Grand Theft Auto VI debuts early, game launches in 2025

Grand Theft Auto VI debuts early, game launches in 2025

Rockstar Games has revealed the next Grand Theft Auto earlier than planned, with a 90-second trailer that’s promising a 2025 release for GTA VI and, in a rare turn for the series, a woman in one of the lead roles.

Why it matters: GTA is not just one of gaming’s biggest franchises, but one of entertainment’s biggest.

• The most recent entry, 2013’s GTA V, has sold 190 million copies and earned $1 billion three days after its release, according to publisher Take Two Interactive.
• The GTA games are popular interactive playgrounds, a mix of story-driven crime adventure and playable sandbox, where players grab any car, boat or plane available and go for a joyride.

Details: The trailer confirms that GTA VI will set in Vice City, Rockstar’s satirical take on Miami.

• It focuses on a character named Lucia, who talks to a man, possibly her boyfriend or husband, about sticking together, while footage plays of the two robbing a liquor store and speeding away from the cops.
• Other scenes should scenes from around Vice City, including a man catching an alligator in his swimming pool, people running on a beach and speedboats racing through a harbor.

Be smart: The series is famously focused on the lives and crimes of men, featuring male leads in every major entry since 2001’s seminal Grand Theft Auto III.

Of note: Rockstar had planned to debut the trailer at 9am ET on Dec. 5, a date it even secretly put it in an in-game t-shirt that was added to Grand Theft Auto Online in October.

• That announcement alone garnered more than 160 million views on X.
• After the trailer leaked Monday evening, Rockstar published the trailer on its official channel.
• “Our trailer has leaked,” the company posted, “so please watch the real thing on YouTube.” Within a half hour, that post had 14 million views.

Flashback: The game’s leading couple and setting were initially leaked over a year ago after a hacker got access to in-development footage of the game.

• Rockstar confirmed that leak at the time but said it would not impact development of the game.
• Footage in today’s trailer looked far more slick than the leaked footage.

What’s next: Rockstar listed this as the game’s first trailer, but has not said when they’ll show more.

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