GTA 6 - Release Date, News, Maps, and More
On September 18, 2022, huge leaks emerged about one of the most anticipated games of the last 10 years. Dozens of video files for Grand Theft Auto 6, the latest installment of the open-world game about criminals and car theft, appeared on the GTAForums fan site.
The leak caused a lot of trouble, alerted the FBI, and started an intense discussion about leaks in the video game industry and their impact on all elements of game development. But the fans also have confirmed some of their own theories about GTA 6 location and GTA 6 release date.
When was GTA 6 announced?
In a press release from February 4, 2022, Rockstar announced that the next Grand Theft Auto game will be released soon - but there was no GTA 6 release date confirmed. Prior to this announcement, Rockstar had mainly talked about how well Grand Theft Auto 5 and GTA Online were doing, and how both games were receiving updates for next-generation consoles.
But since the news came from a press release, many journalists and fans of the game felt that GTA 6 was still at a relatively early stage of development. We still can’t say when is GTA 6 coming out.
Leaked in September
The leak happened on the GTAForums, which serves to discuss all fan issues and news on GTA 6 and previous parts of the game – but mostly Online. Materials related to Grand Theft Auto 6, which is still in production, appeared on September 18. The news on GTA 6 leaks quickly spread to other social networks such as Twitter and YouTube.
The materials came from a user named “teapotuberhacker,” who also claimed to be the same person who hacked the Uber cab app earlier this month. He posted 90 clips from GTA 6 on the forum, and other graphic material and game code also appeared there.
Hacking attack
Take-Two Interactive asked for the removal of the revealed videos later that day—the next day, the threads with the revealed content were removed from both GTAForums and the GTA 6 subreddit. Messages on both sites said they were removing all copyrighted content because Take-Two had asked them to do so.
In a surprising move, Rockstar confirmed that the hack was real. Previously, some still said it was part of a promotional stunt, but apparently there was a real hacking attack. The FBI has also been alerted and is investigating the hackers.
A statement on Uber's blog said it was working with the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice to look into the recent data breach. They confirmed that the hacker is the same person who hacked Rockstar - part of a group called Lapsus$, which has attacked other companies such as Nvidia, Microsoft, and Samsung in the same way.
Fortunately for fans of the game, the hacker, or hackers did not harm work on the game and did not delete files. This means that this won’t affect the GTA 6 release date and work on GTA 6 will go on as usual—although fans are already thinking what the leak means. Experienced game developers warn that the game is in the early stages of development—but some of the assets already look pretty good.
When is GTA 6 coming out?
Rockstar Games didn’t specify when is GTA 6 coming out—even though some fans hoped for 2023. Though the graphic design looks quite advanced, 2024/5 looks more likely as GTA 6 release date.
Covid-19 pandemic changed the corporate culture a lot—more people work from home and this means longer development time for the game. GTA 6 release date is also dependent on good graphics chips—and there is shortage of video cards, caused by crypto miners. With time, it will hopefully change. The official date is not yet announced, and it’s unlikely that it will be revealed in 2022. We’ll see more news with an official GTA 6 trailer.
What do we know about GTA VI?
Fans have theorized that GTA 6 will return to Vice City, the fictional version of Miami, where one of the first 3d games took place—and one of the creators seemed to confirm it in an interview, but until now we had no official GTA 6 location, and we haven’t seen any maps.
The leaks apparently confirm this theory—the name Vice City is seen in some locations, like Metro, and there are palm trees everywhere. It’s not unlikely that GTA 6 location will be Vice City or Miami. Fans hope for a larger, remastered map with surrounding environs, however. Some people hoped for the 80s or 60s prequel, but it’s now clear that the game will be set in more contemporary times—with people having smartphones.
While the story and exact map aren’t known, it’s almost certain that like GTA 5 had three main characters, 6 will have two—one of which is going to be a female Latina. According to GTA 6 news, it seems that the female lead is named Lucia, while the male character is called Jason. Some claim that previous player characters—namely Michael from 5 and Niko from 4 could make a return.
The previous part was criticized for its edginess - the three main characters were a sociopath drug dealer, a naive gangbanger and a Tony Soprano ripoff. With Miami as a setting and a female protagonist, the game might be more comedic and less dramatic. In one of the clips, Lucia and Jason are robbing a restaurant in a scene reminiscent of Pulp Fiction.
Graphically, we know quite little. A lot of the car models in the game have been borrowed from 4 and 5, and they will be replaced with new designs in the future. Some employees have bragged on LinkedIn about using new technologies like Motion Matching that makes animation smoothier.
It’s hard to make a final verdict about the cost, technical requirements and most other aspects of the game—it is not unlikely that the story is complete, but the game doesn’t have all the assets complete. With the longer wait times, it does not seem unlikely that the game will appear in 2025.
