Key Takeaways
- GTA 6 is finally underway, launching next year.
- But fans think that Rockstar has been teasing it since GTA 5 launched.
- There are a bunch of references to Vice City in the base game, and Online has trickled clues to Miami, VI, and more over the last few years.
Rockstar finally unveiled GTA 6 with its first trailer at the end of last year, revealing at long last that we’re returning to Vice City, Miami. But fans think that the studio has been teasing the sequel for years already.
Twitter user @that1detectiv3, who’s best known for their coverage of Rockstar games and Grand Theft Auto in particular, put together an extensive thread detailing the many breadcrumbs that have been left for us to follow in the last decade.
There was the Cayo Perico Heist in 2020 which featured coordinates that, inserted into Google Maps, showed a road in the shape of ‘VI’, a clear reference to GTA 6.
More recently, in January of last year, Rockstar shared a Taxi Work poster for GTA Online that was inspired by S. A. Traka’s Miami Taxi Vibes book. It came alongside the Downtown Cab Co. shirt, which featured what looks like Vice City, not Los Santos.
We then of course have the ‘VI’ promotional art that was dropped in the build-up to GTA 6’s first trailer, kickstarting the moon phase easter egg hunt, teasing future reveals (which, at a stretch, feels like a callback to Vice City’s own moon easter egg).
One piece of artwork in particular depicts two characters stood in front of the Vinewood sign, obscuring it so that the focus is placed on ‘VI’. However, @that1detectiv3 suggests that it goes even deeper than that, and that the male/female protagonists may have been alluding to GTA 6’s own male/female duo.
Another interesting clue is that Rockstar dropped a shirt in June 2023 for GTA Online called “One Day Will Reveal All”. Running along the graphic was a string of numbers, which we now know was the GTA 6 reveal date (12523).
There are even several instances of GTA 6 textures retroactively being added to GTA 5, dating back to 2022. One even features the Vice City football team.
Lastly, @that1detectiv3 points out several potential clues that have been in GTA 5 since it launched. NPCs have a chance to say that they’re “moving to Vice City” if you freak them out by, say, stealing their car; you can find a towel on the beach that says “I ❤️ VC”; and there’s a poster for a musical called ‘Vice’.
Of course, GTA 4 also had plenty of references to Vice City, so whether these were actually teases for the next setting is questionable, but it’s undeniable that Rockstar has been trickling clues into Online for years.
Grand Theft Auto 6 is an upcoming title in the long-running series from Rockstar Games. Currently scheduled for a 2025 launch, details are few, although it appears to focus on a Bonnie-and-Clyde-like pair of characters.