On the face of it, the hunt for the next GTA 6 trailer has borne no fruit. The trailer is not yet out in the world. But this is not the only fruit such a search can grow, and the fields are rich with exactly what the community needs. That’s right folks, the real trailer is the friends we made along the way.
This isn’t just an excuse to wedge in that old meme. As someone who spends their career reporting on games, I always think the ‘before’ is the most interesting time. In the after, the community is flooded with disingenuous interlopers seeking soldiers for a culture war, or whiners demanding nerfs or buffs that fit their exact playstyle. But the before is where the real fans go, and it’s glorious.
GTA 6 News Has Been A Long Time Coming
We knew it would be a long wait for the next GTA 6 trailer. It’s Rockstar’s way to make a splash then go radio silent. In fact, having dropped the trailer in late 2023, the game was a contender for TheGamer’s Games We’ve Heard Nothing About round-up, though some minor updates spared it – plus it didn’t feel quite in the spirit of the list anyway.
Back when the first trailer dropped, I wrote about the community needing to take lessons from Elden Ring. It too endured a long period of silence, and the void seemed to bring the community closer together. I speculated whether GTA, with its more loaded history than the fresh and arcane Elden Ring, with far more pointed politicisation, could enjoy a Before Time. Thankfully, it seems it can.
The community has been drawn together by this, looking at seemingly unconnected updates from Rockstar and trying to piece them together. Whether it’s hidden codes or lunar patterns, the fans are as down to clown as Taylor Swift stans trying to make sense of holes in a fence post or upside down telephones.
Sooner or later, we will get a trailer. 13 months on from the last one, we are due an update, especially if it is to hold its 2025 launch date. With many games apparently running scared of being T-boned by Rockstar, the earlier we know a firm release date the better. I suspect the next trailer either locks that in or bumps it up to 2026.
The GTA 6 Trailer Will Get Here… Eventually
It hasn’t been quite the Elden Ring experience. With FromSoftware’s game, there were clear windows of opportunities it blew past. Every award show, trade show, and system showcase was a chance for Elden Ring to appear, a chance it missed over and over again until appearing at The Game Awards in 2021, just two months before it launched. For Rockstar, the window is constant.
Rockstar doesn’t tend to play nice with other industry goings on. GTA 6’s only trailer dropped just a few days before The Game Awards in 2023 and effectively overshadowed every reveal Keighley had. Because Rockstar pulls attention on its own, it doesn’t rely on tent poles. Any day, at any time, GTA 6’s second trailer could arrive. I’m writing this on Thursday and by the time you’re reading this on Sunday, it could be here.
That means rather than the peaks and troughs of Elden Ring, it has been constant intensity. There’s no camaraderie generated by shared disappointment, only blame. “Who even came up with the December 27 theory?” and so forth. TheGamer has covered not only the hunt for GTA’s trailer, but also the wait for Elden Ring and the (impossibly, still ongoing) anticipation for Hollow Knight: Silksong, and Rockstar has created a more toxic beast.
Still, these incidents are minor and should not dent the occasion. When the GTA 6 trailer arrives, there will be a new influx of analysis – wild theories will spring forth, headlines will be written, and you’d have to hope some gameplay would appear. We will, eventually, all see the trailer, all play GTA 6, and all have our own opinions.
Until then, we are all on the same side, cloistered together in anticipation. This is when a community truly is a community, not just a bunch of people who bought the same video game. You never get it back when it’s gone, so enjoy it while you can, and keep tracking the moon.
- Platform(s)
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PS5
, Xbox Series X|S - Released
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2025-00-00