The Grand Theft Auto (GTA) franchise by Rockstar Games is one of the most influential and popular representatives of the video game industry, generating billions of dollars in revenue. According to unconfirmed information, the previous installment in the series brought developers more than $8 billion in net revenue, and GTA Online played an important role in this.
Now the entire gaming world is eagerly awaiting the release of GTA 6, as this game can revolutionize and change the industry, and revenues could break all possible records. However, it is not clear when the developers will release the project, so we decided to collect what we know about GTA 6.
First announcement of GTA 6
In February 2022, Rockstar Games officially announced for the first time that it was working on a new GTA game. Representatives of the studio said that Grand Theft Auto 6 is in “active development”: “On behalf of our entire team, we thank you all for your support and can’t wait to step into the future with you!”
The next confirmation of work on the game’s sequel came from the financial report of Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar, which was published in August 2022. The documents state that work on GTA 6 is “in full swing”.
According to Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, Grand Theft Auto 6 will set new benchmarks for product quality in the video game industry and the entertainment industry in general.
When will GTA 6 be released
If you think that only fans of the franchise are eagerly awaiting the announcement of the exact release date of Grand Theft Auto 6, you are very much mistaken. According to Jason Schreyer, other publishers and developers are waiting for more information about the release date of GTA VI in order to release their games as far away from this date as possible and avoid competition with the project from Rockstar.
It is not known exactly when GTA 6 will be released, but Take-Two’s financial report stated that the release should take place in the second half of 2025. However, many industry representatives have some doubts that the game will be released this year.
For example, a reputable journalist Jason Schreyer wrote in his 2025 gaming industry forecasts that the new GTA installment could be postponed to 2026. He explained that there is very little GTA 6 information, and only one trailer has been released so far. It was also noted that Rockstar games are always postponed at least once.
“That project pushed the development team to the brink, requiring late hours and creating a culture of tension and aggression. Seeking to improve its workplace culture, the company removed several executives and promised a more reasonable schedule. But a massive hack in 2022 complicated things, leading Rockstar to clamp down on remote work and direct employees to return to the office five days a week, rankling staff,” Schreier describes the process of working on GTA 6.
Former Rockstar employee Obbe Vermeij also shared his thoughts, he believes that the game will be sold for more than 10 years, so the company will not want to release a game that it is not 100% satisfied with. He also mentioned GTA 4, which was postponed four months before the release date.
New Grand Theft Auto news will mostly come from insiders, not developers. Therefore, more and more fans are beginning to believe that the game’s release will be postponed.
Reddit users discovered that Take-Two Interactive will hold a meeting with investors on February 6 at 22:30 Kyiv time. It is assumed that the conference will discuss the release date of GTA 6, which is likely to be postponed to 2026. At the same time, users do not expect that the meeting will reveal any more details about the game, except for the release date.
GTA 6 trailer
GTA 6 itself was announced with a trailer that was released on December 5, 2023 and lasts a minute and a half. In 24 hours, the video gained more than 90 million views, setting a record for the fastest growth of views among non-musical videos. In seven months, the video gained a record 200 million views, and now it has more than 230 million views.
The trailer did not show gameplay moments. The developers focused on what the game world looks like and showed the main characters — Lucy and Jason (or James) for the first time.
It is also worth mentioning that the trailer was leaked online, so Rockstar was forced to publish the video earlier than planned. There have been no new GTA 6 trailers for more than a year, and fan theories about when a new video about the game might be released have failed so far.
Threats to Rockstar from Florida Joker
In the first trailer for GTA 6, one of the shots shows a fully tattooed man in a prison uniform. The image of the character strongly resembled Lawrence Sullivan, known as the Florida Joker. He was arrested three times in Florida.
Sullivan himself appealed to Rockstar to pay him $10 million in compensation for the use of his image. After the company ignored his appeal, Lawrence began to threaten to sue, but at the same time constantly reduced the amount he demanded from Rockstar. It is not known how this story ended, but no one has reported a lawsuit from Florida Joker.
GTA 6 will be released on consoles
It is now confirmed that GTA 6 will be released on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles. This information appeared in the official Take Two press release: “GTA 6 is coming to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S computer entertainment system in 2025.”
We shouldn’t expect GTA 6 to be released on Nintendo Switch 2, as the console is unlikely to be able to meet the technical requirements of the game. However, some experts still hope that Nintendo’s new console will support GTA 6, which will significantly increase the number of copies sold and help boost Switch 2 sales.
Will GTA 6 be available on previous generation consoles?
Again, the official press release only mentioned the release on PS5 and Xbox Series. Therefore, we should not expect that developers will spend resources on adapting the game for PS4 or Xbox One. Most likely, the game will be a current-generation exclusive on consoles, although it is possible that it will be ported to next-generation devices.
When GTA 6 is coming to PC
As we have already mentioned, the officially confirmed platforms for the release of GTA 6 are PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. As for PCs, there is no information yet.
Most likely, the project will follow a similar path as some of the previous games in the GTA series and other Rockstar Games titles. They were initially released on consoles and only after a while appeared on PC. For example, GTA 5 was released on PC only in April 2015, although it appeared on consoles in November 2013.
We should also take into account the fact that the release of GTA 6 may be postponed from 2025 to 2026, which further delays the game’s release on PC. According to a former Rockstar developer, the team’s priority will be the PS5 version, as Rockstar focuses on “what sells.”
Leak of materials about GTA 6
In September 2022, there was a large-scale leak of materials about GTA 6. A user with the nickname teapotuberhacker published part of the game’s code, photos and videos of its early version online. The authenticity of the leak was confirmed by journalist Jason Schreyer.
Subsequently, Rockstar released a statement confirming the hack:
“We recently suffered a breach in which an unauthorized third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our systems, including early development footage of the next Grand Theft Auto.
We are extremely disappointed that any details of our next game have been revealed to you in this way. We will update everyone again shortly and of course properly introduce you to the next game when it is ready. We would like to thank everyone for their continued support in this situation.”
After that, developers began to actively work on removing all leaked materials from the network. For example, Reddit removed all links, photos, and videos related to the leak, but allowed discussions on the platform without attaching them: “We will allow discussions related to the leak without attaching leaked material. We do not allow comments that contain links to download the leaked material.”
The leaked materials included a bunch of small videos with gameplay, a large number of screenshots from the game. The dataminers found out that most of the leaked materials were relevant for 2019, so by 2022, the developers could have changed and improved a lot of things in the game. Based on the leaked materials and information from insiders, the game’s plot, map, gameplay, and some other details became clearer.
Later, it became known that the person responsible for the leak was 18-year-old Arion Kurtazh, a member of the Lapsus$ hacker group. They tried to bring the boy to justice, but he was examined by psychiatrists who found him incapable of standing trial on his own.
GTA 6 storyline
It is not known exactly what the story of GTA VI is about. However, there is unconfirmed information that the events will take place a few years after the fifth part of the series.
Among the leaked materials, fans noticed footage referring to the death of Jay Norris, who was the founder of the Lifeinvader social network in GTA V and whose prototype was Mark Zuckerberg. Norris’s personage died in the fifth installment, so fans are sure that GTA 6 will definitely not be a prequel.
Gameplay GTA 6
Since the announcement of the sixth installment of GTA, the developers have released only one trailer for the game. There was also no additional announcement in which they would talk about what players should expect from the project. Now it is not clear how the sixth part will differ from Grand Theft Auto 5.
According to rumors, the gameplay of GTA 6 will be more diverse and developed, the game may become more similar to Red Dead Redemption 2. It is worth expecting a rich and interactive world, which will bring the title closer to realism and set a new level for the industry.
Based on the leak that occurred in the fall of 2022, we can assume that we should expect several new mechanics. For example, stealth will work in a new way. The leaked files showed characters carrying bodies, lying on their backs, and crawling. The weapon selection menu will remain unchanged from the previous installment, but there will be new items to improve health, including painkillers.
The five-star police tracking system will also return, and the artificial intelligence that will be responsible for tracking the main characters by law enforcement will be improved. The police will adapt to the actions of the characters to make it more difficult for them to break the law in the game.
GTA returns to Vice City
The events of GTA 6 will return players to Vice City, a city that first appeared in GTA: Vice City, which was released in 2002. The difference will be that the events of VC took place in 1986, while the sixth part will take place in a modern setting. The map itself will be significantly expanded and will cover more locations than it was in GTA:VC.
The prototype for Vice City is the city of Miami, which is located on the Atlantic Ocean in Florida. Rockstar stated that the city is located in the state of Leonidas, which is “home to the neon-drenched streets of Vice City and other cities”. The map is promised as: “the biggest, most immersive evolution of Grand Theft Auto”, Vice City is possibly part of a larger map that will form GTA 6 and will be 2.5 times larger than the GTA 5 map and is approximately 80 kilometers square.
The leaks also indicate that the map of Grand Theft Auto 6 will be expanded to the south of Florida, with a swampy area called the Everglades and a series of tropical islands called the Florida Keys. Of course, fans of GTA: Vice City remember that the Florida Keys location was mentioned in the game, but only in the radio program, but this location was not available for visiting.
It remains to wait for the release of GTA 6 to find out whether gamers will be able to visit legendary locations from GTA: Vice City, such as the Malibu Club, Ocean View Hotel, and Little Haiti.
The main characters of GTA 6
The first trailer for the sixth installment of GTA confirmed the rumors that had been circulating before that the game would feature two main characters – a man and a woman. The video focused more on the female character Lucy. In the trailer, she appeared in prison clothes, which indicates her problems with the law.
A male character also appeared in the trailer several times. His name is not yet known for sure, but the media call him Jason or James, but there has been no exact confirmation.
The exact nature of the relationship between the main characters of GTA 6 is currently unknown. Some people assume that they will be brother and sister, while others believe that they have something similar to the relationship between Bonnie and Clyde.
Heroes of previous GTA installments will appear in GTA 6
As we said earlier, the game will definitely feature two new characters – Lucy and Jason (or James). However, given that the new GTA installment will take place in Vice City, fans of the series are expecting to see some previously known characters from the franchise.
Tommy Vercetti from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City will be the most appropriate personage to appear in GTA 6. The interaction of new characters with the main characters of Vice City will be a great reference to the previous part of the game. It doesn’t matter what role he plays in the game’s plot, but his appearance will show how the city has changed after the events of GTA:VC.
Fans of the franchise will be equally pleased with the appearance of characters from other parts. The popularity of Carl «CJ» Johnson and Nico Bellic is so high that players spent a lot of time looking for their traces in GTA 5. Therefore, the appearance of one of these characters, or two at once, can cause incredible emotions in gamers, which will further increase the game’s audience.
It is possible that characters from GTA 5 may appear in the new GTA. They may not play an important role in the game, but they will be mentioned or cameos will be made. The function of these characters will be to increase the fan service in the project, and perhaps they will influence the story of GTA 6.
GTA 6 system requirements
It is clear that the GTA 6 system requirements are currently unknown. But players are not stopping with their theories about what kind of hardware a PC should have to be able to play with high graphics settings.
According to fans, for ultra quality, it will be necessary to:
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080
- CPU: Intel Core i7–8700K
- RAM: 32GB
- Storage: 150GB NVMe SSD
The minimum requirements will be:
- CPU: Intel Core i7 8700K чи AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080Ti чи AMD Radeon RX 5700XT
- RAM: 8GB
- Storage: 150GB SSD
- OS: Windows 10/11
But now you shouldn’t trust the fans’ assumptions, as the game’s release may be delayed, so the hardware requirements will increase significantly.
GTA 6 price
Grand Theft Auto 6 pre-order is currently unavailable. But the video game industry has high hopes for Rockstar and Take-Two.
Game companies want GTA 6 to cost $100, which will allow them to raise prices for their games. This opinion was shared by analyst Matthew Ball from Epyllion.
The desire to raise the price is explained by rising inflation in the world and the cost of developing AAA projects. The report says that Grand Theft Auto 6 will sell well regardless of the price, and its success would allow other publishers to sell their games at a higher price.
The GTA 6 update will increase the relevance of the game for a long period of time.
It is noted that Take-Two is among the first companies to raise the base price of games from $60 to $70.
The impact of the new GTA installment on the gaming industry
Experts believe that the upcoming GTA 6 game will become a real hit in the industry. According to Video Games Industry Memo journalist George Osborne, the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 may cause a cultural resonance that can make more people want to buy video games, which publishers can take advantage of. However, 2025 will be a difficult year for publishers to avoid falling into the same release window as GTA VI, so some titles may be postponed to the following year.
It is also expected that with the release of the sixth part of GTA, sales of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series will rise, as the game will initially be available only on them. The PC release is expected later.
According to experts, online GTA 6 may update the record among all games for the number of simultaneous players.
GTA 6 budget
Of course, Rockstar will not disclose the exact budget for Grand Theft Auto 6. According to analysts, the game may cost up to $2 billion to create. Thus, the new GTA will be among the most expensive games at the moment. This will be the first release from Rockstar in the 2020s.
At the same time, the Financial Times report, based on the analysis of the video game research group DFC Intelligence, says that GTA 6 will be able to generate $3.2 billion in revenue in the first year after release, which is twice as much as GTA 5. Pre-orders of the game alone are expected to bring $1 billion to the developers.
