Don't Get Excited About That Leaked GTA 6 Rating Just Yet

Diehard "Grand Theft Auto" fans have been scouring the internet for any and all signs of "GTA 6." Rockstar Games has remained largely evasive when it comes to details about the game, only confirming that it does indeed exist and is in active development. Now, a new rating for the game has been discovered on the internet, but while some fans think this means an announcement or teaser trailer is imminent, others think there's no reason to get excited just yet.

Over on the GamingLeaksAndRumors subreddit, a user who goes by RojaTop shared their findings: "Grand Theft Auto VI has been rated MA15+ on the Australian Classification board... somehow," they wrote. Sure enough, the Australian Classification website now has a listing for "Grand Theft Auto 6," along with a couple of wild content warnings about what fans can expect in the new games. The rating restricts customers under the age of 15 from buying the title, while the red box attached to the rating cautions that the game contains "Strong Sex Scenes [and] Strong Drug Use." Curiously, the rating seemingly doesn't account for graphic violence or harsh language, both of which have long been the "Grand Theft Auto" series' bread and butter.

Grand Theft Auto VI has been rated MA15+ on the Australian Classification board... somehow
by
u/RojaTop in
GamingLeaksAndRumours

Explaining that the rating has apparently been in the board's system since April, RojaTop asked their fellow Redditors to weigh in. Could it be that Rockstar Games has already submitted the game for approval from ratings boards? If so, is it possible that the next game in the series has toned down the franchise's usual violence and mayhem? There are more than a few reasons why some "Grand Theft Auto" fans are side-eyeing this newly revealed rating.

One of the biggest points of contention with this rating is the fact that it seems to skew a bit younger than previous Rockstar games. For instance, "Grand Theft Auto 5" was rated 18+ in Australia. Of course, Rockstar has previously told gamers that it plans to clean up its act in the future. The developer has expressed a bit of embarrassment over some of the dated content in previous games, even going so far as to remove transphobic jokes from the next-gen version of "GTA 5." It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for the next "GTA" game to be rated slightly lower than "GTA 5." Still, some fans are shocked at the idea of "GTA 6" essentially getting a "T for Teen" rating. "Imagine if this is the actual rating. And the game lost all its edge," one fan wrote. Another intimated that the series just wouldn't be the same, writing, "If GTA was rated T for Teen I would be SERIOUSLY worried, though."

For this reason, as well as the fact that there's a great deal more information missing from the ratings page, many of the fans in the subreddit remain convinced that this rating listing is just a temporary page. One fan writes, "[This is a] place holder or a provisional rating until it actually gets submitted. It's happened in the past with previous Rockstar titles, [Red Dead Redemption 2] for example was given a provisional 18 PEGI rating in 2016 when the game was announced."

Not long after sharing the rating on Reddit, user RojaTop popped back onto the thread to seemingly debunk their own findings. They pointed out that previous rating classifications for Rockstar Games titles have capitalized the publisher's name, whereas this new "GTA 6" rating does not. As proof, RojaTop shared the URL for the Australian Board's classification for "GTA 5," which features Rockstar's name in all caps. RojaTop and others on the forum have taken this as a telltale sign that the rating for "GTA 6" is less than official. However, another Redditor points out that this year's "Red Dead Redemption" remaster also forgoes the all-caps approach. This could be chalked up to changes in the rating processes over the years. After all, "Grand Theft Auto 5" came out a whole decade ago, and times have changed.

As it stands, most fans seem to believe that this rating is just a placeholder, and will most likely change as the release of the game gets closer. The fact that this rating has apparently been filed since April of this year only serves to strengthen this theory. Still, there's a contingent of gamers who pray that this leaked rating means a "GTA 6" trailer is finally going to be released this month. When it comes to building up "Grand Theft Auto 6" hype, fans are nothing if not hopeful.