GTA 6 release date window, trailers, and latest Rockstar Games news
November 1, 2024: We checked for the latest GTA 6 news.
When is GTA 6 coming out? Given how many years it takes to create open worlds of the same caliber as GTA 5, it’s no surprise that Rockstar Games has already spent years developing GTA 6. Rockstar prefers to keep its secrets close to its chest until close to the end of development, but Take-Two has now confirmed when exactly we can expect it to arrive.
The Grand Theft Auto 6 release date has certainly been a long time coming. Early gameplay leaks of GTA 6 surfaced online last year, along with lines of source code and development footage for the open-world game. There’s been plenty of rumors and speculation surrounding the release date since then, but we finally have confirmation of the GTA 6 launch window, story, and setting. Here’s all the latest on the GTA 6 release date, including trailers and news, right here on PCGamesN.
GTA 6 release date window
The GTA 6 release date is fall 2025, as confirmed by Rockstar Games. This is the release window for Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5, while the the GTA 6 PC release is likely to arrive in late 2026.
We received official word of the GTA 6 release date during Take-Two’s final quarterly earnings call for fiscal year 2024. Despite recent delay rumors, the publisher reiterated this release window during the Take-Two annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, September 18, 2024, stating: “Rockstar Games continues to invest in the franchise and plans to release Grand Theft Auto VI in the fall of calendar 2025.”
The release date announcement includes a statement from Rockstar Games founder Sam Houser: “Grand Theft Auto 6 continues our efforts to push the limits of what’s possible in highly immersive, story-driven open-world experiences. We’re thrilled to be able to share this new vision with players everywhere.”
While the first GTA 6 trailer confirmed the release year is 2025, a follow-up press release from Rockstar PR clarified that this is a console-specific release date. Referring to Rockstar Games’ road map for Red Dead Redemption 2, we expect the GTA 6 PC release date will fall one year later.
GTA 6 PC release date
Zelnick addressed the GTA 6 PC release date directly during the TD Cowen 52nd Annual Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference. “Rockstar has an approach to platforms which we’ve seen before, and they will make more announcements in due time,” Zelnick said. “I do believe that the right strategy for our business is to be where the consumer is, and historically what this company has done is address consumers anywhere they are, on any platform that makes sense, over time.”
The company said that “active development for the next entry” of the crime game is “well underway” and that it will enter its “next phase of growth in fiscal 2025.” While this may be subject to change, GTA 6 is unquestionably the property that will allow Take-Two to meet its target of “over $8 billion in net bookings and over $1 billion in adjusted unrestricted operating cash flow.” Take-Two’s stock received a massive jump in share price as a result of the GTA 6 launch announcement, and we expect that trend to continue as more is revealed.
GTA 6 Game Pass
Whether we’re talking about the console or PC release, there is some certainty that Grand Theft Auto 6 won’t be coming to Game Pass on day one. In a recent interview with GameIndustry.biz, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed that Take Two wouldn’t be bringing any games to the service on day one.
GTA 6 delays
While GTA 6 delays are at the forefront of any fan’s mind, there is currently no confirmation that a delay is planned. Instead, Rockstar remains committed to the GTA 6 release window. “We narrowed the timing because we are highly confident in that timing,” Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick said in an interview with CNBC following the release date announcement.
However, that’s not to say a GTA 6 delay hasn’t been raised by sources several times in the past. The most recent GTA 6 delay rumors came from a staff member at GTABase, a dedicated Rockstar news site. “GTA VI has been internally delayed by Rockstar Games and they’re already decided on the early to mid 2026 release window,” it was alleged on X (formerly Twitter). While this information was allegedly sourced from “multiple devs across two studios,” Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier assured fans this GTA 6 delay was not true.
A Kotaku report in March 2024 also suggested that Rockstar may miss its release window “as production reportedly falls behind.” Again, Schreier refuted these claims as an “overblown concern” after consulting his own sources. According to Kotaku’s source, any delay to 2026 would be considered a “fallback plan.”
GTA 6 is also exempt from the recently announced videogame voice actor strike. The SAG-AFTRA website cautions talent attached to the project with the following notice: “While not struck, this game is produced by a struck company.” Talent attached to GTA 6 may continue to work on the project, minimizing the chance of a prospective delay.
GTA 6 trailers
The first GTA 6 trailer was released earlier than anticipated due to widespread leaks. It was originally scheduled to drop on Tuesday, December 5, 2023, but Rockstar Games made it available to view a day earlier due to the leak.
Rockstar Games president Sam Houser confirmed on the Rockstar Games X (formerly Twitter) account that the GTA 6 trailer would arrive in “early December”. A new trailer was hotly anticipated after a GTA 6 trailer playlist suddenly appeared on the official YouTube channel, but this turned out to be an automatically generated playlist.
Trailer 1 is approximately 91 seconds long and verifies rumors that the series is returning to Vice City. It features several prominent GTA 6 locations, including the Malibu Club and Ocean Drive. We see our two main protagonists, Lucia and Jason, thrown together in unusual circumstances and forced to work together in a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde situation.
A GTA 6 trailer 2 release date theory posits that we could see a surprise drop on Friday, October 4, 2024. While this is based on a license plate that appears in a recent GTA Online clip, it isn’t as far fetched as it seems given that Rockstar has hidden easter eggs for GTA 6 in previous updates.
If this prediction holds, we may see a third GTA 6 trailer drop in December 2024 – a year after the first trailer – followed by a more substantial gameplay trailer in February 2025 ahead of the GTA 6 release date.
GTA 6 leaks
On September 18, 2022, 90 videos showing off 53 minutes and 26 seconds worth of test footage were leaked in one of the biggest data breaches in history. In the early test footage, we can see the player taking the role of a male and a female character as part of a Bonnie and Clyde-like duo named Jason and Lucia, as reported by Bloomberg earlier that year.
One of the standout clips shows the player controlling Lucia as she and Jason hold up a diner, like the couple at the end of Pulp Fiction. Other videos show Lucia standing on a street corner, watching the traffic go by in broad daylight, while Jason visits a nightclub. Since the footage became public, the GTA 6 leaker has been arrested.
A further GTA 6 leak occurred on TikTok just days before the GTA 6 trailer release date, which included a brief glimpse of the map. However, this leak was quickly overshadowed by the GTA 6 trailer itself, which leaked on X (formerly Twitter) less than 24 hours prior to the official release. Rockstar Games responded by releasing the trailer wholesale shortly after the discovery of the leak, stating, “Our trailer has leaked, so please watch the real thing.”
GTA 6 news
Despite the major setback of leaked game footage, Rockstar released a statement to clarify that while it is “extremely disappointed” that early footage has leaked, work on “the next Grand Theft Auto will continue as planned”. The developers also assure fans that they “will update everyone again soon and, of course, will properly introduce you to this next game when it is ready”.
At the very least, Rockstar has been developing GTA 6 since the community update on February 4, when Rockstar confirmed that “active development for the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series is well underway”. Whatever it is, we can rest assured it will be “special”. As part of the studio’s announcement that it was winding down support for Red Dead Online, Rockstar confirmed that more resources were being diverted to “the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series” and that it wants to ensure the new game “exceed[s] players’ expectations.”
Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick suggests, in a 2019 interview with GamesIndustry.biz, that better development tools and bigger teams could shorten the gaps between game releases. It could also mean that “games may be a bit shorter” while still being robustly supported post-launch.
Mitigating GTA 6 crunch time is another reason the next GTA 6 could be shorter. As Kotaku says in its report in 2020, “One plan that management has laid out for the next game, a new entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, is to start with a moderately sized release (which, by Rockstar’s standards, would still be a large game) that is then expanded with regular updates over time, which may help mitigate stress and crunch”.
Rockstar employees are speaking out about the positive changes the company is making after the scrutiny it attracted following the crunch time over Red Dead Redemption 2.
GTA 6 story
The GTA 6 trailer gave us concrete details surrounding the GTA 6 story. It’s quickly apparent that GTA 6 is set in modern-day Vice City and not the ‘80s, thanks to the proliferation of social media posts that provide quick snapshots of everyday life in Rockstar’s exaggerated version of Miami, including alligator-wrangling, drive-by twerking, and a middle-aged woman in a nightie and slippers wielding two hammers. While the prospect of in-universe social media has appeared previously in GTA 5, this latest representation of Vice City already proves that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
We also get our first proper introduction to Lucia, the first of GTA 6’s two main protagonists, as she appears in orange prison garb, conversing with a prison counselor. When asked why she ended up in prison, she shrugs: “Bad luck, I guess.” It’s unclear whether this cutscene takes place at the beginning or the end of her story, but the GTA 6 story is set to chart the course of her time on the wrong side of the law.
We also get a glimpse of Jason, the second GTA 6 protagonist, and Lucia’s partner-in-crime, although he appears to be a less prominent figure in the GTA 6 story than Lucia. The two have an intimate relationship à la Bonnie and Clyde, though their depth of romantic feelings for one another is yet to be revealed. In a brief voiceover, Lucia appears to be addressing him as she declares: “The only way that we get through this is by sticking together. Being a team.”
This teamwork is reflected in a fraught cutscene as they flee the cops in a getaway car, dollar bills clutched in Lucia’s hand. We also see multiple instances of them storming into convenience stores and other buildings, faces obscured and guns raised. One thing’s for sure: this is one crime spree we don’t want to miss.
While leaks have shown off Lucia in the past, rumors were circulating about a playable female character long beforehand. Eagle-eyed users from GTA Forums picked up on some clues, keeping track of some of the voice talent. One actor, Natonia Monet, originally lists on her CV a performance as “Tamara” under a project known by the codename “Fireball”. This profile has since been altered, but as one of their users points out, “Fireball” is the name of a song by Miami-born artist Pitbull.
As for the GTA 6 map itself, some fans speculate that if the calculations from the GTA 6 leak were true, this version of Vice City and the surrounding areas could be twice as large as GTA 5’s Los Santos – although a former dev has suggested that the GTA 6 map should be smaller and more densely packed.
Rumors also suggest that the campaign’s map will change through DLC to include new areas or updates to existing ones based on whatever theme the DLC has. It’s not just the campaign map that changes either, as the new GTA Online mode may take place on an ‘evolving map’ that includes alterations and tweaks with every update.
GTA 6 gameplay
As for what GTA 6 gameplay we can see from the leaks, there’s not much different from GTA 5. Ex-Rockstar developer Obbe Vermeij predicts that “people might be a little disappointed” on the GTA 6 release date” in an interview with creator SanInPlay, though he maintained it will still “be the best game out there.”
In one of the leaks, we see Lucia – presumably controlled by the player – holding up a diner while trying to keep the hostages from escaping by shooting them in the back as they run. We also see Jason and Lucia evading the cops by stealing one of their cars and driving around the block. Jason also leans out of a moving car while shooting with an assault rifle.
As you might expect, driveable vehicles include GTA 6 cars and boats, while the Metro allows players to effectively travel across the city. In addition, the cars seem to allow players to adjust the wheel’s position, chair angles, and other controls.
Some raw test footage shows more about the movement mechanics, including a cover system, crouching, and crawling. The playable character can also cover their face with their hands or GTA 6 weapons to prevent headshots. At one point in the footage, we see Jason looking in a convenience store while using a new vision ability. It looks similar to how Deadeye in Red Dead Redemption works, but right now, we only see it adjust the color of the footage.
And that’s our roundup of GTA 6 release date news. We still have a long time to wait until the sequel to one of the best PC games arrives. In the meantime, we have compiled a list of GTA 6 cheats that we’d love to see in the sandbox game and some speculation on whether GTA 6 will be on Steam for those of you who prefer playing games on Valve’s platform.