GTA 6 release date speculation, trailer and latest news

Now we roughly know when the game is due to release, we're sure the rumours and leaks won't slow down except from now on it'll mostly be focussed on the game itself, not just when it's meant to come out.

All we officially have on that front at the moment is that stunning first trailer, which captured the imagination of gamers around the world and gave us a little taste of what to expect from what a GTA built for the ground up on current-gen hardware can be.

While we patiently wait for the GTA 6 release date to be finalised and confirmed, read on to find out everything there is to know about the game's setting, story details, gameplay leaks and more.

When is the GTA 6 release date? Our speculation and estimate

GTA 6 will release in autumn 2025.

Take-Two announced this during its earnings call for fiscal year 2024, which ended on 31st March. The reason for announcing the release period is to assuage fears after Take-Two missed their projected earnings for the year.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, looking ahead to the future - when they know GTA 6 will make untold amounts of money - said, "Our outlook reflects a narrowing of Rockstar Games' previously established window of calendar 2025 to fall of calendar 2025 for Grand Theft Auto VI," and added that Take-Two "expect to deliver sequential growth in net bookings for fiscal 2025, 2026 and 2027" as a result.

In an interview with CNBC earlier this month, Zelnick said that release windows will often depend on the bugs within games, but added that in the case of GTA VI it was more about "creating an experience that no one has seen before".

He continued: "Rockstar Games seeks perfection. Perfection is indeed hard to measure, as it is more subjective than objective."

When asked how confident he was that the game would release in the scheduled fall of 2025, he said that they were highly confident.

Historically, mainline GTA titles have landed in October or September. These two months seem most likely, as fellow gaming juggernaut Call of Duty typically has its yearly release in November.

That said, such is the hype surrounding GTA 6 that most developers will be dodging the autumn of 2025 like the plague to avoid being entirely eclipsed.

Once we have a firm date, we will update you as soon as we know more.

Can you pre-order GTA 6?

GTA 6 is not available for pre-order, with Rockstar still keeping lots of information hidden until the game's launch is ready.

Going off past releases, it's likely that pre-orders won't go live until a good six months or so out from the game, even if the likes of Amazon, GAME and such do upload placeholder pages in the meantime.

Is there a trailer for GTA 6?

Yes, the first GTA 6 trailer was officially uploaded by Rockstar on 4th December 2023. It leaked several hours earlier than it was scheduled to, meaning the developer was forced to publish ahead of time.

With Tom Petty's Love is a Long Road playing in the background, the 90-second trailer gives us a good look at the state of Leonida, Lucia and her male partner.

Check out the trailer below:

We don't expect another trailer until late 2024, at the earliest. It may even be 2025, depending on whether the game makes its intended release window or not.

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Where will the GTA 6 map be set?

It looks like the rumours have been confirmed by the trailer: Grand Theft Auto 6 will be set in Vice City! At least, we assume that's what the huge "VICE" sign that flashes up halfway through indicates. And the setting is very Florida. There's even a clip of an alligator in a shop.

However, it sounds like the game could expand beyond Miami post-launch. A Bloomberg report claims: "Rockstar’s plan is now to continually update the game over time, adding new missions and cities on a regular basis."

Punters have long suggested that the map will still be larger than both GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 and supposed GTA leaker Tez2 has noted that a recent GTA+ survey has asked select players if they'd use a fast-travel feature – which is therefore likely being considered for GTA 6.

A Rockstar statement can be read below, which was released back in 2022 as the game was heavily leaked:

"With every new project we embark on, our goal is always to significantly move beyond what we have previously delivered."

Expect the game to be bigger and better than what you know and love in GTA 5.

Over on Reddit, a user has collated a massive list of evidence and things learned about Vice City in GTA 6, which includes details on how it "seems to be around 2.5 x larger than Los Santos in city size".

There are tonnes of details about the map in the thread, including information on towns and other areas outside of Vice City – it's well worth a look!

Will GTA 6 story include first female protagonist?

We're chuffed to say that these rumours are true, too! The game will feature two playable characters, one of whom is Lucia. She's the first playable female protagonist since the first top-down two-dimensional game.

As for the story and characters in GTA 6, Bloomberg's report covers that. The article claims that GTA 6 "will include a playable female protagonist for the first time, according to people familiar with the game".

The report goes on to note: "The woman, who is Latina, will be one of a pair of leading characters in a story influenced by the bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde."

Touching on how the GTA tone could be modernised by this new instalment, the report adds: "Developers are also being cautious not to 'punch down' by making jokes about marginalised groups."

What platforms will GTA 6 be on?

The GTA 6 trailer has confirmed that you will be able to play the game on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, yet it remains to be seen if GTA 6 will also reach PS4 and Xbox One. After all, those previous-gen consoles could be pretty outdated by the time GTA 6 is ready in 2025.

A GTA 6 PC release date will likely happen at some point too, whether that's at launch or a later date.

It's fair to assume though that GTA 6 won't come to Nintendo Switch due to its underpowered hardware. The only way we can see this being possible is via the cloud or on the supposedly more powerful rumoured Nintendo Switch successor. We'll keep you posted as we learn more.

GTA 6 leaks

GTA 6 leaks keep giving us new details about the game ahead of its launch. The latest supposed leaks suggest that the game will feature some impressive weather tech.

From the sounds of the leak, dynamic weather in GTA 6 could effect the behaviour and activities of NPCs, with temperature even playing a part.

As with all leaks and rumours, it's worth taking everything with a hearty pinch of salt.

Finally, while this isn't a leak as such, the Rockstar website has altered its GTA 6 profile to include placeholders for things like "Platform" and "Release Date" - as X user GTA 6 Countdown shared. Check out the post below:

So does this mean huge news is on the way? As always, we'll keep you posted if anything pops up!

Our original report on the September 2022 leaks remains unchanged below:

90 videos of what is to be believed early development footage of GTA 6 leaked in September 2022, meaning we have some idea of what the game might entail. Before being taken down, the footage seemed to confirm the new female and male protagonists, alongside showcasing some open-world gameplay.

Rockstar subsequently confirmed the validity of the leaks, and added that it is "extremely disappointed to have any details of our next game shared with you all in this way". Despite the leak, though, Rockstar claims that its "work on the next Grand Theft Auto game will continue as planned". The full statement can be read below:

"We recently suffered a network intrusion in which an unauthorised third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our systems, including early development footage for the next Grand Theft Auto.

"At this time, we do not anticipate any disruption to our live game services nor any long-term effect on the development of our ongoing projects," said Rockstar.

"We are extremely disappointed to have any details of our next game shared with you all in this way. Our work on the next Grand Theft Auto game will continue as planned and we remain as committed as ever to delivering an experience to you, our players, that truly exceeds your expectations.

"We will update everyone again soon and, of course, will properly introduce you to this next game when it is ready. We want to thank everyone for their ongoing support through this situation."

Rockstar's woes are yet to conclude, however, as spotted by Reddit user u/Tobbelobben30 in the GTA 6 subreddit, publisher Take-Two has patented an animation system that allows for "highly dynamic and realistic animations".

Tobbelobben30 went on to explain in layman's terms what this means.

"Based on this patent, it seems like they're using a clever system. They've built a library of small building blocks for character movements. These blocks can be combined in various ways to create a wide range of animations."

All these "building blocks" could be combined to infer how the player and other characters should move and react.

"Think about a character in the game walking in the rain, feeling tired or getting injured. Instead of designing separate animations for each of these situations, they use these building blocks to put together the character's movements naturally."

Very exciting stuff, then! Red Dead Redemption 2 already has an extremely reactive animation system, and given the amount of obsessive detail that is in that game, a Rockstar release six or so years on from then should be a visual powerhouse.

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