It’s been three long years since Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto 5, one of the most popular and influential videogames of the past several years. And in those three years, gamers and the industry alike have had plenty of time to ponder on what the next installment of the series (GTA 6) will be.
Diehard fans are hankering for any information regarding the game. Gamers, don’t fret, as rumors have it that Rockstar has indeed begun preliminary development on GTA 6, especially considering GTA V made $1 billion in the first three days after being released and became the fastest-selling videogame in history. Considering this record-breaking status, the stakes are high.
While GTA Online was the immediate focus for Rockstar Games following the release of GTA V, the game studio is indeed already considering possibilities for the sequel. “We’ve got about 45 years worth of ideas we want to do,” said former Rockstar president Leslie Benzies. “We don’t know what GTA 6 will be, but we’ve got some ideas.”
Location, location, location
While several sources have indeed confirmed that GTA 6 is definitely happening, reports suggest that Rockstar has yet to decide upon a location for the next installment. Considering the series’ past iterations, there are many potential places in which the game could take place.
Many fans have speculated that GTA 6 could return to San Fierro and Las Venturas (one or both) in order to complete the San Andreas territories not found in Grand Theft Auto V. Due to console limitations and resource allocation, only the Los Santos and surrounding Blaine County were featured in GTA V, but many fans have shown interest in the other San Andreas cities.
Vice City, the setting of the GTA game of the same name, was one of the most popular locations in the series and many fans are salivating at the possibility of a return to the Miami-esque city. Benzies has said that “It is always a possibility. There are a few references to the city in our current-gen GTAs so it is part of that HD universe, and is certainly somewhere we would love to visit. However Vice City, perhaps more than any other GTA game, was as much about the era as the setting. Miami in the 1980’s is so iconic it would feel strange to revisit the city in a different time period.”
London, while a location in past GTA games, will not be the setting for the next installment. GTA V Dan Houser had previously stated that while the setting was indeed great for previous games, but it may not be right for a future GTA game.
In the past, the videogame studio has said that they would like to create a GTA game with all previous cities from the series. The former studio president Leslie Benzies has said that he envisions a GTA game in which players are able to travel back and forth to revisit places they explored in past games.
“Of course at some point we would like to have one big world containing all our cities and let the player fly between them and revisit their favorite areas,” Benzies said. “In that context re-imagining Vice City would be very interesting.”
Despite all the speculation regarding the location of the next game, an underlying question remains – in what time period will GTA VI be set? Will it retain its modern-era setting? Or will it go back in time as it did in Vice City? Many fans speculate that there is a big chance that GTA VI will indeed go back in time, though how far back still remains to be seen.
A female protagonist?
The three distinct playable characters in GTA V were very well-received, and many fans would like to see something similar in future installments, but some rumors have speculated that the game might include a “create your own character” option akin to GTA Online.
Many fans have expressed interest in whether Rockstar would consider including a female protagonist in future GTA games. “In the future, could we do a game with a lead female character? Of course. We just haven’t found the right game for it yet, but it’s one of the things that we always think about” said Dan Houser when asked about the possibility.
GTA 6 release date?
Considering the GTA release timeline in past iterations, we could potentially expect GTA VI to release sooner rather than later. Averaging three to five years between releases, one could suppose that GTA 6 will be released sometime in late 2017 or, more likely, in 2018.
Many fans speculate, however, that the game will be completed to time with the launch of the next generation of Sony and Microsoft’s respective consoles, pegged to be somewhere between 2018 and 2020.
Regardless of the release date, fans are holding incredibly high expectations for Grand Theft Auto VI.
