Rockstar Games is the master of harnessing the power of rumor and speculation to build anticipation for its games. The company remains incredibly tight-lipped until close to the release of its titles, especially new Grand Theft Auto releases.
In doing so, it creates a huge vacuum that becomes filled with articles, social media posts, and forum threads where fans debate the validity of potential leaks, creates wish lists of content they’d like to be included, and trawl through regulatory statements from Rockstar’s parent company Take-Two in search of clues.
Eight years have passed since the release of Grand Theft Auto V, and Rockstar is currently in the process of porting the game to its third generation of console. In that time, the company has said almost nothing at all about the prospect of a sequel to the game.
In fact, in June 2020, when it was expected to announce that GTA 6 would be released early in the lifecycle of the PlayStation 5, it, instead, announced that it was working on an “Expanded and Enhanced” version of the existing game.
Although originally scheduled to be released early in 2021, that has been pushed back to 2022. There is even some confusion about where the “expanded” element of this new version has been dropped since the word is missing from more recent announcements.
GTA 6 Rumours
The rumor mill for Grand Theft Auto 6 has been running at full speed for quite some time. In 2021, speculation that there could be a female playable character began circulating after a YouTuber by the name of LongSensation took to Twitter to share this “leaked information”.
While he was unable to substantiate the claim, he has a track record of predicting details about Call of Duty games. However, given that the two titles are made by completely different companies, it’s not a like-for-like comparison.
Other rumors have included the fact that the game may be set over different time periods, that there could be a prison element to the story, and that there could be multiple countries or cities that players can travel between creating a sort of “Grand Theft Auto World”. Contradicting some of this, other rumors have suggested we could see a return to Vice City in GTA 6.
Of course, none of these rumors can be verified in any meaningful way, but Rockstar does have a track record of listening to fans.
In 2019, the company finally added the Diamond Casino and Resort to GTA Online. This new feature added a new heist mission and the ability for players to take part in casino games.
This had been one of the most-requested features among fans, thanks in part to the popularity of online casinos in the real world. These sites have brought games like blackjack that are several centuries old and brought them into the 21st century by creating different variants and making them accessible on mobile devices. The many different ways to play have made casino games like this more appealing and accessible and this is why many players wanted them to be included in GTA Online.
On top of that, the successful casino mini-games found in San Andreas were also one of the title’s most popular features.
Another Year of Waiting?
After the disappointment of the 2020 announcement and the extra delays of GTA V’s remastering, it seems unlikely that any new version is going to be released for another couple of years.
Rockstar won’t want to stack the launch of Grand Theft Auto 6 too soon after this as it will take away the attention from both. Instead, it’s likely players will need to wait until at least 2023 or 2024.
In 2020, Take-Two’s financial forecasts suggested that the company plans to spend $89 million on marketing between April 2023 and March 2024. This is over twice as much as the years before and after it and is usually a sign that the company is launching a big title.
Therefore, it seems reasonable to assume that this increased spending is earmarked for a huge campaign aimed at pushing a new Grand Theft Auto.
So with 2022 almost here, fans are likely in for another year or so of waiting and hoping that Rockstar will drop even just a small hint that the most anticipated game ever is on its way.
