest answer is: we just don't know... well to an extent. 

What we do know is that GTA 6 exists – like, really exists. Rockstar Games made the announcement in a blog post on February 4th, 2022 at long last confirming it's real. 

"With the unprecedented longevity of GTA V, we know many of you have been asking us about a new entry in the Grand Theft Auto series," wrote Rockstar in a message.

"With every new project we embark on, our goal is always to significantly move beyond what we have previously delivered — and we are pleased to confirm that active development for the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series is well underway. We look forward to sharing more as soon as we are ready, so please stay tuned to the Rockstar Newswire for official details. On behalf of our entire team, we thank you all for your support and cannot wait to step into the future with you!"

In July 2022, it was then further confirmed (via another blog post) that development on Red Dead Redemption II is now coming to an end as resources are directed more towards GTA 6. Rockstar also noted how it understands "more than ever the need to exceed players’ expectations and for this next entry to be the best it can possibly be."

And then in July 2022, a Bloomberg report claimed that GTA 6 – codenamed Project Americas – will feature a female lead protagonist for the first time in its history. This juicy bit of news states that the woman (who will be of Latino heritage) will be one of two leading characters in a story that takes influence from the famous US bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde. 

Following a major Rockstar leak in September 2022, it seems as if the report was correct with one male and one female protagonist spotted as being playable. Furthermore, the city looks to be taking inspiration from Miami so the idea of it being set in Vice City looks more probable than ever. 

GTA 6 – release date 

Now that GTA 6 has officially been announced, we can look at Rockstar's history to start to give us a good indication of when the game could be released. 

Breaking it down to the core mainline Grand Theft Auto games, we can see a distinct pattern for release dates later in the year, most commonly October. The anomaly here is GTA IV, however, the game was originally scheduled to launch on October 16 before being delayed very late on.

• Grand Theft Auto – October 21, 1997
• Grand Theft Auto 2 – October 22, 1999
• Grand Theft Auto III – October 22, 2001
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – October 29, 2002
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – October 26, 2004
• Grand Theft Auto IV – April 29, 2008
• Grand Theft Auto V – September 17, 2013

Outside of this, release dates are a bit sporadic but undoubtedly, October is the most frequent month that Rockstar likes to release its next big thing. GTA: Vice City Stories, Bully, Manhunt 2, and Red Dead Dead 2 all released during this month too.  

It's also worth noting that Rockstar released Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition on November 11, 2021. More importantly, the release date of the remaster was announced on October 22. So basically, if we'd have to make a wager, October 22 is the most likely date of the year to get a release or announcement. 

Rockstar most recently released the next-gen version of GTA V on March 15, 2022, although, it was originally slated to launch on November 11, 2021. So while not in the month of October, it's still around that same window. Speculation constantly seems to point to a release date of 2024. If I had to put money on it, 2024 seems a good chance, although as the studio is known for delays I can see that being the target date but it ultimately ending up with a 2025 launch. 

Marketing spending

A report from early 2020 pointed to Rockstar owner Take-Two Interactive spending $89 million on marketing over its 12-month financial period ending on March 31, 2024 (via VentureBeat). This higher budget was initially thought to be due to the launch of GTA 6 between April 2023 and March 2024. 

Take-Two denied the report and claimed that this was actually the marketing budget allocated for its third-party contracts, not internal studios such as Rockstar Games. Still, this does sound like a likely period for the game to come out.

Early development

In April 2020, a Kotaku report mentioned that the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series is "early in development" meaning a release is still a good few years away. This was corroborated by game journalists Tom Henderson and Jason Schreier that both suggested that GTA 6 won't be released until 2024 or 2025. This was further corroborated by VGC. 

Launch by March 2024?

A potential release window for GTA 6 came from Take-Two's financial information in January 2022. Alongside announcing its intention to acquire mobile games giant Zynga, the company revealed that its compound annual growth rate will grow by 14% through 2024. 

From this, Cowen analyst Doug Creutz (via Axios), then anticipated that Take-Two consumer spending would equate to $9 billion via bookings, which is believed to be related to "a likely GTA 6 launch in FY24." This financial target is similar to the one set back in 2011 by Take-Two in the run-up to GTA V in September 2013 (although the target was initially thought for 2012 or early 2013, so a delay can happen at any time).

Another leak points to 2024

Rockstar Mag founder and well-known leaker Chris Klippel shared that a release date for GTA 6 shouldn't be expected until 2024. Furthermore, he believes that a "real" announcement could be made later this year, which makes sense considering Rockstar's history for announcements in October. 

"An important step in the development of GTA 6 has just been reached. Things should speed up (internally at Rockstar)," wrote Klippel on Twitter (translated via Google). "I think that a (real) announcement at the end of the year may be possible. In any case, I don't see the game arriving before the end of 2024!"

GTA 6 – trailer 

With Rockstar now confirming that GTA 6 is happening, the next big thing will be the first trailer announcement. While Rockstar premiered a trailer for GTA V on November 2, 2011, a few days after revealing the existence of GTA V, we don't expect any sort of trailer until 2023 at the earliest. Again, October to November seems like a good bet. 

That said, following the GTA 6 leaks that showed off 90 videos of gameplay, a trailer might be much further down the line. It's an unprecedented situation. 

Red Dead Redemption 2 is the last major game from Rockstar and a trailer for the western dropped on October 20, 2016. Similarly, the trailer for Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition turned up on October 8, 2021. You can see our logic to assume that an announcement trailer is more probable to turn up in the latter part of the year. 

GTA 6 – location and map

No details have yet been officially confirmed as to the location of GTA 6. Will it be Liberty City? Will it be San Andreas? Will it be Vice City? Will it be Los Santos and Blaine Country? Or will it be everything blended into one? Well, one of the biggest rumours to grace the web is that GTA 6 will have an evolving map, taking inspiration from the likes of Fornite and will update over time. 

This does make a lot of sense considering that the next GTA could be around for a decade, so what better way than regular updates to keep things fresh and exciting? Take it with a grain of salt but this rumour did stem from games journalist Tom Henderson (yes, the same one) who does have a somewhat credible history with leaks.  

That said, a report from Bloomberg in July 2022 backed this up by saying the map will be a fictionalised version of Miami – does this mean we're going back to Vice City? As rumours suggested, the map will be updated over time with new missions and new cities added. Couple all of this with the GTA 6 leaks and it does appear that Miami / Vice City will, at the least, be the starting point for the game. 

GTA 6 – news, rumours and leaks 

Every week there are dozens of new rumours and supposed leaks infiltrating the web from either journalists, streamers or 'insiders' claiming to have the biggest scoop in games media. We'll do our best to weed out some of the nonsense and only bring the ones worth giving attention to. Some of which are absolutely bonkers and worth including just for a good laugh.

Rockstar projects confirmed 

Let's start with what's officially confirmed to be in the works from Rockstar. The latest release was a next-gen version of Grand Theft Auto V that arrived on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X / S on March 15, 2022. It was then in February 2022 that Rockstar officially confirmed that the next entry in the GTA series is now in "active development". 

GTA 6 leak – 90 videos of gameplay

On September 18th, 2022, Rockstar Games suffered a major leak concerning GTA 6 with 90 videos of in-development gameplay making their way to the web.

This was first posted to the GTA Forums with everything from character animations, location, combat, voice work and more shown off. It also looks to confirm the report that it will star two lead characters, one male and one female. It's claimed that the footage was taken from Rockstar's own Slack channels. 

Following this, the developer issued a statement:

"We recently suffered a network intrusion in which an unauthorised third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our systems, including early development footage for the next Grand Theft Auto. At this time, we do not anticipate any disruption to our live game services nor any long-term effect on the development of our ongoing projects," said Rockstar Games. 

"We are extremely disappointed to have any details of our next game shared with you all in this way. Our work on the next Grand Theft Auto game will continue as planned and we remain as committed as ever to delivering an experience to you, our players, that truly exceeds your expectations.  We will update everyone again soon and, of course, will properly introduce you to this next game when it is ready. We want to thank everyone for their ongoing support through this situation."

Note: We will not be posting any of the leaked videos. 

Take-Two CEO on GTA 6

Following the announcement that GTA 6 is now in development, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick commented on the game and why the series needs to look to the future. 

"You always have to be willing to be fresh. You always have to be willing to bring consumers what they want. The minute you try to protect the past, you become irrelevant," said Zelnick in an interview with Gamesindustry.biz. 

"I'm thrilled Rockstar's working on the next iteration of Grand Theft Auto. I have no doubt it will be just great, and there's every evidence to believe from the past that the Grand Theft Auto catalog will also continue to perform."

First GTA 6 image?

Here's an interesting one. Following the launch of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition, players quickly discovered an unidentified house as part of a hanging photo on the wall of the Lil’ Probe’Inn in San Andreas. The house in question is not thought to be part of any current GTA games, according to the sleuths over on the GTAForums, fuelling speculation that this is the first image from GTA 6. 

On top of this, to add more fuel to the fire, this photo is part of the "I Want to Believe" wall in Lil’ Probe’Inn, a bar dedicated to UFOs. It was also noted (via Kotaku) that an update to a billboard in the GTA III remaster has changed the words from "See you in Miami" to "See you soon". 

It's a great theory as Rockstar, which does have precedence for this, could be teasing its next entry with further rumours pointing to a Miami setting. Now that the game has been officially announced as well, does this give it more credibility? 

Rockstar Games co-founder on GTA 6

Rockstar Games co-founder and former vice president of development Jamie King spoke to YouTuber Killaz in an interview about his time at the company, as well as sharing his thoughts on what GTA 6 could look like.

"I wouldn't be surprised if the tone starts changing, and if it's maybe not quite as edgy or quite as funny," said King. "I just think that maybe there's more opportunity for them to do something cheesy because they never do."

King added: "I just look at the success of [GTA] V Online and [Red Dead] Redemption 2 and I'm like they're gonna be fine. I think culturally [and] internally at [Rockstar] North and [Rockstar] New York, missing Leslie [Benzies] and Dan [Houser], there's a difference for sure." 

VFX artist

Another rumour stems from an official Rockstar job listing that hints at Rockstar's next project (presumably GTA 6) getting an incredible graphics upgrade. The listing is for a VFX artist position at the studio. The role reads as below:

"The visual effects help to immerse the player in a believable world, from using ambient effects for things like insects around the player and rain dripping off buildings up to large scale destruction events like skyscrapers crashing to the ground. Our technology is used to tie the world together; weapons create bullet impacts, vehicles kick up dirt and smoke and leave debris when they crash, objects get dirty when they fall in the mud."

Grand Theft Auto VR? 

L.A. Noire: The V.R. Case Files developer Video Games Deluxe shared a post (via LinkedIn) in 2020 that it is now gearing up for a new project with Rockstar. Advertising jobs at the Sydney-based studio. This was then confirmed in early 2022 to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas VR, which will launch on the Oculus Quest 2.  

It makes some sense considering Rockstar has often pushed the boundaries of what games hardware can do and what else would make more of an impact than being able to play GTA in VR? With PSVR 2 now expected to launch sometime in the next 12 months or so, it's likely we could see it released on that headset too. Could this be testing ground for GTA 6 in VR? 

Two time periods?

Another GTA 6 leak stated that GTA 6 will be set in two different time periods. The comments surfaced courtesy of Chris Klippel from French publication Rockstar Mag, which were then posted (and translated) to NeoGAF. While simply uploaded as his opinions rather than official facts he has heard from a Rockstar insider, it's still an interesting morsel of information to consider. 

Rumours have suggested that the location (see above) of GTA 6 is a modern-day Vice City. Could we, therefore, see players jump between an '80s Vice City and whatever a modern-day version of that would look like? 

Development hell?

A few stories have begun to make their way to the web near the end of 2021 that development on GTA 6 is not going well behind the scenes. The first claim for this originated from again Rockstar Mag's Chris Klippel, who spoke on his podcast (translated via NeoGAF) that the game has been rebooted for the most part since Dan Houser left the firm in February 2020. 

This was then only exacerbated further when Star Wars Eclipse leaker AccNGT said that the game is in development hell and any release date announcement in 2021 or early 2022 would be concerning. While we didn't receive a trailer, Rockstar did confirm the game's existence in February 2022. It's obviously impossible to tell how development has gone at this stage. 

Bully 2?

So while not strictly to do with GTA 6, an announcement for Bully 2 could indicate that the game is further away than originally thought. Game journalist Tom Henderson (yep, that same one again) shared that Bully 2 was expected to be revealed at The Game Awards 2022, however, never showed up. 

Originally released in October 2006, Bully (or Canis Canem Edit in Europe) has had fans eagerly awaiting a follow up for more than 15 years now. One thing to note if a sequel is in development is that the original was much smaller in scale when compared to GTA, so it's possible both might be in the works – especially now that we know GTA 6 is officially being developed. 

GTA 6 paid subscription

With the launch of GTA Online across PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X / S in March 2022, Rockstar shortly after announced a new subscription service known as GTA Plus. At $5.99 / approx. £4.54 / approx. AU$7.98, it's more surprising that something like this didn't come any sooner. While no details of whether a subscription service will be included in GTA 6 in any way, it does give us an idea of where Rockstar from a business is currently at. Could this just be the testing ground for GTA 6 subscription, for instance?

See below for the description of GTA 6 from Rockstar:

"Being a GTA Plus member gets you a recurring monthly GTA$500,000 direct deposit to your Maze Bank account, plus the opportunity to claim properties in and around Los Santos that unlock gameplay updates you may have missed out on, special vehicle upgrades, Member-only discounts, GTA$ and RP bonuses, and more each month."

Rockstar making new GTA engine

In April 2022, Rockstar Mag founder Chris Klippel claimed that a graphics engine from Rockstar Games – known as RAGE9 – is expected to be utilised for the next GTA with the technology described as "ahead of its time".  The aim is reportedly to challenge and "outperform" Unreal Engine, the current industry standard.

"Obviously, the new version of the graphics engine of #RockstarGames (RAGE9) which will be used for #GTA6 is likely to be quite incredible," wrote Klippel (via Google Translate) "I was able to get very positive feedback, we really shouldn't be disappointed on this point. We are talking about an engine ahead of its time." 

GTA 6 Tweet most liked in gaming ever?

Since Rockstar made the official announcement that the development of GTA 6 is now underway, the official Tweet from the games company is now believed to be one of the most 'liked' on the platform and in all of gaming. At the time of writing, it sits at just over 100,000 retweets, just over 40,000 quote retweets and just under 600,000 likes. Clearly, the appetite for a new GTA is still very much alive and well. 

More development trouble?

One rumour that needs to be treated heavily with a grain of salt, is that GTA 6 will take place in Columbia and Miami, according to Watcher.Guru. 

This account is not credible but the reason we wanted to draw attention is that Tom Henderson (a more reliable leaker whose name can be found scattered throughout this hub) responded to this saying the game is going through a "turbulent" time at the minute, due to COVID-19. That said, he still believes the game will launch sometime between 2024 and 2025. 

Staffing up

Rockstar appears to be recruiting for GTA 6 with over 200 jobs uploaded (via Hitmarker) during July 2022 with 70 of them going up in a 24-hour period. 

An associate content designer role states that the company is searching for someone to join a team that "creates and authors various game content such as missions, competitive modes, open world content and a wide variety of other similar content". The "open world content" wording is the one to focus on here, as that is one many believe will be the next Grand Theft Auto. 

Four protagonists, three cities

Following the report from Bloomberg that GTA 6 will feature two leads, one of which who will be a female of Latino heritage, Axios revealed that the game had four main leads and three cities at one stage. This was scaled back, however, as it was felt too ambitious by Rockstar.

Single-player DLC returns? 

A rumour made the rounds in August 2022 from known leaker Tez2 (via the GTAForums) stating that Rockstar will return to more traditional single-player DLC for GTA 6. 

"The first wave of 'new cities and missions' we will receive as DLC will definitely be planned out before [GTA] VI releases. And Rockstar will be able to allocate resources towards whatever new title they will work on after [GTA] VI release," they said. 

"As for the new cities, I think for the most part we will receive instanced new cities or islands. Like Cayo Perico or North Yankton style. That way, Rockstar can introduce a new heist for the next GTA Online mode with each new DLC. If we are lucky, we could receive a fully-fledged new city from time to time." 

GTA V gets final farewell

Rockstar posted a "thank you" message in September 2022 to those that have worked on Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online over the years. With development resources now being taken away from the game, speculation has intensified that a GTA 6 announcement is on the way. 

"Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online represent the combined efforts of our global team over many years. We want to acknowledge and thank everyone who has contributed to these games, from their original launch in 2013 all the way through to present day," reads the message. 

GTA 6 leaker being investigated by FBI

The hacker that leaked 90 videos of GTA 6 is now being investigated by the FBI, with Uber believing it to be the same group that targeted the company a week prior. That person claims to be an 18-year-old associated with the Lapsus$, a hacking group that violated Uber's internal systems and boasted about it in the company's Slackchannel. 

"There are also reports over the weekend that this same actor breached video game maker Rockstar Games. We are in close coordination with the FBI and US Department of Justice on this matter and will continue to support their efforts." reads an updated statement from Uber (via a blog post)

Rockstar subsequently has been doing its best to remove every clip, screenshot and footage of the leak from the web since. After first appearing on the GTA Forums before spreading to YouTube, the majority have now been removed with any posting of images or videos regarding the leaks in the official GTA 6 Reddit now banned altogether. 

GTA 6 hacker arrested 

Following the news that the FBI was investigating the hacker involved with the leaks surrounding GTA 6, London Police then arrested a 17-year-old teenager that is believed to be in connection. The accused later pleaded not guilty to the charges.

"On the evening of Thursday 22 September 2022, the City of London Police arrested a 17-year-old in Oxfordshire on suspicion of hacking, as part of an investigation," said The City of London Police (via Twitter). "He remains in police custody."

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