GTA 6 Preview: Everything You Need to Know About the New Grand Theft Auto

It’s been nearly a decade since Grand Theft Auto 5 was released—but what will the sequel bring?

The massively popular open-world action franchise has sold over 405 million copies so far, putting it in the pantheon of the all-time best-selling game series. And that success has ignited widespread excitement over the next entry.

Now Grand Theft Auto 6 has been officially revealed, and there’s plenty we already know from the first trailer and announcement, along with subsequent reveals. Here’s what you need to know about GTA 6.

What is Grand Theft Auto 6?

Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA 6) is the official title for the sixth planned core installment of the Grand Theft Auto video game series. 

“Grand Theft Auto VI continues our efforts to push the limits of what’s possible in highly immersive, story-driven open-world experiences,” said Rockstar Games founder Sam Houser in a statement published December 4, 2023 alongside the first official trailer for GTA 6. “We’re thrilled to be able to share this new vision with players everywhere.”

The upcoming game’s predecessor, Grand Theft Auto 5, offered players both single-player and multiplayer game modes, where gamers could do things like embark on cooperative heist missions, assassinate individuals, invest in its synthetic stock market, buy businesses, rob citizens, drive cars, and more.

When is Grand Theft Auto 6 coming out?

Rockstar Games finally confirmed GTA 6’s development back in February 2022, and announced in December 2023 that the game won’t be released until 2025. It will launch for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S—but no PC version has been confirmed. Previous GTA entries have typically hit PC much later than consoles.

In an August 2023 interview with CNBC, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick said that the studio expects “record levels of operating performance” in its fiscal 2025, which is between April 2024 and March 2025. That led some to believe GTA 6 would launch in the early months of next year.

However, in May 2024, Zelnick announced that the Grand Theft Auto 6 release window has been narrowed down to Fall 2025. So there it is: We'll be waiting more than a year for the release, as of this posting.

What was leaked about Grand Theft Auto 6?

In September 2022, a GTAForums user named “teapottuberhacker” posted approximately 90 pieces of leaked content from Grand Theft Auto 6 to the forum. While the content has since been removed due to a copyright infringement claim, it contained numerous leaks for the upcoming game that may have been swiped from bug reports from quality assurance (QA) testers, PC Gamer reported. 

The teenager behind the hack, 18-year-old Arion Kurtaj of the cybercriminal group Lasus$, was convicted in the UK in August 2023 for hacking into Rockstar Games and leaking the sensitive information. 

Last year, PC Gamer reported that in one of the leaked videos, a playable Latina character named Lucia as well as a white man named Jason, robbed a waffle restaurant and took hostages. The official GTA 6 trailer released in December 2023 confirmed that Lucia’s character is indeed the game’s protagonist, and that she does commit crimes and have some kind of romantic relationship with a white man (whose name has not yet been officially confirmed).

There was also the presence of a Vice City Police Department (VCPD) vehicle, a detail that suggests Grand Theft Auto 6 may be set in Vice City, a Miami-esque city that first appeared in the fourth game in the franchise, GTA: Vice City, which was published back in 2002. And because one character was seen with a smartphone, the leaks suggested that Grand Theft Auto 6 will be set in a relatively modern time period.

Based on the first official GTA 6 trailer, we also have confirmation that GTA 6 will be set in Vice City in the Leonida region—the game’s version of Miami, Florida—in a modern time period. Social media also appears to play a big role in the game, if the trailer’s inclusion of many livestreams and social media account posts are any indication.

Other possible leaks that have yet to be confirmed include some wild possible experiences players could encounter, like a “satanist house,” “UFO Animal House,” “Warehouse Sex Robots,” “Big Cat Mansion,” “Drug Lab,” and more.

What's new in Grand Theft Auto 6?

Bloomberg first reported in September 2022 that Grand Theft Auto 6 will have a female character as a playable protagonist—a first for the franchise. This is Lucia, with her male partner being the second playable protagonist.

The game could also have an “evolving” world, meaning that Rockstar may implement seasonal changes or other continued updates to transform the game’s maps over time. 

Rumors have been swirling for years that GTA 6 could offer players in-game crypto rewards, or otherwise feature cryptocurrency in some way, but these rumors currently remain unsubstantiated.

In May 2023, Game Rant speculated that a fake cryptocurrency may not actually be deployed in GTA 6, but that the sequel may simply make crypto “the butt of many jokes.” Such an assessment aligns with Bloomberg’s perspective that GTA 5 is “a satirical depiction of America” and offers “a nihilistic parody that threw insults at everything.”

Considering that Rockstar Games banned crypto and NFTs from its GTA 5 fan servers in November 2022, it’s unlikely that any real cryptocurrency like Bitcoin would make its way in Grand Theft Auto 6 via some kind of blockchain integration, let alone as a synthetic in-game currency. 

But Take-Two Interactive is working on NFT games through Zynga, which it acquired in 2022, so the company’s broader stance on crypto and NFTs remains unclear.

In a completely different development, musician T-Pain said in January (via IGN) that he's working on Grand Theft Auto 6 in some respect, presumably as a voice actor or perhaps portraying himself within the game's larger-than-life world.

T-Pain said on a livestream that Rockstar Games asked him to stop playing on GTA5 role-playing servers in the meantime, allegedly since the servers represent an unofficial project built on top of GTA5.

As Grand Theft Auto 6 rumors continue to spread, fans will have to continue to wait until Rockstar releases a statement—or the game. 

In response to a fan asking GTA 5 voice actor Ned Luke—who plays “Michael” in the game—about GTA 6, Luke had a simple response: “Gonna be worth the wait.”

Edited by Andrew Hayward

Editor's note: This story was originally posted on August 28, 2023 and was last updated with new information on May 16, 2024.