GTA 6 - What We Know So Far

Grand Theft Auto 5 has been at the top of its popularity for quite some time now. After its release, the praise began pouring in for the open-world game, which lets people live in almost any way they can imagine. But now that it's been out for six years, fans are naturally wondering when we'll get news on the sixth game in the series. The short answer is, we don't have much information on GTA 6 at the moment

What we do have, though, are some educated guesses, rumors, and pieces of information we can put together. Suffice it to say, what follows is mostly speculation, so take it with a grain of salt. But we have managed to gather all existing information about GTA 6 into one place, and we've included a few rumors and theories, as well. Here is what we do know (and what we're guessing at) about GTA 6 so far.

As of right now, no release date has been announced for GTA 6. Because Rockstar released Red Dead Redemption 2 just recently in 2018, it only makes sense that the company would want to stagger information about releases in order to keep fan interest piqued.

Though no announcement was made for GTA 6 at E3 2019, we're hoping to hear some solid information at least by E3 2020, if not sooner. Chances are, however, GTA 6 will be debuting on the next generation of consoles, slated to come out in 2020. That would put the release of GTA 6 sometime in 2021 or later.

Because no official announcement has been made for GTA 6 yet, there is no trailer available. Odds are, the announcement trailer will be released at a large upcoming event like E3 or Gamescom, where Rockstar can get the most exposure for the game right off the bat. You can be sure that the second the trailer drops, we'll be here to cover it.

Even though no solid information has been released about GTA 6, we do have some hints from interviews regarding possible locations for the next game in the series.

YouTube channel GTAVoclock managed to snag a rare interview with Leslie Benzies, who was the president of Rockstar North back in 2013. Because Benzies rarely gives interviews, the scoop was a pretty big deal for the YouTubers. While Benzies has since left Rockstar, he did give some insight into the direction the GTA franchise was taking: namely that the end goal for the GTA franchise has always been to keep expanding the series until it resembles an actual world. Rockstar wants to continually expand on the universe it's already created and keep it growing for as long as it can. This means that we may revisit some familiar cities from older GTA titles, and we can almost guarantee we'll be seeing new cities, as well.

With the goal to keep expanding, we may even have multiple new locations present in GTA 6. And if Rockstar is sticking with the theme of big cities to imitate, something like an off-brand New York or South American city could be in the lineup.

If there's one thing we know about Rockstar, it's that the company likes to connect its games in unusual ways. Whether it's by suggesting that characters from Red Dead Redemption are somehow related to characters from the Grand Theft Auto games, or by making subtle references to events between games, Rockstar is highly skilled at making these connections.

While it's almost certain that we'll get a cast of new characters for GTA 6, we will more than likely see connections to our favorite characters from GTA 5. This may be through actual cameo appearances from these characters or just passing remarks about them.  And as far as playable characters go, there have been rumors circulating about a possible female playable character.

Because a female lead isn't something that's been done in a GTA game before, it would only make sense for Rockstar to defy its own history by including one in Grand Theft Auto 6. If the company plans to change things up and explore ideas it hasn't explored before, including a female playable character would be the easiest way to do this. Rockstar has said that it didn't "really think about it" with the release of GTA 5 (it being the inclusion of a female protagonist), but the company is still reportedly open to the idea of female player characters in future games.

Historically, GTA games have had a uniquely American feel to them. Despite the fact that Rockstar is a UK based company, they've rarely taken GTA outside of the United States (with the exception of GTA: London). Because of this, we can assume that the story for GTA 6 will revolve around characters, brands, and loose storylines that we've encountered in the areas of the world Rockstar has already built, which are mostly based in the U.S.

Of course, there are always rumors around any release, and GTA 6 is no exception. Some fans believe that because of the Doomsday Heist, GTA 6 could have a futuristic theme. The flying cars and advanced technology found in Doomsday Heist convinced many fans that we'd be seeing more of these sci-fi elements in the next GTA release. But with GTA usually being grounded in a sense of hyper-realism, we don't think this rumor is very likely.

There have also been rumors about taking the GTA franchise worldwide and into different countries we haven't explored before. Even though GTA is usually American-centric, Rockstar did copyright the name Grand Theft Auto: Tokyo at one point, suggesting a possible visit to Eastern countries. Of course, until we receive any real confirmation, this is all just speculation.

More than likely, GTA 6 will be available on the next gen consoles that are slated to release in 2020. Because Rockstar will want to take full advantage of the new technology being released, having their newest title release on the newest consoles only makes sense.

In the past, GTA 4 and GTA 5 were released onto PC, but not until the console versions of those games spent a considerable amount of time on the market. So if history serves as any indication, GTA 6 won't be immediately available for PC gamers, but will eventually be ported over after the next gen PlayStation and Xbox are given priority.