It has been about ten years since the last Grand Theft Auto game. That game, Grand Theft Auto V, is a record-setter in sales and the best-selling title in the franchise. The next game in the series will likely be as big, if not bigger, but we still have some undetermined time to wait.
According to reports in 2022, the game, which has been in development for many years, is about two years out from completion. That timeline puts us pretty close to a new game as of 2024. Combine that notion with the announcement in an interview from Take-Two’s CEO Strauss Zelnick that 2025 will be a big year for the company financially. Putting these clues together points to a early 2025 release.
There have been no other official updates besides those comments, which only confirm the game is in process. In late 2022, we got an unexpected update via a hack executed by an individual on developer, Rockstar Games.
The Leak
The hacker has been caught and charged, according to Rockstar, who apologized for the unofficial release of information. While the leak is a crime and not a good thing, it has increased the excitement surrounding the title’s release as potential players got a glimpse of what’s likely to come.
Despite still not knowing a release date, we now know some of the game’s crucial details. The hacker posted over 90 video clips and images totaling over 50 minutes of footage from the hopefully soon-to-be-released game. The content was of various aspects of the game, including gameplay footage, all in different stages of development. That content has since been removed, but the damage is done.
The Protagonists
The big news from the leak is that there is clear evidence of a Latina female protagonist named Lucia. If she is a playable character, she would be the first in the first female protagonist in the franchise. There appears to be a playable male character named Jason as well, so there will probably be multiple protagonists like Grand Theft Auto 5, but it is a huge deal that one is female. Besides that surprise bomb, the leak seems to point to the game occurring in a familiar setting.
The Setting
In 2002, Rockstar released Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the sixth entry in the series overall. The city you explore in the game is essentially Miami, Florida, circa the 1980s. That game which is now available for Xbox, Xbox One, Xbox X|S, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, iOS, Android, and Nintendo Switch, is the fourth-highest-selling game of all time among the vast catalog of PlayStation 2 games. The game and setting performed well enough for a second prequel game, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, release in 2006.
In the leak, there is evidence that the next game will occur partly or entirely in Vice City. This reveal is also a huge deal since it’s been 17 years since we last visited the city. Will we get to visit familiar places we’ve seen before? Better yet, will we be able to recognize them with the update to graphics seventeen years later?
It’s also possible that there could be cameos from the Vice City games. Though many of the main characters don’t make it out of Vice City by the end of the story, there’s still the potential to see the likes of Tommy or Ken. It’s not uncommon for characters to appear in multiple Grand Theft Auto games, especially consecutive titles. If any do appear again in Grand Theft Auto 6, they will all be a bit older than we last saw them, thanks to another tidbit in the footage.
The Timeline
Another piece of the leak reveals even more about the game’s setting. In Vice City, we visited the Miami-like city during its heyday in the 1980s. The leaked footage from the new title shows evidence that the game setting is in modern times due to the technology the characters use. So we’ll see what the city looks like almost forty years after the events of the Vice City games.
Almost any news is good regarding games, but this leak seemed to supercharge fans’ excitement for the next Grand Theft Auto release. Hopefully, now that much of the public knows these major details, Rockstar will speed up the official trailer release. It’ll be interesting to see if the game stays true to the leak. If anything changes it’ll also be fascinating to see the repercussions, if any, from those changes.