Grand Theft Auto VI is an upcoming action-adventure game in development by Rockstar Games. It is due to be the eighth main Grand Theft Auto game, following Grand Theft Auto V (2013), and the sixteenth entry overall. Set within the fictional open world state of Leonida, based on Florida, and its Miami-inspired Vice City, the story is expected to follow criminal duo Lucia and her male partner.[a]
Following years of speculation, Rockstar confirmed in February 2022 that the game was in development. That September, footage from unfinished versions was leaked online in what journalists described as one of the biggest leaks in the history of the video game industry. The game was formally revealed in December 2023 and is scheduled to be released in 2025 for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
Setting and characters
Grand Theft Auto VI is an action-adventure game set in the fictional open world state of Leonida—based on Florida—which includes Vice City, a fictional version of Miami.[1][2][3] Vice City was previously featured in Grand Theft Auto (1997) and as the main setting of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (2006).[4][5][6] The game follows a criminal duo: Lucia, the series' first female protagonist since 1999,[b] and her male partner;[a] the first trailer depicts Lucia as a prison inmate.[2][13]
Development
Following Grand Theft Auto V's 2013 release, Rockstar North then-president Leslie Benzies said the company had "some ideas" for the series' next entry.[14] In 2018, The Know reported the game, code-named Project Americas, would be set primarily in Vice City and partly in South America with a female protagonist.[15] In 2020, Kotaku's Jason Schreier reported the game was "early in development" as "a moderately sized release" that would expand over time, to avoid the developer crunch of its predecessors.[16] In 2021, journalist Tom Henderson claimed the game's map could evolve akin to Fortnite Battle Royale.[17][18] Writing for Bloomberg News in 2022, Schreier reported the game entered development in 2014 and would feature two protagonists influenced by Bonnie and Clyde, including a Latina woman, and claimed the developers were cautiously subverting the series' trend of joking about marginalised groups.[19][20]
The game became highly anticipated in the years before its announcement,[21][22][23] and journalists noted some fans had become frustrated by Rockstar Games's continued silence, particularly after they announced a re-release of Grand Theft Auto V in 2020.[24][25][26] An individual referencing the game received media attention for interrupting several live stage and television shows.[27][28][29] On 4 February 2022, Rockstar confirmed development was "well underway".[30] In July, Rockstar announced Red Dead Online would not receive more major updates as development resources were withdrawn to focus on the upcoming game;[31] industry sources stated Rockstar reallocated resources after planned remasters of Grand Theft Auto IV (2008) and Red Dead Redemption (2010) were paused due to the backlash received by Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition (2021).[32]
In November 2023, Rockstar president Sam Houser announced the game's first trailer would be released in early December to celebrate the company's 25th anniversary.[33][34] Journalists reported the announcement on social media platform X became its most-liked gaming-related post within five hours, surpassing the record set by two previous posts about the game;[35][36][37] this was surpassed by Rockstar's 1 December post announcing the trailer's release date of 5 December, receiving over 1.8 million likes within 24 hours.[38] Other developers imitated the announcement's formatting to promote their own trailers.[39][40][12] On 4 December, a low-quality version of the trailer was leaked on X; in response, Rockstar published the official trailer on YouTube, formally revealing the title, protagonists, setting, and release window of 2025 for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.[41][42][43] The trailer featured Tom Petty's "Love Is a Long Road".[41] It broke the record for most first-day views on a non-music YouTube video within 12 hours, with over 46 million,[44][45] became the third-most overall within 24 hours with over 90 million,[46][47] and surpassed the lifetime viewership of Grand Theft Auto V's first trailer within two days with over 101 million.[48]
September 2022 leak
On 18 September 2022, 90 videos showing 50 minutes of work-in-progress game footage were published on GTAForums by a user known as "teapotuberhacker".[49][c] Schreier confirmed with sources at Rockstar that the footage was genuine,[52] and The Guardian reported it was from several stages of development,[49] with some videos about a year old.[4] The footage revealed a modern-day Vice City setting, contained animation and gameplay tests, level layouts, and character conversations, and depicted player characters Lucia and Jason entering a strip club and robbing a diner.[4][11] The hacker claimed to be behind the Uber security breach from the earlier week.[52][53] They said they downloaded the files directly from Rockstar's internal Slack groups,[54] and claimed to possess source code, assets, and internal builds of both Grand Theft Auto V and VI, which they threatened to publish.[52]
Rockstar's parent company Take-Two Interactive responded by submitting takedowns of videos showing or discussing the leaks hosted on YouTube under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act,[49][55] and contacted GTAForums and Reddit moderators to remove access.[56] The hacker wrote they were "looking to negotiate a deal" with Rockstar or Take-Two.[57] Journalists described the event as one of the biggest leaks in video game history;[58][59][60] Schreier called it "a nightmare for Rockstar Games" which could limit employees' remote work flexibility.[61][62] Jefferies analyst Andrew Uerkwitz called it a "PR disaster" that could potentially delay the game and diminish staff morale, but was unlikely to impact reception or sales.[63][64] The Guardian noted the leaked footage was being widely criticised "by ill-informed users" due to its quality, despite not being representative of the final product.[49] Some users erroneously claimed graphics and art assets are finalised early in game development. In solidarity, several developers shared work-in-progress footage of their games[65][66][67] and some, including Cliff Bleszinski, Neil Druckmann, Rami Ismail, and Alanah Pearce, offered sympathies to Rockstar.[4][49][68]
On 19 September, Rockstar confirmed the leak to be a "network intrusion" and lamented how the game was first demonstrated but did not anticipate long-term effects on development.[69] Rockstar disabled comments and replies on their social media accounts in the days following the leak.[51] Take-Two added that steps had been taken "to isolate and contain this incident".[63] The company's share price dropped by more than six per cent in pre-market trading that day,[63][64] but recovered during regular trading hours following Take-Two's statement.[70] Uber acknowledged the potential links to their security breach and noted they were working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Department of Justice. They believed the hacker was affiliated with the group Lapsus$, which is thought to have breached companies such as Microsoft, Nvidia, and Samsung over the preceding year.[71][72] In November, Zelnick said no material assets appeared to have been taken and the incident caused the companies to become more vigilant with cybersecurity.[73] In February 2023, he reiterated the leak had impacted staff emotionally but business remained unaffected.[74]
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