GTA 6 might not be released for a few years yet, but have we finally got our first look at how the game might look? Based on one Reddit users investigation, this might just be legitimate!
Let's take a look at what that means for GTA 6
LATEST - GTA 6 Screenshot Reportedly Leaked
In what was already a big week for GTA with the release of the Los Santos Tuners update for GTA Online, we also got some other exciting news that relates to GTA 6.
A Reddit post went live from u/SouthernFailway that shows our first in-game screenshot from GTA 6.
click to enlarge
+ 12This must be taken with a pinch of sale as Reddit has been known to produce plenty of false reports in the past, but the user has since done on to match up this screenshot with certain other leaked aspects including the leaked Vice City map.
Rumoured Map Uploaded, Quickly Deleted From YouTube
In yet another strange turn of events for GTA 6, a rumoured map video was uploaded earlier this week before being quickly removed.
The original video was very unclear, likely trying to conceal the fact that it wasn't legitimate, and came under much criticism in the short time it was available. The leak wasn't supported or endorsed by any major source who would have knowledge of the game.
The video has been saved and reuploaded by multiple other people, likely to preserve it should it turn out to be the real deal.
Release Date Rumours Backed Up By Major Sources
It appears the wait for GTA 6 is truly set to be a few years longer yet. Popular Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier has backed up the rumoured 2025 release date from @_Tom_Henderson_
Both have stated that what they are hearing out of Rockstar Games matches up and a 2025 release date is the most likely scenario.
What We Want From A Vice City Map
With reports suggesting that GTA 6 is set to take place on a modern Vice City map, we took a look at what are the biggest things we want to see.
READ MORE: What We Want From A Modern Vice City Map In GTA 6
Whether it's bringing back the gyms of San Andreas or the shopping mechanics from Red Dead Redemption 2, we know what we want and we won't settle until we get it!
GTA 6 Release Date & Setting Reportedly Leaked
He has mentioned how cryptocurrency could be used in GTA 6 in the past, but @_Tom_Henderson_ is back with some more GTA 6 leaks.
In a new GTA 6 focused video, moving away from his normal Battlefield and Call of Duty focus, he talks about various things he's heard over the last few months.
According to his sources, GTA 6 will not release until 2025, it will be set in a modern version of Vice City, and will feature an evolving map.
Whether than means parts of the map will be replaced every few months, like Fortnite and Warzone, it's not clear, but it could offer various ways of expanding GTA Online.
Rockstar Hinting At Reveal In July?
It's not often that Rockstar engage in hidden message marketing, but with one of their latest GTA Online promo images, there could be a date hidden within.
click to enlarge + 12In this promo for the Vetir, if you pay close attention to the V and the I from the E, we of course have the roman numeral VI (6). If you then take the main ware of the T, which looks like a 7, and the I and left part of the R, it looks like 11.
Put all this together and you have VI 7 11. Now of course this is completely speculative, but could we be in for something GTA 6 related on 11 July?
Cryptocurrency Could Be Used In GTA 6
Trusted leaker Tom Henderson recently revealed that cryptocurrency could play a part in GTA 6, being a method of currency in the game, with it being used by "higher up characters that needs to transfer high amounts of untraceable cash and fast."
"I heard recently that in GTA 6, some missions will reward you in bitcoin instead of cash for completing some missions. The stock market feature will return, with the addition of a broker for different cryptocurrencies. If GTA 6 incorporates this right, it's huge for crypto.
Just so there's no confusion, I mean in-game payments of bitcoin. These payments will come from the more higher up characters that needs to transfer high amounts of "untraceable cash and fast".
Just so there's even less confusion - I'm not joking. This is what I heard from someone that I trust and it will likely not be called "Bitcoin" per say - But it will be a cryptocurrency."
This would be interesting to see and makes sense as Rockstar Games has always had its finger on the pulse when it comes to including the latest trends and pop culture into the GTA series.
Release Date
So far there has been no official release date given, in fact there hasn't been an official announcement of its existence.
But, with GTA V launching back in 2013 it is very safe to say that GTA 6 is in development.
Platforms
With a potential 2023 release window, we will be right in the middle of the next generation lifecycle, meaning that is is extremely unlikely we will see the game release on either the PS4 or Xbox One.
Instead it will release on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
GTA V didn't release on PC for two years after the console release, but with the popularity of the PC version of GTA V it is likely we will see a launch of GTA 6 on PC from day 1, or at least fairly close to it.
Missions
It has been rumoured that the game will feature a 100 hour story mode, filled to the brim with dozens of missions.
click to enlarge + 12With the size of next gen games, it is very likely we will see an install of around 200GB, so we could definitely see a very large campaign.
100 hours may be a bit much, but definitely 50-70 hours.
Online
GTA Online is a huge part of Rockstar's portfolio, generating over $700 million per year in revenue.
This could also be part of the reason why they haven't rushed to release GTA 6, because they are generating huge amounts of money with the online side of the game.
The mode recently saw its first map change since the game launched, a sign that more changes could happen in the future.
click to enlarge + 12With the release of GTA 6 it is unlikely the online side will stay in Los Santos, instead transferring over to the new map.
Rockstar could also be using the online part to test features, such as the single player heists in the Cayo Perico expansion.
READ MORE: Dr Dre Guest Stars In New GTA Online Cayo Perico Heist
Job Listing Hints At GTA 6
A job listing was posted on Monster looking for an environment artist to "Join our team to create next-generation worlds".
It is fair to assume this is referring to upcoming PS5 and Xbox Series X games.
In the listing it states one of the responsibilities as "creating and texturing environment assets for the biggest and best open-world environment in the industry".
When players think of the best open-world games, Grand Theft Auto is always top of that list, as well as Red Dead Redemption.
But with Red Dead Redemption 2 launching in 2018, it is very likely referring to a new GTA game.
click to enlarge + 12With a decade passing since the release of GTA V, that sounds entirely plausible.
GTA V Next Gen Is Bad News For GTA 6
Recently, during the announcement of the GTA Online Summer Update 2021, it was revealed that the next-gen GTA V port would be released worldwide on November 11, 2021.
This news as good as confirms that it is very unlikely we will see the announcement of GTA 6 in 2021.
While fans are eagerly awaiting the official announcement of GTA 6, if they know the new game is coming then there would be less incentive to purchase GTA V on next-gen consoles and just stick with the version they currently play.
This means that we won't likely see the reveal of GTA 6 until at least 2022.
GTA 6 Name Leaked?
The GTA series has seen numerous variations when it comes to its naming structure.
From the regular Grand Theft Auto with a number, to the more spin-off variant like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
It has been suggested that the next entry in the series will combine both of them, with a clever play on words.
It has been rumoured that the next title in the series will be called Grand Theft Auto VI(CE) CITY.
click to enlarge + 12By looking at the map for the "Height Of Society" from GTA Online's recent racing DLC, it does show a potential hint of the next game being focused around Florida and Mexico.
This could hint at the next location for GTA 6 since Vice City is based on Miami.
Rockstar May Have Leaked The Location
Way back in 2002, the year Vice City was released, Rockstar registered the domain RockstarCartel.com.
It doesn't appear that the domain was ever used as nothing can be found on Waybackmachine.
click to enlarge + 12But, recently Rockstar has renewed the domain, perhaps hinting at what we can expect from the next entry in the series.
It's not uncommon for a publisher to register many domains surrounding a new game.
Many of these go unused and are just secured in case they are needed.
Quite often many of these become public knowledge as domain registrations are publicly available.
So it is possible the domain expired a long time ago, but with many fans believing GTA 6 will be set in Vice City, Rockstar may have been worried a fan might grab the domain name and make a fake website.
click to enlarge + 12Map Leak Suggests A Second Location
Recently, we reported on a 4Chan leak of the GTA 6 map, which could hold a lot of weight based on previous reports as the game appears to be set in Vice City, which is modelled after Miami, Florida.
click to enlarge + 12This map shows what appears to be an island similar to Florida, which is home to Miami and where Vice City is based on.
Leaks also appear to show a second island, which you can see below.
click to enlarge + 12Players on the GTA sub-Reddit have speculated that this could be based on Rio De Janeiro, another location that has been rumoured for many months for GTA 6.
If these leaks are true, the island locations could show a larger emphasis on boats and planes, which could also open up the possibility of more hijacking missions and vehicle gameplay online.
GTA 6 will feature a single-player mode
Whilst GTA 6 is yet to be officially confirmed, we have good news if you're a fan of the single-player modes on the Rockstar franchise.
Take-Two Interactive - one of the key brains behind the GTA franchise - has confirmed that whilst multiplayer, online experiences are a dominant force in the current climate, they won't be turning their back on single-player modes.
click to enlarge + 12"There was an argument just a couple of years ago, not around here, not in this shop, but in some of our competitors' offices, that single-player is dead, that it's all about multiplayer. We didn't believe that. I said specifically and publicly that we didn't believe that, our labels don't believe that"
So fear not single-player fans, you'll still have an expertly produced storyline mode to crack on with if/when GTA 6 comes around.
Could GTA 6 Be Influenced By WoW?
Last year saw the addition of the Cayo Perico Heists to GTA Online, the first time the map had been expanded since its launch in 2014.
Could this be a test for GTA 6?
With the game rumoured to take place in many different locations, it is possible we could see expansion packs released for the game, much like MMORPGs such as World Of Warcraft.
This could allow them to create a vast expansive world without having to delay the game for longer than it already will be, the current rumour is a 2023 release so a decade after GTA V.
We could also see the game return to many iconic, and even new locations.
Classic locations such as Liberty City, Vice City, and San Andreas could all be in the game, as well as a return to London.
GTA 6 NPCs Will Be Self Aware
Rockstars Games has applied to patent a new technology called "System and Method for Virtual Navigation in a Gaming Environment".
The patent describes a new system that will allow for NPCs to act intelligently and react to situations and hazards in real-time.
This is explained in the patent, with it stating that,
"As an additional drawback, conventional systems relied almost entirely on local traffic avoidance for NPCs to avoid collisions. This involves, each frame, checking the local environment for any potential obstructions (vehicles, pedestrians, objects), building up a view of that obstruction from the local vehicle (creating a `front facing` polygon which is a list of points/lines that the vehicle will need to avoid in order to not hit the obstruction), generating information about the road the vehicle is on so they can avoid going off-road into buildings and finally generating and detecting the best steering angle to avoid all the obstructions. This is done every frame for each entity and no knowledge of the previous frame is used. This can result in very late detection of potential issues and no high level knowledge of `this road is blocked;` instead, the system only indicates that there's something in my way to be avoided. Vehicles cannot plan accordingly, for example, if there is any type of road blockage."
But this new system will allow the NPCs to react to situations in real-time and plan new routes if their current one is blocked.
READ MORE: GTA 6 rumors that we hope are true
The NPC could also decide to avoid the highway altogether if the player is going on a 5-star rampage with a rocket launcher.
Classic Trilogy Remasters
GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas were released on the PlayStation 2 during the early 2000s.
They all became instant classics and are still highly regarded today.
It is being reported that Rockstar are working on remastering the classic trilogy to help tide players over while they wait for GTA 6 to be released.
As of right now the collection hasn't been officially confirmed by Rockstar, but it is expected to be announced later this year with a late 2021/early 2022 release date.
Last-Gen Ports
The last generation of consoles, the PS4 and Xbox One, were released back in 2013.
In 2020 we saw the release of the new next-gen systems, the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, which will mean that the previous-gen will eventually be phased out and discontinued.
click to enlarge + 12With the current rumoured released date for GTA 6 being a few years away, the next-gen will be passed its transition phase where games are released for both generations at the same time.
By the time GTA 6 could release the last-gen consoles will likely be a decade old, which means that it is very unlikely we will see a PS4 or Xbox One version of GTA 6, and even less so for the Xbox 360, which may be old enough to drink by the time Rockstar's next entry in the series is finally released.
PS2 Trilogy Set To Be Remastered
With the expected release date for GTA 6 being a few years off, it looks like Rockstar will be bridging the gap by remastering the PS2 trilogy, GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas.
With the current pandemic, most developers are working from home, which will understandably slow down the development of games.
We have seen many instances of this already throughout 2020 and 2021 and will likely continue to see games delayed over the coming months.
This could be the reason why GTA V is coming to the new next-gen consoles later this year, and why there is currently a rumour of GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas being remastered.
Nothing has been officially announced yet, but with the next-gen version of GTA V on the horizon, we may hear about this sooner rather than later.