Untitled Grand Theft Auto Game

''Grand Theft Auto VI'' is an upcoming action-adventure game developed and published 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 an open world—the fictional U.S. state of Leonida, based on Florida, and its Miami-inspired Vice City—the story follows the criminal duo of Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos.

Following years of speculation and anticipation, Rockstar confirmed in February 2022 that the game was in development. That September, footage from unfinished versions was leaked on the internet 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 on 26 May 2026 for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Setting and characters

''Grand Theft Auto VI'' is an action-adventure game set within an open world. Its fictional U.S. state of Leonida—based on Florida—includes Vice City, Grassrivers, and the Leonida Keys, based on Miami, the Everglades, and the Florida Keys, respectively; as well as Ambrosia, Mount Kalaga National Park, and Port Gellhorn. The game world parodies 2020s American culture, with satirical depictions of social media and influencer culture, and references to internet memes such as Florida Man.

The story follows a criminal duo: Jason Duval, who worked for local drugrunners after his time in the Army; and Lucia Caminos, the series's first non-optional female protagonist, who was imprisoned at Leonida Penitentiary after fighting for her family in Liberty City. Following a failed bank robbery, they encounter a state-wide conspiracy and are forced to protect each other. Other characters include: Cal Hampton, Jason's paranoid friend; Boobie Ike, who runs a business empire in Vice City; Dre'Quan Priest, owner of the record label Only Raw Records with Boobie; Bae-Luxe and Roxy, a musical duo signed to Only Raw as Real Dimez; Raul Bautista, a seasoned bank robber; and Brian Heder, a drugrunner and Jason's landlord.

Development and release

Rockstar Games began preliminary work on ''Grand Theft Auto VI'' in 2014 after ''Grand Theft Auto V''s release. Early development started after ''Red Dead Redemption 2''s release in 2018, and principal production began in 2020. During its production, it was code-named ''Project Americas''. Jason Schreier reported the game was "a moderately sized release" that would expand over time to avoid its predecessors' developer crunch, and that it would feature two Bonnie and Clyde–inspired protagonists, including a Latina woman, and "a significant online mode" akin to ''Grand Theft Auto Online''. He claimed the developers were cautiously subverting the series's trend of joking about marginalised groups. In 2018, '' The Know'' reported that the game would be set primarily in Vice City and partly in South America, and in 2021, Tom Henderson claimed its map could evolve akin to ''Fortnite''. The game is expected to use the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine.

The game became highly anticipated in the years before its announcement, and journalists noted some fans became frustrated by Rockstar's continued silence, particularly after they announced a re-release of ''Grand Theft Auto V'' in 2020. An individual referencing the game received media attention for interrupting several live stage and television shows. On 4 February 2022, Rockstar confirmed development was "well underway". In July, Rockstar announced ''Red Dead Online'' would not receive more major updates as development resources were withdrawn to focus on the upcoming game; 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).

In February 2024, Rockstar requested employees cease remote work and return to offices full time from April "for productivity and security" in the "final stages" of development. The Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain criticised Rockstar for contradicting their promise to maintain flexible working conditions; some employees were concerned it could negatively impact staff health and morale and prompt resignations and crunch. In March, ''Kotaku''s Zack Zwiezen reported the decision was partly to avoid a delay, though other journalists said the game remained "on schedule" and Rockstar's parent company Take-Two Interactive confirmed it was scheduled for late 2025. In May 2025, Rockstar announced the game was delayed to 26 May 2026. According to Schreier, employees had expected the delay for months due to the amount of remaining work.

''Grand Theft Auto VI'' won Most Wanted Game at the Golden Joystick Awards and Most Anticipated Game at the Game Awards in 2024. Anticipation spawned an internet meme indicating bemusement that other surprising events occurred " before ''GTA 6''. Several publishers awaited a release date announcement before scheduling their own games, with others prepared to reschedule to avoid competition; Schreier called it "a massive game of 4D chess playing out across the entire video-game industry". Some hope it is sold for to $100—more than the standard $70—as it would prompt industry-wide changes, but analysts consider it unlikely. Circana predicted ''Grand Theft Auto VI'' and the Nintendo Switch 2 could "rebound" the video game market with record consumer spending; DFC Intelligence projected sales of 40 million and earnings of $3.2 billion in the first year—doubling ''Grand Theft Auto V'', which had the highest-grossing game launch—including $1 billion in preorders. Rumours suggested the game's budget surpassed $1–2 billion, making it the most expensive game to develop, though the figure remained unverified.

Promotion

In November 2023, Sam Houser, the president of Rockstar Games, announced the first trailer would release in early December to celebrate the company's 25th anniversary. Within five hours, the announcement on X (formerly Twitter) surpassed two previous posts about the game to become the platform's most- liked gaming-related post, later surpassed by Rockstar's post announcing the trailer's 5 December release date, with 1.8 million likes in 24 hours. Other developers imitated the announcement's formatting to promote their trailers. On 4 December, a low-quality version of the trailer was leaked on X; in response, Rockstar published the official version on YouTube, revealing the title, protagonists, setting, and 2025 release window for the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X and Series S.

The trailer broke the record for most first-day views on a non-music YouTube video within 12 hours, with 46 million, and, within 24 hours, became the third-most-viewed overall, with 93 million, and most-liked game trailer, with 8.9 million. It surpassed the lifetime viewership of ''Grand Theft Auto V''s 2011 reveal trailer within two days, with 101 million views, and became the second-most-viewed game trailer by January, with 168 million. Its featured song, Tom Petty's " Love Is a Long Road", saw a near-37,000% increase in Spotify streams, had almost 250,000 searches on Shazam, and ranked second on the worldwide iTunes chart. The trailer spawned fan-created recreations in other video games, as a brickfilm, and in live-action by the Hyundai World Rally Team.

A second trailer was released on 6 May 2025, revealing the protagonists' full names. It features the Pointer Sisters's song " Hot Together"—which saw a 182,000% increase in Spotify streams—as well as Wang Chung's "Everybody Have Fun Tonight", "Child Support" by , and Tammy Wynette's " Talkin' to Myself Again". Rockstar reiterated the trailer was composed of cutscenes and gameplay recorded on the PlayStation 5, following some viewers' doubts due to the high graphical fidelity. Alongside the trailer came an update to the game's website with 70 screenshots and several character and location descriptions. The trailer received over 475 million views within 24 hours across all platforms, surpassing ''Deadpool & Wolverine''s record as the biggest video launch.

Leaks

On 18 September 2022, a user known as "teapotuberhacker" published 90 videos to the website ''GTAForums'' showing 50 minutes of work-in-progress game footage. Schreier confirmed with sources at Rockstar that the footage was genuine, and ''The Guardian'' reported it was from several stages of development, with some videos about a year old. The footage revealed a modern-day Vice City setting, contained animation and gameplay tests, level layouts, and character conversations, and depicted the player characters, Lucia and Jason, entering a strip club and robbing a diner. The hacker claimed to be responsible for the Uber security breach from the prior week, said they had downloaded the files directly from Rockstar's internal Slack groups, and threatened to publish source code, assets, and internal builds of ''Grand Theft AutoV'' and ''VI''.

Take-Two responded by submitting takedowns of videos showing or discussing the leaks hosted on YouTube, and contacted ''GTAForums'' and Reddit moderators to remove access. The hacker wrote they were "looking to negotiate a deal" with Rockstar or Take-Two. Journalists described the event as one of the biggest leaks in video game history; Schreier called it "a nightmare for Rockstar Games" which could limit employees' remote-work flexibility. The Jefferies Group 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. ''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. 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 and some, including Cliff Bleszinski, Neil Druckmann, Rami Ismail, and Alanah Pearce, offered sympathies to Rockstar.

On 19 September, Rockstar confirmed the leak to be a "network intrusion" and lamented the manner in which the game was first demonstrated, but did not anticipate long-term effects on development. They disabled comments and replies on their social media accounts in the days following the leak. Take-Two added that steps had been taken "to isolate and contain this incident". Take-Two's share price dropped by more than 6% in pre-market trading that day, but recovered during regular trading hours following their statement. 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 was thought to have breached companies such as Microsoft, Nvidia, and Samsung over the preceding year. Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two's chairman and chief executive officer, said the incident caused the companies to become more vigilant with cybersecurity and had impacted staff emotionally but business remained unaffected. Rockstar later claimed the incident cost the company $5million and thousands of staff hours to recover.

A 17-year-old boy from Oxfordshire—identified as "teapotuberhacker" and a key member of Lapsus$—was arrested by the City of London Police on 22 September as part of an investigation supported by the National Cyber Crime Unit and American federal law enforcement. While on bail for hacking EE and Nvidia and under police protection at a Travelodge hotel, he breached Rockstar using a mobile phone, television, and an Amazon Fire TV Stick and threatened to release the source code in a Slack message to all Rockstar staff. Appearing before Highbury Corner Youth Court, he pleaded guilty to two counts of breaching bail conditions and not guilty to two counts of computer misuse. The case was referred to a higher court while the boy was remanded to a youth detention centre. In mid-2023, he stood trial at Southwark Crown Court for twelve offences, including six counts of computer misuse, three of blackmail, and two of fraud. He was deemed unfit to stand trial due to his autism; instead of assessing his guilt, a jury determined he had committed the acts. A judge placed him under an indefinite hospital order in December for being a high public risk as he expressed an intent to continue committing cybercrimes.

On 1 January 2025, a Reddit user posted a photograph and two videos of a PlayStation 5 development kit running the game, taken by a person who "worked at the Rockstar office for a few months" in mid-2021; the post was later deleted. Based on the office's surroundings, ''Eurogamer'' determined the photograph and videos were taken at Rockstar San Diego. ''Polygon''s Ian Walker found no new information was revealed from the post, which he called the "worst leak of all time". Many considered the opening of the second trailer in May 2025—wherein Jason is "just fixing some leaks"—a reference to the game's leaks.

Notes

References

External links

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{{portal bar, Florida, Video games

Action-adventure games
The Game Awards winners
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Open-world video games
Organized crime video games
PlayStation 5 games
Rockstar Games games
Upcoming video games scheduled for 2026
Video games featuring female protagonists
Video games set in the United States
Xbox Series X and Series S games