The GTA 6 release date has been announced amid delay speculation

The latest instalment in the ‘Grand Theft Auto’ series will take us back to Vice City

Rockstar Games has tried to quell rumours of a release date delay (The Independent )

Fans have been waiting for the release of GTA 6 for years. After the upcoming game’s first trailer finally dropped at the end of last year, whispers began to spread that the release might be pushed back until early 2026. Now, Rockstar Games’ parent company Take-Two Interactive has decided it’s time to put these rumours to bed.

On 16 May, Take-Two Interactive’s CEO Strauss Zelnick revealed in an earnings call that GTA 6 would be released in the autumn of next year, narrowing down the release window for the very first time. “We do feel highly confident that we’ll deliver [GTA 6] in fall of 2025,” Zelnick said in the earnings call.

While long-held rumours suggest GTA 6 has been in development since 2014, we finally got a first-look trailer on December 2023, coinciding with Rockstar Games’s 25th anniversary. The trailer broke records on YouTube, racking up 93 million views on the platform in 24 hours.

The official trailer took us back to a modern sun-soaked Vice City and introduced us to protagonist Lucia and her currently unnamed partner. Soundtracked to Tom Petty’s “Love is a Long Road”, the GTA 6 trailer is filled with neon lights, speed boats, jumbo jets, pool parties, strip clubs, flamingoes and short TikTok-inspired vertical footage, leaving fans more excited than ever.

So, what do we know about GTA 6? When could the game be released? And how much could it cost? We’ve got all the details about the upcoming instalment in the franchise.

‘GTA 6’ release date and trailer: When could the game launch?

While a firm release date has not yet been announced, the first-look trailer in December gave fans a release window – at the end of the 90-second teaser, when the titles flash up on the screen, underneath in bold white letters are the words “Coming 2025”.

Since the launch of the trailer, the 2025 release date has been removed from marketing materials. But on 16 May, Take-Two Interactive’s CEO Strauss Zelnick reaffirmed that GTA 6 will be released in 2025, and stated that the company is confident of an autumn 2025 release window.

But could there still be delays? It’s worth looking at the release schedule for Rockstar’s most recent game, Red Dead Redemption 2, for more release date clues. Red Dead Redemption 2’s first teaser trailer was released in October 2016, and the company said the game would be released in the second half of 2017.

It was then pushed back twice, first to early 2018, before finally being given an official release date of 26 October 2018 – two years after the teaser trailer dropped. If the next Grand Theft Auto game follows the same release strategy and accounts for delays, then the latest we could see the game launch is in 2026.

In March, rumours began to swirl about a delay to the GTA 6 release date. A report published by Kotaku in March 2024 revealed that insiders at Rockstar believed the game would be pushed back to late 2025 or even early 2026.

In February, Rockstar mandated that its workers return to the office five days a week. Kotaku says that while security and quality were reportedly the main reasons, the publication was told by its sources that development on GTA 6 had started “falling behind,” with its sources stating the leadership at Rockstar was nervous about the game missing its 2025 window.

Kotaku added: “While early 2025 was at one point possible, it’s no longer the target for Grand Theft Auto VI’s launch”. That became apparent when Strauss revealed in May that the new target for GTA 6 is autumn 2025.

‘GTA 6’ location: Where is Vice City?

In September 2022, a hacker leaked 90 videos and screenshots of GTA 6. The footage and screenshots were described as early development, but it all but confirmed the game would be taking place in Vice City. This was then officially confirmed in the first-look trailer.

Vice City is heavily based on the coastal city of Miami. In the trailer, we see news packages and road signs featuring location names, suggesting the Vice City map is going to be significantly bigger than the original 2002 game. Reddit users have already been mocking up maps of Vice City, based on the leak.

The trailer gives us confirmation Leonida is the state that Vice City is based in, with one social media post stating: “Only in Leonida is a crotch grab an apology for bad driving.” Other road signs read VCI Airport, Catalan Boulevard, Kelly County, Vice Beaches and Port VC/Keys.

‘GTA 6’ story and characters: Who will be the main protagonists in the new game?

Like GTA V, the latest title will feature more than one protagonist. The 2022 leak introduced us to GTA 6’s new protagonists, with much of the footage showing a Latin American woman called Lucia and a man named Jason.

The latest game is rumoured to be based on the real-life criminals Bonnie and Clyde, according to someone familiar with the game’s development. We got a better look at Lucia in the first-look trailer. In the opening shot, she’s seen wearing a prison uniform talking to, we assume, a parole officer. The man, however, is not named.

New York actor Gregory Connors is reported to be playing Jason in GTA 6. Though the casting hasn’t been officially confirmed, Connors listed a ‘lead’ role in a 2025 Rockstar game in a recent CV update. The speculation follows days after Troy Baker, the renowned videogame voice actor best known for his lead roles in The Last of Us and Uncharted, confirmed he wasn’t playing any of the main protagonists in GTA 6.

GTA V was the first in the series to introduce three playable protagonists, Michael, Trevor and Franklin, and the upcoming game is expected to follow a similar pattern, with players able to swap between characters in between missions.

How much is ‘GTA 6’ going to cost?

It’s not often you see discourse online about the price of a game years before its release, but with leakers and insiders suggesting the game has a budget of $1bn to $2bn, fans are speculating that the game could be more expensive as a result. The leading rumour suggests the game will cost $150 (£120).

We think this is highly unlikely, however. Most AAA games start from about £69.99, with deluxe editions costing up to £100. We wouldn’t expect this to change, even if the budget was in the $1bn ballpark.

What console will ‘GTA 6’ be on and is ‘GTA 6’ cross-platform?

Right now, the only confirmed GTA 6 platforms are the PS5 and the Xbox Series X. Rockstar Games hasn’t revealed any more information about a PC, PS4 or Xbox One release.

Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X will be five years old by the time GTA 6 is released, so, it’s not a certainty that the older consoles will be supported. Rockstar hasn’t outlined whether it will support cross-platform play, either.

Best ‘GTA’ deals

PlayStation 5 Slim with ‘GTA 5’: Was £499.99, now £489, Very.co.uk

(Very)

While there are currently no deals on the standalone PS5 Slim console, if you buy the console from Very, the retailer will throw in a copy of the PS5 version of GTA 5 for just £10, saving you £10 on the cost of buying the game separately.

Buy now

Voucher codes

For the latest offers on gaming and more, try the links below:

• AO discount codes
• Very discount codes

Want to upgrade your device? These are the best laptops of 2024