GTA 6: Everything We Know So Far | News, Leaks and Rumors

GTA 6 is officially in development. That much we know about the game. Rockstar Games has confirmed this, stating that development is "well underway" and that they will "share more as soon as [they] are ready". So we know that it's coming, but what is the GTA 6 release date? What platforms will it be released on? What will the setting and story be about? These are some of many questions that are still open about the highly anticipated game.



The sobering answer is, that we don't know all that much about GTA 6 at all. Outside of the official announcement of "the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series" in the Rockstar blog, nothing has been officially confirmed yet.

And it might take a while until we see more, let alone get to play the game. With the announcement of GTA 6, we didn't get to see anything concrete about it: no trailer, no teaser, nothing. That is very unusual for a new game announcement by Rockstar. Look at the way Red Dead Redemption 2 was teased with just one image on Twitter. And while it usually takes around two years between the announcement and release of a Rockstar game, this shift in strategy might suggest that it could take longer for GTA 6.



Thankfully, the GTA community is extremely excited and passionate, so we have tons of different rumors and leaks about different aspects of the game. A lot of insiders have chimed in as well, including some of the most prominent names in the industry. Read on to see everything we know about GTA 6 so far.

GTA 6 Release Date: When Is Grand Theft Auto 6 Coming Out?

There are many rumors regarding the potential GTA 6 release date. Most of them point to the release date being set for some point in 2024. It looks like it will take at least another two years to come out. Of course there has been speculation about different dates, some suggesting an earlier date and some an even longer wait time.



The first solid indicator for a GTA 6 release date in that time frame came from a financial report by Take-Two, Rockstar's publisher. As reported by Venture Beat, Take-Two's financial plans saw a massive spike of $89 million on marketing between April 2023, and the end of March 2024. Another press release by the company expected an annual growth of 14%. Both numbers are so big, that, according to business insiders, only a game as important as GTA 6 could be the root cause of them.

More fuel to the fire of a possible 2024 release date for GTA 6 was provided by famed leaker Tom Henderson, who is known for his high-quality reporting and reliable sources. Henderson posted a video, in which he predicts that GTA 6 will come out at some point between 2024 and 2025. He names multiple reasons for why this seems reasonable:
• Rockstar changed their studio culture to have less crunch, meaning longer development time but better conditions for the team.
• Henderson claims that the game will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC exclusively, so Rockstar Games might want to wait until the chip-shortage has calmed down and more consoles become available.
• GTA Online is still so popular, that Rockstar would like to keep it running for a few more years before cutting into its success with the release of GTA 6.

Jason Schreier of Bloomberg, who is one of the most reliable sources of insider info in the video game industry, corroborated these details. So 2024-2025 seems to be the likeliest date for a release of GTA 6. However, it is still up to debate when exactly in that timeframe we can expect the game to come out.

Some sources suggest, that it could be late within the 2024-2025 period. Chief among them is French journalist and creator of Rockstar Mag Chris Klippel, who accurately leaked insight info on Rockstar before. He expects that GTA 6 won't come out until the end of 2024 at the earliest. He tweeted:

Other insiders are slightly more optimistic for an earlier date. This includes Tenz2 on Twitter, who consistently leaks inside information from Rockstar. They correctly revealed the cancelation of GTA and Red Dead Remasters before anyone else. Tenz also talked a lot about GTA 6 and the potential release date, of course. They say that the game could be released as early as late 2023, so next year already.

This leak was pretty much alone in this assumption though. The common expectation for the GTA 6 release date is 2024, with some seeing early 2025 as a potential timeframe as well. As with anything regarding GTA 6, we will have to wait and see though. Until Rockstar confirms anything, it's just speculation. Expect to wait for at least another two years though.

GTA 6 Location & Setting: Where & When Will Grand Theft Auto 6 Be Set?

Rockstar Games have kept the setting of GTA 6 a complete secret so far but we have a slew of different rumors and leaks to work with again. One of the first prominent theories was, that GTA 6 will see the return of Vice City. Rockstar's fictional version of Miami could make a return in the latest installment of the series. After reinterpretations of Liberty City and Los Santos in the previous two mainline games, GTA 6 could bring back the last beloved location from the original trilogy from the 2000s. This rumor has come up time and again. Tom Henderson is one of many reporters and leakers who brought Vice City to the table.

This rumor was fueled by a strange story concerning the much-maligned Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition. In the game, one tiny piece of new content has been included in the failed remaster of the beloved games: a small picture showing a house in what looks like a sunny suburb. The pro-active GTA community quickly jumped to the theory, that this could be a teaser for Vice City in GTA 6.

This picture and the possible tease towards Vice City were hotly discussed for months, before leaker Matheusvictorbr on Twitter claimed, that this image was indeed from the next GTA game. This is of course also just speculation, as long as the setting hasn't been officially confirmed, we can't know for certain yet.

Another rumor that showed up early and that has been persistent, claims that the game was developed under the code name Project Americas and that it would be set in different parts of the Americas. More precisely, players might be able to travel between different locations in the US as well as Middle- and South America. This rumor has persisted for a long time and is still considered one of the most likely scenarios for the GTA 6 setting.

The possibility of having multiple cities to explore was mentioned by Michael Pachter as well. The business analyst, who worked in the gaming industry for many years, claimed to have seen GTA 6 in one of the many studios by Rockstar Games. He continued to claim, that the game will have at least four playable cities, Vice City, Liberty City, one in San Andreas and one in Europe. Pachter is a controversial figure in the industry, so this claim can't also be taken to be 100% true.

Next to the question of where GTA 6 will be set, fans have also been wondering about when the game could take place. Multiple reports suggested that the next GTA could be set at some point in the past. Others, like Tom Henderson, say that this is not true and that the game will instead take place in a modern setting.

GTA 6 having multiple locations, one of which could be Vice City, seems to be the consensus among reporters and leakers. Whether it will be set in the past or the present or maybe both seems more unclear. This is all just speculation, but we think that this seems likely and feasible enough. Rockstar Games will aim to impress players with the game, and making a world as big as they possibly could, would be one way to do it. And Vice City hasn't been in any GTA since Vice City (2002) and Vice City Stories (2006), so it would be time for another crack at the sunlit setting for GTA 6.

This theory was strongly amplified by Jason Schreier, who claimed in a report on Rockstar Games for Bloomberg, that "a fictional version of Miami and its surrounding areas", would be the setting of the game. That would mean Vice City, and potentially a version of Cuba, which has been suggested by other sources as a potential location before.



Another revelation by him confirms that there will be other locations in GTA 6 than Vice City though. According to Schreier, the game will recieve continuous updates, adding new locations, settings and missions to the game over time.

GTA 6 Story & Characters: Who Will We Play As?

Nothing has been officially revealed yet about the story and characters in GTA 6. However, we did see some convincing reports about what could be in the game. One of the most persistent rumors claims, that GTA 6 will, for the first time in the series, feature a female protagonist. This was first claimed by Tom Henderson in the aforementioned video he did on the game.



If you get to play as a woman in GTA 6, it looks like she wouldn't be the only protagonist in the game. One of the most persistent rumors in regard to the GTA 6 characters, states that you will be able to play as multiple characters again, just like in GTA 5. Whether this would be three again, is disputed. Jason Schreier refuted this, saying that "GTAVI does not have three protagonists". He says in his viral report on Rockstar, that GTA 6 will have two protagonists, one of which is going to be female. He didn't mention more details about the characters, except that the woman is going to be Latina and that the story will be influenced by Bonnie & Clyde.

It seems very likely that we will have multiple protagonists in GTA 6. How they will be connected, and what the story in the game will be, is more contested though. Matheusvictor, who claimed to have confirmed the setting of GTA 6, also claimed that the game will have two main protagonists who are orphaned siblings. One early leak of the story made it sound like one of the characters will become a drug lord throughout the game, which is supposed to be heavily inspired by the Netflix hit Narcos. This has not been reliably corroborated though.



A newer leak didn't concern itself with the main protagonists, but rather with other characters that could appear in GTA 6. In a Reddit post, which has been deleted since, a leaker claimed that two familiar faces from previous games could return to GTA 6: Niko Bellic from GTA 4 and Michael De Santa from GTA 5:

It looks like Ned Luke, the voice actor of Michael, is working with Rockstar Games again. It has been theorized, that this could be for a GTA Online DLC. However, previous GTA titles liked to bring back characters from previous games, if only in small roles. This could also be the case with GTA 6.

GTA 6 News And Rumors: What Else Do We Know So Far?

As you can see if you have read this article so far, there have been tons of different kinds of leaks and rumors regarding GTA 6. Here we have collected all of the ones, that we haven't covered in the other parts of this article.

Some of the very few things that have been confirmed to some degree for GTA 6 concern technical aspects of the game. At the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2021, Rockstar Games’ Tobias Kleanthous held a presentation where he talked about the AI technology that the studio collective built internally. His presentation promises huge improvements and higher quality of AI behavior in future games – most likely including GTA 6.



Another reveal of improved technical aspects happened accidentally. Multiple details about GTA 6 were leaked on LinkedIn profiles by multiple current and former developers at Rockstar Games. These include seemless transitions and Motion Matching. a cutting-edge technology that should make animations smoother, more seamless and more realistic.

As we covered above, not much is known about the story of GTA 6. But we did get a hint of what the writing in the game could be like. In an Interview with Killaz, Rockstar Games Co-Founder Jamie King briefly talked about the next Grand Theft Auto title and how it could see a shift in tone.



Jason Schreier confirmed changes to the culture inside Rockstar Games during his investigation into GTA 6. This also seems to reflect on the game and could lead to a different kind of Grand Theft Auto.

A worrying sign for GTA 6 came from multiple leaks about the development of the game. Two fairly reliable sources, AccNGT and Tom Henderson claimed that the game is in development hell, with Henderson describing the process as "very turbulent".

Jason Schreier commented on the GTA 6 development, stating that "many details are still in flux or not decided yet". This would track with everything we have heard about the game, considering the other sources on the development and the fact that the release date is most likely still two years away.