There's a decent chance you've never noticed it, but most of Rockstar's titles – including the likes of Grand Theft Auto 4 and 5 and the Red Dead Redemption games – have a subtle but persistent graphical bug. Based on the early trailers and gameplay footage, it looked like GTA 6 would be no exception, but the game's most recent trailer shows no evidence of the issue at all.

The problem? Animation stutter. Both character animations and camera movements are sometimes unevenly paced, leading to a herky-jerky effect that can give these games an unintentional appearance of stop motion. If you notice it, it might seem like the game is dropping frames, but the real problem seems to be tied to the underlying RAGE engine that's been powering Rockstar's games since the GTA 4 days.

According to Digital Foundry, this issue has also been present in every GTA 6 trailer released up until this point, including the extended gameplay look. Except, that is, for the recently released launch trailer, which is completely clear of any apparent animation stutter. That's despite the fact that it uses extensive panning camera shots, where the stutter is typically most obvious.

It's possible that this trailer simply featured a curated selection of scenes without the animation stutter, but given that Rockstar made no effort to hide this issue in previous previews, that seems unlikely. The devs have, after all, made clear that they're still tweaking things up until the very last minute.

Could the stutter finally be fixed after decades of it plaguing the developer's games? I guess we'll find out in one month's time.

Still figuring out where to pre-order GTA 6? You know where to click.

Now that GTA 6 is a mere month away, Rockstar Games is upping its marketing to maximum velocity – which, of course, means driving around in Grand Theft Auto-inspired cars around Miami (in other words, Vice City).

Yes, you read that right. Folks in Florida have caught wind of some, erm, very obviously GTA-coded supercars. They're hard to miss, honestly, considering their colors. Just have a look over at Reddit, where you'll find an amusing clip of them all at a gas station in Miami, you know, just casually fillin' up the tank.

There's a Manana, Buccaneer, Tempesta, Cheetah, Coquette D10, and Emerus, as the fan behind the video posts.

And, just in case you're worried that it's generative AI, folks point out this isn't the only clip showcasing the colorful vehicles taking over the streets of Miami.

A separate thread confirms as much, with the cars seen driving around Florida, led by a Vice City Police Department car. It's entertaining to just sit back and which, if I do say so myself – especially with all the "normal" non-GTA 6 traffic proceeding around them as normal.

This might just be the most unique form of advertising Rockstar has employed yet… even when you pit it against all the wild "hints" fans spent months – no, years – theorizing about.

There's just something about seeing all the fleshed out, patterned GTA 6 cars cruisin' around real-life Vice City that you can't beat, I suppose, and I'm clearly not alone in thinking so. The replies see fans having fun with the whole thing, as they should.

One reads, "Man, they just handed their marketing director a blank cheque and told them to have fun, didn't they?" Another jests, "Is this the multimillion dollar advertisement campaign?" Further down, somebody simply declares, "Man, this is so sick."

So, there you have it. If you're a game developer hoping to advertise your next big title, just send out a bunch of fancy (extremely expensive) cars, I guess.

Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake doesn't even rate against GTA 6 and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 as the "biggest games of the year," Activision exec says

We might be getting GTA 6 in November, but that doesn't necessarily mean the game is finished. In fact, games of that scale are never really done; they're just shoved into the world and updated in real time. Rockstar isn't shy about this, openly admitting that alterations are still underway on the blockbuster release.

This comes from Jason Schreier of Bloomberg, who put together a report on the huge release. In a YouTube video expanding on his reporting, he mentioned that leadership told him there weren't any major reasons the game kept getting delayed; it simply wasn't ready yet. All the disparate parts weren't coalescing the way anyone wanted, and so on.

He provides a quote from Phil Hooker, Rockstar's director of technology, to support this point. "The game is never completely settled," Hooker says.

"We never have an exact blueprint," he continues. "Even within the last few months, we've changed things."

That may sound somewhat drastic, but it's very normal in the industry, even outside releases of the scale of a new Grand Theft Auto. Devs are frequently tinkering and making adjustments right up to launch day, and then immediately thereafter, hence Day One patches and the like.

Modern games are living documents, and with the sheer amount going on in GTA 6, I can only imagine all the minute adjustments happening right now. The 13-year gap since the last one has created unprecedented attention and expectation. Rockstar has claimed literal drones have floated around the studio's windows, hoping to catch a glimpse of Leonida.

We'll all get to see it in motion come November 19, good, bad, or indifferent. I'm sure it'll have been worth the wait.

After avoiding GTA 5 for 13 years, Trevor actor says he's excited for GTA 6 and might even stream it

The GTA 6 launch trailer is here, formally ushering in the next era of Grand Theft Auto after more than a decade post-GTA 5.

Rockstar shared the new trailer earlier today, "featuring the debut of 'Flower in a Hurricane' from original score composers Justice feat. Tame Impala, SZA, and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard," and confirming that this song will appear on the official GTA 6 soundtrack album.

The short trailer sees the dual protagonists, Jason and Lucia, open up about their struggles. Jason notably sports long hair for much of the trailer; in the opening seconds, he discusses the obstacles he's faced after a less-than-glamorous military departure. Lucia is seen sporting a monitoring anklet during an intimate shower scene, and at one point wonders, "Are we gonna be OK" amid a storm of crime.

Rockstar was in a very helicopter mood with this trailer. One helicopter crashes behind an assault rifle-toting Jason, Lucia rides another through the streets with a grenade launcher in hand, and in a third sequence a chopper is shown carrying a chained load of (presumably stolen) cargo through the city like a wrecking ball, shattering a row of windows on another building. A once-again short-haired Jason emerges from a helicopter in the next shot, only to cut to him and Lucia jumping off a roof into some sort of hotel pool.

"Jason and Lucia have always known the deck is stacked against them," reads the video description. "But when an easy score goes wrong, they find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, in the middle of a criminal conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida — forced to rely on each other more than ever if they want to make it out alive."

The early response from Grand Theft Auto fans is unsurprisingly enormous, with millions piling into Rockstar's accounts across social media. The trailer crossed 1 million views on YouTube in about half an hour, if you can trust overwhelmed metrics. In the comments, GTA 6 hopefuls express disbelief at finally having a launch trailer in their hands. "I thought I would never live this moment," reads one top comment.

"We are really at the finish line!!!" says another fan.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is out November 19 on PS5 and Xbox Series X. The launch trailer was captured on PS5, with a clear PlayStation marketing push bookending it.

As if you needed another reminder of why GTA 6 took so long, it has a realistic sweat system that makes Jason and Lucia perspire based on how hard they dance.

Steven Ogg, the actor best known for playing Trevor in GTA 5, spent many years pretending the game didn't exist, but 13 years later, he's fully embracing his role in making it so special. For a few weeks now, Ogg has been participating in a series of GTA 5 livestreams hosted by his co-star, Michael actor Ned Luke, and in the latest episode, Ogg not only acknowledges GTA 6's existence – he expresses vague excitement for the sequel and even floats the idea of streaming it alongside Luke. Progress.

This is a huge flip from February 2025, when Ogg denied the common perception that he "hates" GTA but maintained that he wouldn't be playing GTA 6. It seems Ogg has had a change of heart, as he sounds much more enthusiastic about Rockstar's upcoming behemoth these days.

"We should also do this with the new one, when the GTA 6 comes out," Ogg tells Luke, immediately reminding everyone he doesn't play games by referring to it as the GTA 6. "Because, obviously, it's gonna be so fucking different, and talking about the animation, and... it'd be kind of fun."

Luke definitely agrees with Ogg's idea, telling him he plans to finish his playthrough of GTA 5 before GTA 6 comes out on November 19, clearing the way for a smooth transition into streaming the next game. In a fascinating exchange, Ogg asks Luke if he's "in touch with... them," seemingly referring to Rockstar, and Luke, seemingly caught off guard, pauses before saying "no," and laughing nervously as Ogg spins around in his chair mischievously. "You're like one of the guys at the Comic-Cons, man" Luke says. "Well, I can tell you but then I'd have to kill you."

Ogg then continues about his interest in GTA 6, saying he's "curious about the actors .. and the game itself, those characters, versus this, GTA 5, which obviously I learn more and more about over the 12 years."

Admittedly, it's unclear from Ogg's tone and general vagueness of speech whether he's genuinely excited for GTA 6 or if he's just shooting the shit with an old friend and colleague, but either way, this is a huge step forward from when he was seemingly ignoring the series' existence altogether.

GTA 6 took 13 years, but GTA 7 won't – Rockstar says "the tools and the team we've built during this project will allow us to do things more quickly" in the future

Jason and Lucia are going to work up a sweat in Grand Theft Auto 6 – literally. Among the many detailed systems Rockstar built for the game is one that sees realistic sweat gather on characters' bodies depending on how much effort they're exerting in physical activities. No wonder GTA 6 has taken so long to make.

Earlier today, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier published an extended report on GTA 6's development, confirming that it was once meant to feature a more extensive open world spread across North and South America. While the scale of the project was eventually reined in, it's still a game being built at a level of detail rarely seen even in the biggest AAA games. That's partly why there have been so many delays – to the chagrin of Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick. The sweat system is one such example.

"They told me that they have a specific system in the game that will make it so Lucia, Jason, or whoever will exert different amounts of sweat depending on how much effort they're putting in," Schreier says in a YouTube video published alongside the report. "If they're dancing extra hard in the nightclub, they will sweat more than if they are not, which I think shows you the level of detail they're putting into this game."

Video game sweat was once a regular indicator of technological development. With each new console generation, another NBA 2K game would arrive with athletes dripping ever more realistically. Game characters sweating? Now that's the future. That's next-gen.

I'm not sure sweat alone is going to be a selling point for GTA 6, but the sum of all those detailed gameplay and world systems – the weight gain mechanic, the weather, even that robustly detailed iguana – is intended to give us one of the most immersive and believable open-world sandboxes ever created. That's a high bar for any dev to meet, but Rockstar seems comfortable enough with that level of expectation.

Rockstar still won't reveal the cost of GTA 6 development, but it's definitely not the previously rumored $1.5 billion.

GTA 6 has suffered its fair share of leaks now, with 25 minutes of new gameplay having gone live last week – and it hasn't been easy for Rockstar Games, to say the least.

Artist Aaron Garbut tells Bloomberg as much during a recent interview, describing leaks as a line crossed – a look into something personal, and unprepared for the public. "It feels like somebody's wading through your dirty washing," he says. "It's like they're inside your head."

That makes sense, honestly… and that first major GTA 6 leak in 2022 was when this awful feeling really started to hit the developers.

"You see your early work out there," Garbut describes. "Nobody's ever supposed to see that. It's really weirdly invasive. And so it's quite hard to deal with on an emotional level."

I can only imagine myself – and it certainly doesn't help that the leaks haven't slowed down at all, really, despite Rockstar taking legal action against folks responsible for them in the past. The cryptocurrency-fueled GTA 6 leak (leaks, more like) from "Cyberleek" comes to mind.

That whole debacle was supposedly spurred by demands for digital rights, more physical copies, and such, with claims to be "raising funds for a secret project" (via crypto, of course) – but it's now apparently dead after the leaker behind it saw their meme coin crash and fall some $20 million short of their market cap goal.

They set the goal as a precursor to leaking the entirety of GTA 6, supposedly… even though the full game is, uh, out next month.

So, will we see any more GTA 6 leaks come to light? I'd wager we won't, considering the November 19 release date and all, but who knows – Rockstar's cookin' up one heck of a massive game, and there's bound to be quite a lot that we've not seen out of it yet.
I'm not sure it would count as "dirty washing" at this point, either, seeing as it's so, so close to launch. I'd say it likely qualifies as clean and then some.

GTA 6 took 13 years, but GTA 7 won't – Rockstar says "the tools and the team we've built during this project will allow us to do things more quickly" in the future

Rockstar Games still won't reveal just how much GTA 6 has cost to develop, but one person involved has shot down the idea that the game has a $1.5 billion budget.

Given the 13-year wait for GTA 6, it's probably safe to assume that Rockstar and Take-Two have spent a lot of money on the project. The game has been worked on in one way or another since at least the mid 2010s, with Rockstar North co-studio head Rob Nelson confirming the studio was working on a version of the game dubbed "Project Americas" – which would've seen the story take place across both North and South America – back in 2015 before the studio shifted focus to work on Red Dead Redemption 2.

Rockstar and Take-Two have kept quiet on just how much the game has and will cost to develop, but a popular guess came from analyst Michael Pachter, who estimated that development costs would exceed $1.5 billion last year, which has since become a popular assumption online.

Speaking to Bloomberg's Jason Schrier, Rockstar Games' head of publishing, Jennifer Kolbe, was asked about the game's budget. While no concrete answer was given, Schrier notes that she shot down the rumor that the game would surpass $1.5 billion. Granted, that doesn't mean the game's budget won't be one of the largest in gaming history – I'd be surprised if it wasn't – but until the actual number is shared, we won't know for sure.

That being said, GTA 6 is likely going to be a massive release, with everyone expecting it to be one of the biggest game launches of all time – if not the biggest – after 13 years of feverish hype. Given that co-studio head Aaron Garbut said the game doesn't compromise on detail or scale, I'd wager that Rockstar is confident it'll recoup whatever it spent on GTA 6 pretty quickly.

Rockstar vowed GTA 6 wouldn't be finished "by crunching" after Red Dead Redemption 2's tough development, says publishing lead: "I think we did things differently, and I'm proud of that"

GTA 6 leaker Cyberleek has once again called it quits after their meme coin not only failed to meet the $30 million market cap goal meant to trigger the release of a purportedly playable build of the game, but flamed out entirely.

In a series of posts to their website later shared online, Cyberleek insists that the coin crash wasn't their fault. Rather, somebody else dumped their coin stock, "everyone else sold, and CL was blamed for the crowd's dump."

"The token was always a donation, never an investment," the meme coin merchant argues. "No returns promised, none implied. Rugpull talk comes from people who never opened the chain. Mostly YouTubers. Do not trust them. They have no idea what they are talking about."

Instead, you should trust the anonymous architect of a double-crash crypto grift explicitly designed to profit off of stolen property by siphoning transaction fees.

With profits dry, Cyberleek's coincidentally decided not to release details or footage of GTA 6's ending either. "It was considered," they say. "It would punish [GTA 6 publisher] Take-Two greatly – but ruin the experience for the gamers, who did nothing wrong."

"Take-Two was punished enough," the leaker decides. So, "the ending stays unpublished." To prove that they actually have all of this material, Cyberleek points to the latest batch of leaked footage, which allegedly came "from the final missions, out of context, revealing nothing."

Seemingly looking to fend off investigations into their identity or actions against their accounts, Cyberleek claims to have a "dead man's switch" ready to unleash "story spoilers" – which, to me, seems like a paper tiger so thin you could see your hand through it.

"The 30M was not reached, so no build," the leaker says with a harumph. "Sad, the negativity – and how few believe anything real is behind this," they add, again blaming "influencers" for tarnishing the reputation of their scam. "The leeks stop here. For now," they conclude.

GTA 6 now has a wealth of proper footage out in the wild, Rockstar is actively discussing the game's development with the press, and the game is finally out next month. Between the nose-wrinkling crypto grift and general leak fatigue, everyone seems tired of this whole song and dance. To quote one reply to a thread sharing Cyberleek's messages: "I'm so tired of this cornball bro."

GTA 6 took 13 years, but GTA 7 won't – Rockstar says "the tools and the team we've built during this project will allow us to do things more quickly" in the future.

After Red Dead Redemption 2's crunchy development, Rockstar decided "'we're not doing it again like this'" for GTA 6, the studio's head of publishing says, and she's "proud" that the studio changed things for its latest title.

In an interview with Bloomberg, head of publishing Jennifer Kolbe says that the development of Red Dead Redemption 2 was "a real moment for Rockstar to look at itself," even before the company began receiving backlash over reports of crunch for the staffers bringing the 2018 action adventure to life.

"We all looked at each other and said, 'We're not doing it again like this,'" Kolbe says, explaining that she and other fellow leads at Rockstar promised at the time that GTA 6 would be handled differently.

"I said, 'We're not going to finish this game by crunching,'" she continues. This involved Rockstar introducing new policies that would offer paid time off to make up for extra hours they'd worked, and sometimes offer workers more pay. Kolbe admits, "It's not been perfect," but even so, "It's certainly better than Red Dead 2 was."

She knows that if she were to declare that Rockstar hasn't crunched on GTA 6, "someone is going to say, 'I did,'" and that's not something she wants to "get into arguments" over. However, she concludes: "I think we did things differently, and I'm proud of that."

While Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick also previously indicated that GTA 6 was delayed to avoid crunch, that didn't stop some employees from alleging back in July that crunch is so common at the studio that it's "built into" contracts, and that they have to "opt out" of it. But, if Kolbe is to be believed, this is at least a better setup than the devs had for Red Dead Redemption 2.

GTA 6 was delayed for years after Rockstar scaled back "Project Americas," which would have been set across North and South America.

The two GTA 6 delays might have been frustrating for you, but they were definitely worse for Strauss Zelnick, CEO of the game's publisher, Take-Two Interactive, who reportedly asked the unfortunate Rockstar dev who told him about them if they were "kidding."

Speaking to Bloomberg, Rockstar's head of publishing, Jennifer Kolbe, said she had to call up Zelnick twice - once when GTA 6 was delayed out of Fall 2025 to a May 2026 date, and then again to say that it needed a second delay, this time from May to November. The second time, Zelnick struggled to take the news.

"I think he said, 'You're kidding. Please tell me you're kidding'," Kolbe says of her second call with Zelnick. Thankfully, the Take-Two CEO was pretty understanding in the end: "Once we talked through why, he got it. And I think we are really lucky that he is as reasonable as he is, because a lot of people would say 'you just better figure out how to ship it'. And we have been really, really lucky that we have not found ourselves in that place, because that happens to a lot of teams, and we've all played those games. It's not great."

We've definitely seen the results of games that are pushed too early - Cyberpunk 2077 springs immediately to mind, in spite of its redemption arc, but many others have launched too soon and never gathered the momentum they needed to thrive. Granted, in this case, Zelnick is in the enviable position of having the biggest launch of the decade waiting in the wings, meaning the extra year of investment in GTA 6 will probably amount to little more than a rounding error in its eventual bottom line.

GTA 6 took 13 years, but GTA 7 won't – Rockstar says "the tools and the team we've built during this project will allow us to do things more quickly" in the future.

Rockstar North co-studio head and GTA 6 lead developer Rob Nelson explains that the open-world game has taken so long to come out, in part, due to a scrapped version dubbed "Project Americas."

I don't know if anyone really noticed, but Rockstar Games has taken quite a while to follow up GTA 5 and release GTA 6. While we've had the massive Red Dead Redemption 2 in the meantime, the 13-year wait for GTA 6 has made fans quite feverish to play the next game in Rockstar's iconic crime series. Many assumed Rockstar was working on a rotation of GTA and Red Dead games, as GTA 6 was only confirmed to be in development in 2022. However, the first plans for GTA 6 began not too long after the last entry was released.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Nelson confirmed that in 2015 a number of Rockstar staffers flew to Miami on their first research trip for GTA 6. At that time, the game was code-named "Project Americas," with the aim of featuring parts of North and South America on its map. Rather than every studio working on one title, the plan was for Rockstar North to develop GTA 6 concurrently with Rockstar San Diego's development of Red Dead Redemption 2.

However, as the scale of Red Dead Redemption 2 grew, Nelson realized the game required Rockstar's involvement at large, meaning that GTA 6 had to be pushed back for several years to get its western epic across the finish line. However, this meant that when GTA 6 finally did release, things the team built would "pay off when we get to the game."

Nelson confirmed that while Rockstar typically works on multiple games across its many studios, the bulk of the company's staff across the 11 Rockstar studios are now working on one project at a time.

GTA 6 is coming to PC in just a few months according to new report, with Rockstar moving much faster than it did with GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2

Although GTA 6 has taken a whopping 13 years to come to fruition following Grand Theft Auto 5, Rockstar promises that shouldn't be the case with GTA 7 or any other future projects, as it's got everything it needs to get 'em out more quickly.

Phil Hooker, technical director at Rockstar, tells Bloomberg as much during a new interview, explaining that the foundation developers have built while creating GTA 6 – an entry that's arriving over a decade after predecessor GTA 5 launched back in 2013 – will help them work more efficiently on any future projects, like Grand Theft Auto 7.

They've got a solid team, engine, and "tools" to use, after all, as Hooker says.

"The engine, the tools and the team we've built during this project will allow us to do things more quickly," he describes. "I feel confident that we can build on top of this and go more sideways than upwards to build more compelling content."

Artist Aaron Garbut agrees, chiming in, "We foundationally changed a lot of stuff on this project – but now it's done, and we're not going to rip it apart." And, honestly, why would they?

There's no telling what "things" Rockstar will do "more quickly," whether that's GTA 7 or a smaller spin-off like Vice City, which was created in under a year after GTA 3 itself, but it's good news regardless.

The wait between Grand Theft Auto games has been a gruelling one, to say the least, marred by widespread layoffs and delays, so hearing that we might not have to witness another like it comes as a welcome report.

Here's hoping this all rings true and GTA 7 – or whatever Rockstar has up its sleeve after GTA 6 – arrives in under a decade, or perhaps even five years… but I might be jumping the gun, considering how huge the new Grand Theft Auto seems.

GTA 6 is coming to PC in just a few months according to new report, with Rockstar moving much faster than it did with GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2

Whatever you may think of it on its own merits, it's safe to say Max Payne 3 didn't quite live up to the previous two. Being developed by Rockstar instead of Remedy Entertainment, the threequel wound up having a different vibe to the neo-noir stylishness of its predecessors, and looking back on it, lead writer Dan Houser admits the team didn't nail the tone.

"It was a linear game, so it was a little different from writing an open-world game, a little more structured. I really enjoyed that as an experience," he recalled to IGN. "I loved what we did design-wise, the way the game didn't have loads, the way it felt like a 12-hour movie, some of the visual stuff we did with words on screen."

After leading the narrative departments of many of the Grand Theft Auto games and the first Red Dead Redemption at that point, Houser had some confidence. His belief during development was that the team was nailing what fans wanted - alas, it was not. "I felt we were creating a really cool digital noir experience, and the consensus at the time was that people hated it," he remembers.

"So I got that completely wrong," he says, candidly. "I know [Max Payne creator] Sam Lake well, and he's a very good guy and really talented. I thought we'd done a good job of doing another Max Payne game. Some people liked it; lots didn't. So we got it wrong, or I got it wrong. I failed. My bit was not a success."

Now that we're 14 years removed, there's a lot to like about the third installment of the series. The gunplay is solid, the setting of Sao Paulo is a fun contrast to the streets of New York City, and the plot is appropriately psychological.

But it is a different energy to Remedy's more reserved approach - not exactly surprising given it's Rockstar - and even today, if you play all three Max Payne games one after the other, you'll notice a difference. "The game is beautifully made, and it wasn't as successful as it should have been," Houser says on reflection. "So I would say a large amount of that failure was on me as one of the people making the decisions and also as the writer, when people really missed his writing."

Sadly, we're still waiting for Max Payne 4. Remedy's working on remakes of the first two. Whether we'll get the trilogy-ender is in Rockstar's hands. But at least we haven't seen the last of the detective just yet.

GTA 6 is coming to PC in just a few months according to new report, with Rockstar moving much faster than it did with GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2

The final twist in Red Dead Redemption is one for the ages. After John Marston gets his revenge on Dutch Van der Lind, he himself is gunned down when a traitor gives away his whereabouts afterward. It's unexpected and heartbreaking, but the head writer was taken aback by the extreme reaction to the narrative choice.

Rockstar co-founder Dan House was a long-time narrative lead at the studio before his departure in 2020. He was in the trenches for the first Red Dead Redemption, and he recalls the thought process with Christian Cantamessa, the lead designer, leading up to the climax.

"He was into it, and I was into it, but just knowing the production realities of - how does an open-world game work if you've killed the protagonist?" Houser remembers, to IGN. "So I said, 'I think maybe we have to kill him.' And he goes, 'That's a great idea. Got to do it.' I said, ‘I don't know if... let me just think about this.'"

Their departments were easy, because it's all storytelling, whereas there were large mechanical considerations. "The nature of an open-world game is you finish a story, then you go back into the world and wrap up all the side content if you want to," Houser says. "We'd have to play as someone else for that."

They decided on Jack, John's son, who gets aged up three years to 19 in an epilogue timeskip. He becomes your character for the endgame side-quests and larfing around, opening a number of quandaries for the studio. "If you go and see a side character and they've got a three-mission arc and you've already done one mission, what would that actually mean if you came back? How would that work?" he adds. "We had to think through all of that stuff and concluded we could probably make it work, but we were still scared."

It worked, but player reaction was mixed. People were taken aback by having the emotional crescendo followed by crushing aftermath, and Houser admits Rockstar didn't quite see it coming.

"I think there was broad consensus that it was the right decision, but obviously it was an unusual and out-there decision, but I think the company had survived on making those decisions," he muses. "I think we were surprised when the game came out by how angry some people were about that decision. There were people who were livid with you. And part of you goes, ‘That's fantastic,’ because it means you've really engaged in the story and the characters."

The drawback is that players might feel a bit put out and step away from the game. Obviously, that didn't happen, but Houser can see how it left a weird taste in people's mouths. And op top of everything else, he got to scratch a personal itch.

"Now, I think it was the right decision because you want those big, strong reactions, but I think people were really confused by it," he says. "As a writer, it was like he had to die for the story to have any weight, and I had wanted that in several GTAs. We’d never done it really for the technical reasons we just discussed."

Ahead of GTA 6, Rockstar narrative lead says the American Dream previous Grand Theft Auto games were critical of is "more modest now" but still "out of reach for the average person"

Reports have emerged that the PC release of GTA 6 could arrive much sooner than Rockstar Games' typical PC release schedule would suggest, with it reportedly set to drop before the end of March 2027.

A GTA 6 PC port is inevitable, obviously, but Rockstar has typically made PC players wait for its biggest games to come to PC. GTA 5 took 19 months to arrive on PC after its original Xbox 360 and PS3 release back in September 2013 (although it also had PS4 and Xbox One ports in the meantime), while Red Dead Redemption 2 took just over a year to come to PC – and neither beats the 14 years it took for Red Dead Redemption to leave consoles. So naturally, many expect we won't see GTA 6 on PC until November 2027 at the earliest, but reports suggest Rockstar could be breaking its trend.

According to four sources speaking to GamesBeat, Rockstar is reportedly planning to release GTA 6 on PC in the first quarter of 2027, which would be significantly earlier than a typical Rockstar release schedule.

Last month, Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two, the owner of Rockstar, was asked whether the shortage of PS5 Pro consoles following the GTA 6 Extended Look had prompted any changes to the PC release strategy. While Zelnick didn't confirm anything outright, he did say that "the PC platform is becoming more and more important to our company over time."

If these rumors are true, I'd imagine we won't hear anything about the GTA PC port until after GTA 6 releases on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Everyone is expecting GTA 6 to be the biggest launch of all time, and I'd wager Rockstar doesn't want to lose out on any potential buyers who are happy to wait an extra four months. Not to mention, a lot of people very likely double-dipped on GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 after they got ported to PC.

Despite new GTA 6 leaks, Cyberleek's cryptocurrency remains over $20 million short of its goal amid threats to release Rockstar's next game early

One of Rockstar's narrative leads says that GTA 6's Vice City setting is the ideal place to check in on a popular recurring theme within Grand Theft Auto: T he American Dream.

Rockstar has made its approach to real-world influences quite clear of late. The team behind GTA 6 will comment on wider trends that won't go out of date when the game ships, which is also why more specific events or people prove riskier.

One topic that Rockstar's senior vice president of narrative name-checked, though, is the American Dream and how it looks and feels today compared to years gone by.

"Some would say the American Dream collapsed a long time ago," Humphries tells Love Magazine in its latest edition, now on sale. "With GTA 4 we told an immigrant's story that was supposed to be a kind of hollow commentary on the illusion of America as a land of opportunity, and then we sort of doubled down on that with the cynicism of GTA 5."

Considering that GTA 5 released in 2013, where does that leave us as we near the end of 2026? For Humphries, the dream is diluted into something less grand, yet it still remains out of reach for many.

"Maybe the American Dream is more modest now," he muses. "It's a house for your family and your loans are paid off instead of wild success – but maybe today, that is just as out of reach for the average person.

"Miami and Southern Florida are a particular front line for this battle between astronomical wealth and unbounded ambition, creating a pressure cooker for all kinds of insanity."

It's easy to see what might be shaping Humphries' thinking. The cost of living is rising while keeping employment feels shaky. You can see this in the gaming industry itself, where layoffs remain rampant as the cost of developing games continues to surge.

A misplaced sense of optimism that the spending highs of COVID-19 certainly didn't get this off to a good start, though a willingness to spend has further dwindled thanks to the likes of AI and tariffs making most things you come across costlier than ever. And no doubt, the pinch is being felt in the US.

So yeah, to Humphries' point, I suppose being a homeowner with little debt to worry about does feel like a dream right now.

Rockstar has a whole team of GTA 6 writers dedicated to pedestrian dialogue: "There are no shortcuts when it comes to building a world like this"

GTA 6 is evidently still suffering from quite significant leaks left, right, and center, with 25 minutes of new gameplay going live last week – but I'm not sure Rockstar is currently worrying about the whole of its latest Grand Theft Auto entry going live early.

Following the cryptocurrency-fueled GTA 6 leak that was supposedly spurred by demands for digital rights, more physical copies, and such, with claims to be "raising funds for a secret project" (via crypto, of course), things went silent… for a bit, anyway.

The leaker behind it, as well as its associated crypto coin, Cyberleek, returned with more footage on October 8, though, and threats to release the entirety of GTA 6 over the weekend.

As per said threats, Cyberleek once again demanded "physical disks and a public apology," stating that the full build of the game would go live once their cryptocurrency market cap hits $30 million.

The thing is, however, that doesn't currently look like it's happening. A quick look at the coin's standing on OpenSea shows it's been steadily dropping from a peak of $7.6 million yesterday. Right now, it's at only $2.7 million.

While it appears to perhaps be trending slightly upward again, it did so (very minimally) a few times while on its way down from that $7.6 million figure, too – so I'm not sure it's enough to prove the coin is heading toward the number Cyberleek is hoping for.

As per their own message, again, the cryptocurrency needs to reach $30 million before "the build goes out, full story mode, played to the end, credits and all."

So, will that happen? Although I'm not sure, I'm also not certain it really matters. Something tells me Cyberleek will resurface with some sort of new leak regardless to keep its crypto coin (and name) relevant in the public eye, which has happened now a couple of times.

When that might be – should it even happen – remains a mystery, as does whether or not Cyberleek will successfully avoid the wrath of Rockstar Games.

Rockstar has a whole team of GTA 6 writers dedicated to pedestrian dialogue: "There are no shortcuts when it comes to building a world like this"

There are many lingering questions about GTA 6, and a significant amount of them center around Jason's nude body. After it was confirmed we get to see the protagonist in his birthday suit, the collective audience for Rockstar's upcoming crime sandbox have been pondering the finer details of his naked self – and making a few memes.

It all stems from a preview by IGN that notes they got to see Jason fully unclothed for a shower scene. The moment was used to demonstrate how you can flip perspectives between Jason and Lucia at will for differing points of view of the same scenes.

People gravitated toward this, prompting the outlet to run another piece mentioning that no, they hadn't seen anything more risqué than Jason's torso. The kind of discreet camera-work you'd expect in Hollywood was employed here to keep everything a little more safe for work. I mean, this was a professional preview event, what would you expect?

But still, inquiring minds have started to ponder, specifically about if Rockstar could be reusing a certain bit of tech from Red Dead Redemption 2. "I wonder if Jason's balls shrink when the water is cold like the RDR2 horse balls," asks GTA GFX on Twitter.

Or, as a Redditor puts it: "Those horse balls physics gotta go somewhere." I mean, if it happens in one game, why not the other?

"Rockstar really said, 'If we’re building the most immersive open world ever, we're committing to everything,'" another account says. Being with the characters during truly intimate moments like this is pretty immersive. Another leak does contain a significant amount of fully nude Jason, in all his glory.

But there's no guarantee of whether that'll make it into the released game. There are a lot of jokes about what we'll see below Jason's waistline, but I'd have to concur with some others – full-frontal is probably unlikely for either hero.

It's rare enough we see it in film or television, and I can only imagine the headache it'd cause when seeking certification. That doesn't mean it definitively won't be included, I just wouldn't expect it, or at least much of it if there's any. But we'll find out for real in just over one month.

GTA 6 radio stations revealed, Rockstar says "for the first time" in Grand Theft Auto history there are also in-game podcasts.

With GTA 6 just over a month away from launch, Rockstar has finally started teasing what we can expect from the best part of every Grand Theft Auto game: the radio stations. The studio has revealed a handful of genre-focused stations covering major artists from across the years, and on top of the proper GTA 6 soundtrack, we're also getting a series first in the form of in-game podcasts.

You can preview six of the stations in two minute bursts right now, offering a chance to hear a bit of the DJs and brief samplers of the relevant music. There's Cocotea FM, focused on modern Latin music; Back Country Radio, which covers classic outlaw country; Afro Bank FM, offering a wide array of African music; The Chamber 106.6, blasting classic metal; Flash FM, which runs modern pop music; and Dirty South Classics, which will hit your old-school rap and hip-hop needs.

These aren't all the stations in the game – the announcement also confirms classic rock and talk radio options – but even this small selection proves that Rockstar is once again going all-out for the soundtrack. Loretta Lynn, Pantera, and Charli XCX all in the same game? That's a premium selection, right there.

"Plus, for the first time ever, Grand Theft Auto VI introduces a series of on-demand podcasts for Jason and Lucia to experience beyond Leonida's terrestrial radio," Rockstar adds, "with both radio and podcasts available to listen to in vehicles and on foot through newly introduced headphones and earbuds connected to their smartphones."

In-game podcasts are hardly a new idea – you can find examples at least as far back as Metal Gear Solid 4 – but it's notable that they're appearing in GTA for the first time here. Admittedly, it's likely not all that different from the talk radio that's been in the series for years, but it is a fun acknowledgement of just how much listening habits have changed since GTA 5 launched back in 2013.

I'm not being facetious when I call the radio stations the best part of GTA. I've always loved fake radio banter in games going back to my time playing Streets of SimCity, and Rockstar's talent for music curation has always been impeccable. So many of my memories of playing San Andreas or GTA 4 are tied to specific moments cruising through the world with particular songs blaring over the car radio in the background, and I'm looking forward to making some new ones in GTA 6.

Check out our guide to all the GTA 6 cars we know about so far if you want to know what you'll be cruisin' in.

GTA 6 leaker Cyberleek has allegedly posted more footage of the game online, with story spoilers apparently included in the latest batch.

Earlier this year, clips of GTA 6 started circulating online ahead of Rockstar's big extended Netflix reveal from a leaker referring to themselves as Cyberleek. This featured a ton of gameplay footage, a leak of the game's apparent map, and some story moments like a four-minute clip of Lucia's prologue in-game, dropping the first batch of story spoilers. Naturally, Take-Two and Rockstar took action against the leaks, but they still persisted, until the leaker seemingly disappeared with about $250,000 in crypto earnings, going silent in late August.

However, it seems the leaker has returned, as Rockstar community member and dataminer TexFunz2 reports on Twitter that "Cyberleek has released 367 MB worth of GTA 6 leaked footage," which is 25 minutes long and "contains new footage and new cutscenes." And while they didn't drop any story details or anything, TexFunz2's only commentary on the footage says: "Yes. You can play as Jason with his ding dong exposed."

Since this was posted, the footage has since been shared on social media by users, confirming the details outlined by TexFunz2. This includes cutscenes, in-game racing events, and a ton of naked Jason gameplay. It also shows first-person gameplay, which had featured in GTA 5 upon its PS4 and Xbox One releases, but a mode hadn't been confirmed by Rockstar for GTA 6, with some who saw the game reporting that one wouldn't be included at launch.

Presumably this footage will soon be taken down by Take-Two and Rockstar, but it does mean spoilers are now out there. So basically, if you don't want any spoilers for GTA 6, I'd probably start muting some terms on social media right about now, because this could be the start of a new string of leaks.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 lead wants GTA 6 to open the door to charging more for games.

In GTA 6, Rockstar Games has made a "very conscious effort to open things up where possible" in its missions, giving players multiple routes and ways to tackle the tasks laid out in front of them "without compromising the quality of the experience."

That's according to Rockstar North co-studio lead Rob Nelson, who spoke to IGN earlier this year about the "balance between freedom and storytelling" in an interview that's now been published in full.

"It is a challenge and sometimes when you are trying to create a specific or hopefully compelling narrative, the narrative aspect does need to take precedence at times – at least for us it does," Nelson explains.

"To move the narrative forward in a believable way, you have to hit these beats, and so in those cases we have to kind of guide the experience. But with this game we have made a very conscious effort to open things up where possible, without compromising the quality of the experience," he continues.

Nelson refers to the first mission seen in the GTA 6 Extended Look which premiered on Netflix, noting: "Where they're in the tower block trying to get out – there are multiple routes out of that tower block." Similarly, he adds, "the mission where they meet Raul and he gets in the back of the car – the first bit is on rails because you, the player as Jason, are shooting and Lucia's driving, but then you switch and you're driving. There is an optimal route that you're told to get out, but if you don't follow it, you can still get out – the mission is essentially a police chase."

And those missions are just examples. Nelson explains that Rockstar ultimately didn't want any mission that uses the game's systems, like the wanted system, to feel at odds with how those mechanics work when you're simply exploring Leonida. "Anything where a mission can become systemic and it's a wanted level or robbery system – we try to make it so that it doesn't feel inconsistent with how the game works in the open world," he says.

If this goes as deep as it sounds, there's no doubt we're going to be seeing all sorts of weird ways to progress through GTA 6's story next month. Considering that Nelson also says that, like Red Dead Redemption 2, he believes GTA 6 is also "built for" fans replaying the game multiple times, it sounds like Rockstar expects this story to keep us entertained for a long time to come.

With sex in GTA 6, studio boss suggests Rockstar doesn't want another Hot Coffee moment: "It has to be done right."

I don't mean to alarm you, but GTA 6 is set to launch next month. There's obviously going to be a lot for fans to discover come release day, but one potential learning curve might come in the form of earning enough in-game cash to keep the narrative flowing.

Or that's what it sounds like, according to Rockstar North co-studio boss Rob Nelson. Chatting with IGN in an interview from earlier this year that's now been posted in full, the lead discusses the importance of money in GTA 6, and how you won't actually be able to progress through the story if you're broke.

"We have made money matter more in this story than I think it has in previous GTA games," Nelson says. "There are times when you actually have to go out into the world and make money – whether you're boosting cars and selling them or sticking places up, there will be parts of the game where you need to make money to advance the mission flow."

It'll be interesting to see how exactly Rockstar balances this – if it's too much of a grind, it's easy to imagine it being a point of frustration for players. Selling stolen fancy cars has got to feel more engaging than getting Jason a 9-5 retail job, though, so you'd hope the process doesn't leave players feeling bored.

Regardless, it sounds like Jason and Lucia's fortunes are probably going to play some kind of key role in the narrative if you literally can't progress without enough cash in your pockets. Only six weeks to go until we find out exactly what.

With sex in GTA 6, studio boss suggests Rockstar doesn't want another Hot Coffee moment: "It has to be done right."

Although Sony's decision to end all physical disc production for new games on PlayStation consoles in 2028 has proven quite controversial, to say the least, not everyone thinks that a digital-only world would be all bad.

One such person is Hiroshi Matsuyama, CEO fo CyberConnect 2 – a studio best known for its manga and anime-based fighting games (think Naruto: Ultimate Ninja and the like) as well as its .hack series made in collaboration with the ever-beloved Bandai Namco.

He makes his stance clear in a new post over on X (as translated by Automaton), stating that a complete shift to digital game distribution and no physical would be "nothing but a positive thing."

That is, from the perspective of developers themselves. He explains that digital games are more profitable, using his own studio as an example. It has to purchase discs and/or game cards directly from manufacturers at companies like Nintendo and Sony to produce physical copies for their respective platforms, adding an extra layer of expense to the whole process.

Going digital would eliminate this pricey layer, of course.

Matsuyama understands why folks prefer discs and such, as "culturally, physical copies were a normal thing" – but "nowadays, they can't win in terms of convenience."

He also cites Capcom and Square Enix here, stating that over 90% or so of their sales are digital. In that case, it doesn't make financial sense to continue producing physical editions of games. "Developers work for their salaries," after all – and profit is undeniably important.

"If you want to release physical games even if it means that salaries will be reduced," as the dev describes, "then sure, I can make it happen – but I don't think there's anyone willing to do that."

In short, he doesn't think continuing to support physical copies "for a minority of collectors and enthusiasts" is realistic or plausible, but he's not sure they'll disappear suddenly now, either.

There'll still be codes in boxes yet. Discs specifically, though? Those "are doomed to fail."

Matsuyama then brings Rockstar Games' own GTA 6 up, noting how it's digital-only because it's "too big to fit on a physical disc." In fact, most games in general now "are too large to fit," according to the CyberConnect 2 lead, and "that's why they're shifting to digital releases." And, again, that's apparently a good thing.

"It's important to make that shift," as he concludes. As for what kind of impact it will make…" Well, "there will be nothing but positive things. Profitability will rise much faster, and developers will get more bonuses."

I'm not sure it's a good shift myself, but hey – at least he makes some valid points from a dev's point of view.

PlayStation is "hearing the feedback from customers" on discs, says JRPG boss whose business is built on physical games

GTA 6 is about to put us in the shoes of power couple Jason and Lucia, but while different age ratings suggest a more explicit game than GTA 5 with sex scenes and more, Rockstar North co-studio boss Rob Nelson also says that the devs wanted to get intimacy "right."

Speaking to IGN earlier this year in an interview that's now been published in full, Nelson specifically addresses GTA 6's handling of "physical intimacy" after IGN points out how bad many other games have traditionally been at doing so.

"We don't want to be so bad at it," Nelson begins. "These characters feel very right together – they really do. For anybody that wants to play around with the idea of role-playing their relationship, it's amazing. So many people on the team have connected with the characters. But physical intimacy is a huge part of a relationship, and so it has to be done right. Like anything that we do, we have to iterate and try things and iterate on it until we figure out what feels right."

He reiterates: "We definitely want to err on the right side of it."

It's at this point that IGN suggests that there are certain minigames that you wouldn't want to see show up, to which Nelson laughs, and says: "I think that's right."

Although it's not mentioned by name, the very likely implication here is that Rockstar doesn't want a repeat of GTA: San Andreas's notorious Hot Coffee moment. The scrapped minigame allowed CJ to have sex with his girlfriend, and while it wasn't meant to be playable in the final version of the game, that didn't stop it from being datamined and later made available by modders.

The controversy and backlash surrounding the Hot Coffee incident was enormous, though I'm sure that legal drama isn't Rockstar's concern with GTA 6's portrayal of sex. Rather, it sounds like it's about handling how it's presented in the right way – not that it'd take much improvement from rhythmically moving the control sticks and filling an "excitement" bar.

Exactly what Rockstar has in mind remains to be seen, but GTA 6's recent PEGI 18+ age rating states that we can expect "scenes of intercourse and occasional scenes of sexual fetishes," so make of that what you will.

GTA 6 and San Andreas show how much game development has changed: In the '00s, Rockstar turned a Clair Obscur Expedition 33-sized budget into $600 million.

Xbox chief strategy officer Matthew Ball has commented on GTA 6 streaming rumors, saying the game won't be streaming on PC, nor exclusively on Xbox.

Earlier this week, The Verge reported that Xbox CEO Asha Sharma told employees during an all-hands meeting that the company has something planned for GTA 6 that "no other platform holder is doing," which sources identified as Xbox landing exclusive streaming rights for GTA 6. This would've meant that to stream the game, you would need Xbox Cloud Gaming, but more crucially, it would potentially mean that the game would be available for PC and mobile players to play via Xbox Cloud Gaming on the platforms.

However, Ball posted on Twitter to acknowledge this report, saying: "While the excitement for GTA 6 and Xbox is great to see, it has also led to some misreporting. We are looking forward to launching GTA 6 on Xbox November 19, though the game will not be streaming exclusively or to PC," debunking the report.

With Ball's wording, the implication seems to be that GTA 6 will be available to stream, however, it'll be excluded from the Xbox Cloud Streaming PC app.

The absence of PC streaming is interesting, as obviously the lack of a PC version of the game has been a major talking point. Rockstar Games typically goes console-first, whether that be from a desire to make the PC version as good as it can be or just knowing that people will double dip on a PC version when it releases in a year or two, so perhaps it is intentionally not allowing streaming on the platform.

Although with other services like Amazon Luna and Nvidia GeForce Now, there obviously isn't a console to go along with them, I'm not sure PC being excluded is a given. Red Dead Redemption 2 did come to streaming, but it was through a Stadia release that dropped weeks after the PC version.

However, it's worth noting that Xbox's new game streaming limits that will only allow 15 hours of game time if you have Xbox Game Pass Ultimate – with more hours being able for purchase – also come into effect in November, the same month GTA 6 releases. Given that Rockstar Games titles are generally pretty long, I'd wager that's not a coincidence.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 lead wants GTA 6 to open the door to charging more for games.

Mountains emerged. Rivers carved canyons. And a whole bunch of other stuff happened between the release of GTA 5 and the impending launch of GTA 6. In that time, developer Rockstar Games, in step with the broader games industry, ballooned in size and racked up expenses to match. But long before the days of production budgets estimated to be comfortably north of $1 billion, a new Grand Theft Auto could be built in a cave with a box of scraps – which is to say, developed in a few years by under 100 people on a reported budget of $10 million.

In the final run-up to GTA 6, a harrowing fact has struck the Grand Theft Auto community. Reshared online by veteran game developer Del Walker of Naughty Dog and Respawn fame, an archived news story from USA Today in 2006 notes that GTA: San Andreas had sold over 12 million copies roughly 16 months after its October 2004 launch. If you (somewhat generously) assume that all of those sales were made at the game's $50 base price, that comes to about $600 million.

This figure was widely reported in the storm of coverage orbiting San Andreas' famous "Hot Coffee" incident, appearing in other articles (like this one from NBC News) that are still listed today.

Another figure helps put that gross revenue – which wouldn't translate directly to Rockstar or publisher Take-Two Interactive's share – into context. GTA: San Andreas was made on a reported budget of roughly $10 million, and we have two solid sources for that.

A December 21, 2004 article from The Wall Street Journal (paywalled) is cited by Wikipedia and references a $10 million budget for the game. Accounting for inflation, $10 million in 2004 is worth about $18 million in today's money.

An issue of The Ottawa Citizen, an Ontario, Canada-based newspaper, was released on the same day and is also archived online (again, paywalled), with a relevant snippet pulled out and cited by the GTA Fandom wiki. It quotes then-Take-Two president Paul Eibeler, who left the publisher in 2007, as saying San Andreas was made with a budget of "less than $10 million."

It's fascinating to see this $10 million figure in conversation, because this cost threshold has recently been used as a soft reference point for what AA game development can look like – a mid-sized, responsibly budgeted and scoped game that punches above its weight, and a potential retreat for studios worn down by the boom-and-bust bets of today's AAA games.

Today, GTA represents the pinnacle of high-budget development, the kind of swing that only GTA can get away with, and the kind of game that only Rockstar can make at this scale and fidelity thanks to its pedigree, backing, and army of employees (and outsourced contributors). Oh, and GTA 6 costs $100 if you want everything in it – that'd be the Ultimate Edition – or $80 at base, which has become the new price ceiling for some AAA games.

As Walker puts it: "Finding out San Andreas cost like $10 mil to make, and made back $600 million without DLC, multiplayer or microtransactions, is like watching someone dunk barefoot." Meanwhile, the lion's share of GTA 5's ample profits were harvested through GTA Online monetization over several years. If anything, GTA 6 is first and foremost a platform for Rockstar's next big online component.

The most prominent touchstone here is probably Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a breakout turn-based RPG from Sandfall Interactive, a small French developer made up of mostly junior staff. Its budget was also under $10 million, just to put into perspective how much game development costs have exploded in 20 years.

Before, that kind of money could get you a new Grand Theft Auto. Now it's, well, certainly not chump change, but it's a rounding error to GTA, which is as good a cipher. And today, large publishers, and the smaller companies treading water in the same industry's financial currents, are reckoning with those costs, in part by laying off thousands of people as a lot of those bets lose.

The kicker is that the controversy that spawned much of this reporting, which orbited a January 2006 lawsuit filed by the Los Angeles city attorney office and accusing Rockstar of concealing pornographic content in GTA: San Andreas (sex scenes accessible only by modders), may have impacted its sales due to retailers pulling the game from shelves. Being removed from stores certainly makes it hard to sell a game, but equally, you might argue that the Hot Coffee notoriety only fueled sales before and after the brief disappearance from retail.

As it happens, that 2004 newspaper article also contains a prophetic quote regarding game development budgets. A Microsoft spokeswoman discussing the cost of Halo 2 comments on the, even then, rising budgets of games. (According to a July 2015 presentation from Microsoft veteran Chip Pedersen, Halo 2 cost $40 million to make and another $80 million to market. I shudder to think what Take-Two has spent marketing GTA 6.)

"The costs to create stellar games continue to increase, but we are looking at ways to help the industry streamline rising costs," she said. I don't know who this woman is or where she is now, but I hope she understands just how right she was.

For 5 days, this PlayStation Store credit deal brings GTA 6's $100 Ultimate Edition down to the price of a normal game.

PlayStation users can get $100 in PSN store credit for $80 using a limited-time offer available to Costco members.

Costco is selling four $25 PlayStation Store gift cards for $79.99 with an exclusive membership discount, offering a solid 20% saving. This price will only show up to members who are signed in.

Each Costco member can only claim this deal twice, and it will only be available until Sunday, October 11 or "while supplies last." Once purchased, the digital download codes will be delivered by email and must be redeemed via the PlayStation Store.

With GTA 6 being the highest-profile game release of the year, fans of Rockstar's open-world games quickly clocked that this deal brings the price of the game's $100 Ultimate Edition down to the new normal $80 ceiling for normal AAA games, which GTA 6's standard edition shares.

It's still costly for one new game, but it's hard to save money on GTA 6 elsewhere, as Rockstar won't officially discount it for some time.

Provided you're already a Costco member and aren't the US government, this sort of digital markdown is about as close as you can get to printing money. However, with the basic gold star Costco membership going for $65 a year, joining now just for this deal doesn't math out. Whether the store's grocery and hotdog benefits are worth the price is up for you to decide.

This discount comes as Prime Day PS5 deals slash prices on a range of consoles and games that we've been tracking.

Here are the cheapest PlayStation Plus deals and membership prices.

GTA 6's upcoming release is set to dominate November, with most other games fleeing from its enormous shadow, but it does have one major opponent in the form of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake. One expert goes as far as to say Nintendo is "the only company in the industry with a fanbase loyal enough to make that bet."

The GTA 6 and Ocarina of Time remake rivalry was the topic of a Saturday Night Live (SNL) sketch from a few days ago, in which the show fails to make Zelda sound boring and seemingly wasn't expecting the crowd to react more excitedly about Link's adventures in Hyrule than Rockstar's upcoming blockbuster. Oops. That aside, it still makes a valid point about the two wildly different games having a sort-of-Barbenheimer moment next month (two weeks apart, but still), and one expert has weighed in on the matter.

Aakash Gupta served as a leader of product growth at multiple companies, as well as a Fortnite producer at Epic Games, and "spent a decade in product and growth," now writing "deep dives on product strategy." In a lengthy new post on Twitter, he discusses the "game of chicken" that comes with working out release date calendars.

"GTA 6 is so big that every major game publisher evacuated November. Except Nintendo, who scheduled a remake of the highest-rated game ever made, a 99 on Metacritic, two weeks in front of it," Gupta begins.

"The money explains the evacuation. GTA 5 made $1 billion in 3 days back in 2013, faster than any movie, album, or anything else ever sold. DFC Intelligence projects GTA 6 clears $3.2 billion in year one," he continues. "For scale, Hollywood's biggest release of 2024, Inside Out 2, grossed $1.7 billion across its entire worldwide run. One game, one year, double that."

Gupta says that "Call of Duty retreated to late October," although it should be noted that even though GTA 6 certainly will have been on Activision's mind (how could it not be?), Modern Warfare 4's release date isn't particularly unusual. While the yearly CoD releases often arrive in November, we've seen them arrive in October before, too – just look at Black Ops 6 and 2022's Modern Warfare 2 to name a couple. Similarly, while he says that "Phantom Blade Zero moved," it was actually delayed from early September to late October – still missing GTA 6, but actually arriving closer to Rockstar's launch.

Even so, he's right to point out that "the rest of the schedule crowded into September and October and left November a ghost town with two names on it." We're currently in the midst of one of the busiest release schedules in recent memory, with the likes of Marvel's Wolverine, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, Control Resonant, Silent Hill: Townfall, and The Witcher 3 Remastered all having launched in the last few weeks, with more, including Final Fantasy Resonance and Switch Sports Resort, to come.

"I watched this dynamic from inside Epic Games," Gupta says. "Release calendars are a game of chicken, and when the biggest truck on the road picks a lane, everyone else swerves.

"Nintendo didn't swerve. The math is clean. GTA 6 doesn't run on their hardware, the audiences barely overlap, and a remake of the best-reviewed game in history gets two full weeks of oxygen before the asteroid lands," he continues. "They're the only company in the industry with a fanbase loyal enough to make that bet."

As for the outcome of this rivalry, Gupta suggests that "the crowd cheering louder for Zelda than the punchlines tells you how this ends." He adds: "The biggest entertainment event of the decade is a video game launch, and SNL just went where the audience already is."

It'll be interesting to see how things shake out, but again, Ocarina of Time does at least have two weeks before GTA 6 rocks up and grabs the full attention of the industry. Reacting to the Zelda remake's release date previously, Krysta Yang, former PR manager for Nintendo of America, said she thought it was "great," because "if it happened, where this was on the same day as GTA, and I saw that this was a faithful remake, I would be playing GTA."

GTA 6 boss says Rockstar has to "forego realism" for the sake of the players: "Realism can help greatly with immersion, but too much can feel tedious."

GTA 6 protagonist Jason might be a former army man, but the game's narrative lead insists that doesn't mean Rockstar was trying to make "a statement" with his backstory.

Rockstar previously introduced Jason as a man who "grew up around grifters and crooks" and spent "a stint in the Army trying to shake off his troubled teens" before returning to "doing what he knows best, working for local drug runners." Then, of course, he meets fellow GTA 6 protagonist Lucia, which "could be the best or worst thing to ever happen to him" – a slightly ominous descriptor we'll have to wait and see the outcome of next month.

Concerns for Jason and Lucia's happy ending aside, during a new interview with Love magazine, Rupert Humphries, GTA 6's senior vice president of narrative, is asked about Jason's backstory. Specifically, could it be interpreted as a class story, considering his time in the army, and how consciously has Rockstar written failed social mobility as an aspect of his tale?

"We didn't want to make any kind of statement with Jason's backstory," Humphries responds. "It needs to be understood that he takes the measures he does – drug trafficking and becoming a bank robber, etc. – because of his material circumstances. But a lot of this is up to the player to decide whether he needs to do that, or if it's a choice he makes because he's wired differently from other people."

It's a surprising response, largely because it seems to imply that Jason's military background might not figure all that much in the narrative, though I suppose we'll have to watch this space to see how it plays out, and how much the devs are hiding for spoiler purposes right now.

Rockstar obviously also hasn't shied away from social commentary in the past, either. In fact, in this same interview, before being asked about Jason's backstory, Humphries discusses the concept of the American Dream being a recurring theme in the GTA series, including in GTA 4 where "we told an immigrant's story that was supposed to be a kind of hollow commentary on the illusion of America as a land of opportunity, and then we sort of doubled down on that with the cynicism of GTA 5."

GTA 6 boss says Rockstar has to "forego realism" for the sake of the players: "Realism can help greatly with immersion, but too much can feel tedious."

Rockstar Games might have gained a reputation for making realistic games, but the devs behind GTA 6 sometimes have to "forego realism" for the sake of the player experience, says Rob Nelson, co-studio head of Rockstar North.

In a new interview with Love magazine, Nelson discusses GTA 6's balance between realism and immersion, noting that Rockstar's goal is the latter and that realism doesn't always help achieve it.

"Sometimes you need things to feel realistic to help with that sense of immersion, and conversely, sometimes you need to forego realism in favor of what will be most convenient for the player – realism can help greatly with immersion, but too much can feel tedious, so we try to find the right balance," he explains.

"Sometimes drawing an amusing or poignant parallel to some aspect of the real world is helpful in supporting the experience, and sometimes it's better to ignore or omit certain aspects of reality because they just don't make sense with the experience we are trying to create," he continues. "Everything we do is done to support the sense of being immersed in a world, connecting to its characters and the narrative we are weaving through it."

The irony of this statement is that GTA 6 is introducing a refueling system that's already proving controversial since – you guessed it – fans are worried it'll feel tedious. Nelson previously suggested that the refueling quick-time event is so quick that "you can't complain," but even so, he noted that "we'll see what people say."

After all, Rockstar already removed a mechanic from GTA 6 that would have seen you buying groceries and restocking Jason and Lucia's fridge, but "because this would have complicated the mechanics, we had to simplify it," Nelson explained at the time. He then reiterated: "We are always trying to find the right balance between realism and ease of play."

GTA 6 has "detailed decapitation" and cocaine can be "snorted directly" from your hand, says UK ratings board.

GTA 6 has been given a PEGI 18 rating in the UK and Europe, unsurprisingly, but the very detailed description of the game's contents suggests an even more violent, sexually explicit game than you might expect from the notoriously violent, sexually explicit series.

Rockstar's upcoming behemoth has already been rated by the ESRB and other rating systems, but the PEGI rating specifically includes some incredibly juicy new details about the game. In providing a reason for the 18+ rating, the board says GTA 6 features "features strong graphic violence, strong sexual themes and use of illegal drugs." No surprise whatsoever. Sex, drugs, and violence are GTA's whole thing, its central themes, its promise to players. But if I were playing GTA 6 and suddenly someone's head got chopped off in graphic detail, I have to say I'd be a little surprised. But apparently, that's something that can happen in the game. "Violence is bloody with a high degree of realism, with certain weapons being able to cause greater damage such as detailed decapitation and dismemberment," reads the PEGI rating's description.

"Drug use is frequent and prominent with the player being able to partake in drug use with others and to use illegal drugs directly from their inventory," it says, adding, "Most notably, cocaine can be carried around by the player and snorted directly from their hand at any time." Again, I'm not surprised at all that drugs are featured prominently in GTA 6, but I wasn't expecting the player character to huff lines right from their hands. This game sounds wild.

"There are also strong sexual themes," reads the rating. ZzzZZZzzZZZzz. Strong sexual themes? That's not the GTA I know. But wait, the game also features "scenes of intercourse and occasional scenes of sexual fetishes," and "In various night clubs the player can also pay for private dances, during which, the game allows the player to move their hands onto the dancers' breasts and buttocks."

All joking aside, GTA 6 sounds like a wildly fun time based on this age rating description. Rockstar has long positioned its next game to be a sweeping evolution of the franchise, its biggest, most extravagant release ever, and the biggest video game release of all time by a variety of metrics. At first I was shocked by the level of detail presented by the age rating, but thinking more on it, these extremely mature features feel like a natural progression for a series that's always been defined by excess. November 19 is going to be one hell of a day.

Here's everything new we learned about GTA 6 this week after Rockstar revealed new details on the animals, activities, and weather in its sprawling open-world sandbox

Welcome back to GTA 6 O'Clock! This week, Daniel Dawkins and James Jarvis examine the biggest Grand Theft Auto 6 gameplay details. In case you somehow missed it, GTA 6 landed on the cover of Game Informer magazine – a moment Rockstar used to reveal new information surrounding the complexity of this open-world sandbox. There was also fresh detail on some of the activities you'll be able to participate in, and some of the distractions you'll be able to hunt down too.

DD and JJ also explore the value of the GTA 6 Collector's Edition boxset and consider the true scale of this long-awaited sequel. There's plenty more covered in this week's episode of GTA 6 O'Clock, so you'll want to click the play button above to jump right into the conversation. You can also head over to our YouTube channel to watch the latest episode there, or download an audio-only version via Spotify so that you can get the latest GTA 6 news while you're on the move.

And while you're here, you can also sign up to the official GTA 6 O'Clock Newsletter to get weekly insights delivered right to your inbox, and vote in our latest GTA 6 poll to make your voice heard on the game ahead of its release on November 19, 2026, for PS5 and Xbox Series X.

This week's GTA 6 quiz

Could any other video game publisher besides Rockstar get away with releasing a $400 collector's edition that doesn't even include a copy of the game? The answer to that question is, sadly, yes – probably they could in this day and age. Regardless, that's not the question we're here to ask you this week! Come one, let's hear it:

What to read next?

Good news if you're a fan of the NBA or cool novelty t-shirts, because Rockstar and the Miami Heart are partnering up for the release of GTA 6. On top of lighting up the team's venue and releasing a full merch line, there'll be "special activities" on game night ahead of the blockbuster sequel's launch.

It'll all kick off on November 18, the eve of Grand Theft Auto 6 finally becoming playable worldwide. The Miami Heat, to be dubbed the Vice City Heat for this occasion, are up against the Milwaukee Bucks at home, in the Kaseya Center.

The venue itself already has Vice City branding on it, as part of an extensive marketing campaign within Miami. Now, the court will be branded in "special Vice City hardwood" for the occasion, to make sure everyone watching knows exactly what's going on.

"Special activities" will be happening inside the venue and throughout the evening, rolling into GTA 6 unlocking stateside. No details are forthcoming, but we're instructed to keep a good lookout.

This is all touted as a "never-been-done-before event," and honestly, there are few launches I can think of that would even be able to pull this off. Halo 3, and a couple of the bigger Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty games are about it.

Major sports teams and venues aren't cheap when it comes to sponsorships. This is big. If you can't get to the Kaseya Center or watch live, you can partake through the line of Vice City merchandise. You can get t-shirts, crop tops and jumpers, though I have to say, as a regular concertgoer, $55 per shirt is a bit of a rip. At least arena tours have to contend with venue cuts and all the other expenses.

Anyway, they're there if you fancy looking through them. Go Heat!

GTA 6 age rating suggests a more explicit game than GTA 5, singling out "sex scenes" in a step up from Rockstar's last installment.

The Australian age rating for GTA 6 specifically lists "sex scenes" in its classification, suggesting it'll be more explicit than GTA 5 was.

Age ratings for GTA 6 have emerged, and naturally, it's gained the standard M for Mature in the US and a PEGI 18+ rating in the UK and Europe. And while these come with the standard expected descriptors of "blood and gore, intense violence, mature humor, nudity, strong language, strong sexual content, use of drugs and alcohol," Australia and New Zealand have used a more specific descriptor.

As users on the GTA subreddit have pointed out, the age rating for the Australian and New Zealand store pages both specify "Sex Scenes" as part of their "Restricted 18+" ratings. While sex has been a part of the series for some time – both through being able to hire sex workers in the game's open-world as well as in Trevor's introduction scene in GTA 5 featuring some GTA 4 characters – it's notable that GTA 5 only had a generic descriptor. Meanwhile, GTA: The Trilogy has "Sexual Activity Related To Incentives And Rewards" listed in Australia, while it's not even mentioned in New Zealand.

Since the story of GTA 6 revolves around a couple, it's somewhat expected that sex would be a part of the story, but with the specific descriptor, it seems like it may be a bit more explicit than we've seen from the series previously.

Given the GTA series has been subject to controversy near constantly, with the scrapped Hot Coffee minigame in GTA San Andreas being one of the most significant, we'll no doubt hear some uproar about this – with GTA 6 already a hot topic among Miami politicians. But in an era where we've commonly accepted sex scenes in TV and film, it really shouldn't be a big deal in GTA, either.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 lead wants GTA 6 to open the door to charging more for games.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 executive producer and Warhorse Studios co-founder Martin Klíma says that he doesn't get why GTA is so popular, but he's hoping GTA 6's success allows developers to raise the price of games across the board.

For the longest time, the assumption around GTA 6 was that Rockstar would be able to charge whatever it wanted for it, as people would show up thanks to the long wait and massive hype. While some were predicting the game could end up at a base price of $100, Rockstar instead opted to match the $80 mark that Nintendo introduced with Mario Kart World at the launch of the Switch 2 – which is still more than the standard, but not unprecedented.

Some developers, however, such as Wardogs lead Joe Brammer, argue that Rockstar should've been a trendsetter, because "games are too cheap." Speaking to PC Gamer, Klíma hopes "GTA will blaze the trail, and it will allow us to increase the cost." He adds that Rockstar is the only developer "who can afford, or who can dare, to increase the price of games, which I think is long overdue and also necessary for this business to survive."

Despite that hope, Klíma admits that the GTA series "doesn't appeal to me at all" and that "the reason why it is so popular—it beats me. It's something which I just fail to understand." While says he won't "be playing GTA 6 unless I'm somehow forced to," he's happy to praise it, saying, "it's really good that somebody is making these games that are really technologically marvels."

Of course, that's Rockstar. It and Nintendo are two of the developers with big enough fanbases that they can likely afford to charge that extra, but it doesn't mean everyone would be suddenly willing to pay $80 for every game. Perhaps there are better ways of making the industry more sustainable, like perhaps not giving CEOs huge bonuses after laying off the devs behind the games that earned them that bonus.

Proving Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's authenticity, Warhorse's biggest fan hikes through Czechia "by foot" to make 3D maps of the RPG's historical locations.

We could be waiting quite some time to see another game as impactful as GTA 6, former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida suggests, and it may even be on Rockstar itself to do it with GTA 7.

GTA 6 is quite easily one of, if not the single most hyped up game of all time, with immeasurable excitement from fans who've been waiting over 13 years since the last installment, and most devs and publishers fleeing as far from Rockstar Games' November launch as they can to avoid their games getting swallowed up and forgotten. Its impending release has seemingly influenced consoles going out of stock and being sold for ridiculous prices, and people are so excited that some have even been willing to spend $400 on a box of merch including, uh, a spoon. With all that, on top of years of fan discussion, wild theories, and speculation… it's kind of a lot.

Speaking in a new episode of The Verge's Vergecast (below), the former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment worldwide studios is asked if we're ever going to see another game like GTA 6 in the future.

"After 15 years, maybe GTA 7, we'll see," he laughs. That's not to say that he thinks Rockstar is the only studio capable, though.

"Or any of these companies from China, they might try to emulate or compete, because there will be [a] 15 year gap after GTA 6," he continues. "So no one should underestimate the power of these Chinese companies."

Honestly, the mere concept of GTA 7 and the inevitable build-up to that makes me feel dizzy when we've not yet reached GTA 6's launch – this year's launch feels mythical enough as it is. But who knows what a post GTA 6 world is going to look like? Out of its shadow, could we see similar levels of hype and impact for a Switch 2 version of Nintendogs? Perhaps not, but it'd be interesting to take the spotlight away from Rockstar for a while, at least.

GTA 6's weather is completely re-engineered from Red Dead Redemption 2, and it has hurricanes, rainbows, proper cloud formations and more.

The small details have always been where Rockstar works the most magic, and GTA 6 will be no different. Besides anything else, the weather is going to be something to watch out for, since the whole system's been overhauled from what we saw in Red Dead Redemption 2.

In Game Informer, Owen Shepherd, the vice president of art for lighting and rendering at Rockstar, divulged some of what players can expect when roaming Leonida, and it won't all be sunshine and tans. You can encounter all sorts of conditions, ranging from high temperatures to rain, right through hurricanes, all handled by a system where actual cloud formations will be floating overhead.

The entire weather system's been re-done to allow for more dynamism and unpredictability than we've seen prior. Red Dead Redemption 2 is the closest example, and apparently this iteration goes beyond what you see as Arthur Morgan.

The wind and rain are the biggest examples. You'll see the former through people's hair and ripples in the water and the like - all the minute ways you'd notice a breeze yourself. There'll be updrafts and other more specific effects as well. Extreme conditions are possible too; large-scale storms can and will happen across the area.

For the rain, there are puddles, and realistic, persistent rainbows. The notion that I could be stepping away from a hazardous mission, covered in blood both literally and metaphorically, only to hop into my sports car and drive off toward a big ol' rainbow arching over the horizon is glorious. Pure Rockstar.

As with much of GTA 6, I'll need to see this all in motion to fully appreciate it. But it's starting to sound like the studio's managed to outdo itself here. That's what 13 years of development will do.

Police arrest "one of the alleged leaders" of group behind Rockstar hack that apparently revealed how much money GTA Online makes, FBI warns "we know how to find you"

The FBI has confirmed the arrest of "one of the alleged leaders" of cybercrime and hacking group ShinyHunters – the group that claimed responsibility for a Rockstar Games hack earlier this year.

As reported by Reuters, earlier this week, Dutch police announced that they arrested a 24-year-old man from Amsterdam on September 15 who's suspected of being part of the group. In a statement, the FBI's cyber division assistant director, Brett Leatherman, refers to the man as "one of the alleged leaders of ShinyHunters," saying: "Since last year, this cybercriminal and his co-conspirators have allegedly breached more than 140 organizations and taken at least $70 million in extortion payments."

One of those organizations is allegedly GTA 6 maker Rockstar Games – ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for a hack which took place in April this year. At that point, Rockstar stated: "We can confirm that a limited amount of non-material company information was accessed in connection with a third-party data breach. This incident has no impact on our organization or our players."

This breach shouldn't be confused with the September 2022 GTA 6 leak, nor the Cyberleek leaks that emerged last month. However, it did seemingly reveal alleged financial records, including the apparent weekly revenue earned by GTA Online.

More recently, ShinyHunters claimed to have stolen information from the FBI (thanks, BBC), allegedly including data on most agents at the organization, Reuters reported last week – notably after the arrest of the 24-year-old.

Leatherman also shares a message for anyone involved with ShinyHunters, encouraging them to come forward. "You've heard about the arrest of your colleague. We're confident you've seen or heard things in recent days that the public has not. Other groups believed anonymity, or their friends, would protect them, and they were wrong," he states.

"Arrests have a way of changing who is willing to talk, and seized infrastructure has a way of showing us who's left. The longer you stay in this, the more we learn about you. You know how to find us, and we know how to find you. I suggest you reach out first while the choice is still yours."

In a statement seen by Reuters, however, ShinyHunters claims that the man arrested has "no association" with the hacking group, and allegedly criticizes the competence of the Dutch police force.

GTA 6's $1 million billboard goes up despite protests from local police as Rockstar's real-life Miami takeover gets underway.

You've heard it said before that GTA 6 is expected to be the largest entertainment launch of all time in terms of budget and sales, but it really is hard to oversell the unprecedented scale of Rockstar's incoming juggernaut. Publisher Take-Two Interactive has likely spent an ungodly amount of money GTA 6, and if the finished product is anything less than a total disaster, you'll see that money reflected in its photorealistic, richly detailed visuals, gigantic open-world map, and lifelike physics. That said, making the biggest game ever comes with proportionately seismic expectations, and Rockstar isn't content with simply meeting them.

"As the pressure for us on this project is huge, we dealt with that by doing our best to overdeliver," Rockstar's head of development and co-studio head Aaron Garbut tells Game Informer. "Normally you compromise scale for detail or detail for interaction, but with this project we went the other way – everything is dialed up – detail, scope, breadth, scale, interaction and density. I don't think we have ever created anything close to this before."

Of course, it's worth acknowledging the extremely talented people at Rockstar who don't need boatloads of cash to tell compelling stories or design interesting worlds, but the technical achievement Garbut is teasing here wouldn't be possible without Take-Two money. We've yet to see what the game looks like on our living room screens or how it feels in the hands at launch, but Rockstar certainly isn't doing much to temper expectations ahead of the game's November 19 launch; instead, it's doubling down in the final weeks of pre-release build-up with a reminder that there are very few studios in the world with its pedigree, talent, and resources.

GTA 6 devs spent years "going to strip clubs," "spending time on the beach," and riding with ex-cops to research Florida life

Game development is a hard, often thankless job, where devs spend years working extreme hours while pouring their hearts into their craft, and they're often repaid with little more than a pat on the back ahead of the next round of mass layoffs. I say all this to suggest you shouldn't judge Rockstar too hard for its regular GTA 6 research trips in Florida, which saw the devs soaking up the sun and the nightlife in equal measure.

"We go and try to experience everything," senior vice president of narrative Rupert Humphries tells Game Informer, "from riding around areas at night with ex-cops, to going to strip clubs and nightclubs, spending time on the beach, in the Everglades, down in the Keys, and beyond." The team has taken a multitude of such trips for reference material over the years.

Rockstar has a number of subsidiaries based all over the world, but GTA's development is led by Rockstar North in Edinburgh, Scotland, and I have to imagine some of those devs appreciated a little extra sunlight. But honestly? Going clubbing as a work activity sounds like a recipe for a bad time.

And either way, there are plenty of locations outside of the beaches and nightlife, and the game's story will drag Jason and Lucia through many of them. "We don’t have time to take you everywhere, but we want you to be able to explore and get a feel for most of the places, cultures, and vibes," Humphries says. "This game and its stories really thrive in an environment where you have rich people and poor people right next door to each other. And crime and corruption is the thread that pulls everyone together."

Plenty of game studios go on research trips – the American Truck Simulator devs even had to make a stop in my dinky hometown at one point – but the fact that the real-life inspirations behind Leonida and Vice City are such tourist destinations and nightlife hubs does make these particular trips seem a little more enviable than most. But personally, as a resident of Missouri, I get my fill of suffocating heat and humidity six months out of the year without having to meet any Florida men.

Here are all the GTA 6 locations we've learned about so far.

As the wait for GTA 6 presses on, fans of Rockstar Games' beloved franchise are finding new ways to breathe life into older entries like GTA 5 – for instance by, uh, unofficially porting it to Nintendo's original Switch console.

Or, at least, attempting to. Paralympics Productions, a self-described "very serious game development studio" (yes, heavy on the sarcasm), has been working on a Switch port of GTA 5 for some time now, officially unveiling its release back in August on X.

Things have been relatively quiet – too quiet, perhaps – since, even after Rockstar cracked down on with strict new modding and porting guidelines earlier this month.

These guidelines made it clear that the studio doesn't allow ports of its games, reading, "Do not modify our games to operate on consoles, hardware devices, or other platforms where they have not been officially released by Rockstar Games."

So, in other words, Paralympics Productions' Switch port is a no-no… and Rockstar's parent company Take-Two Interactive has finally noticed it, with project lead "Mojso" admitting as much.

"Paralympics Productions is shutting down on October 3rd," he writes in a new post. "Thank you everyone who supported us through tough times and lengthy development. I am sorry for not fulfilling your expectations and leaving you high and dry."

There you have it – GTA 5 devs caught the project-in-progress and have effectively axed it… but, as Mojso says, they could've been more harsh with their legal action.

"I am thankful for Take-Two's mercy so this is the definitive end," he admits. In other words, Take-Two didn't pursue a full-on lawsuit, it appears, perhaps opting for a warning and takedown order instead.

Mojso seems pleased with that, at least, stating in a response that he "wouldn't win in court most likely" as Rockstar has "solid grounds" and his attitude means he "can't even appeal to a jury or something like I didn't know what I was getting into."

He also explains that the port "was gonna release in the coming days" and "I wish Take-Two gave me more time," but it's all a bit too late now. And, no, he's "not releasing anything new and I'm not coming back."

As Mojso confirms, "it's truly over." It's disappointing for Switch enthusiasts and GTA 5 stans alike, but it's not exactly surprising. This isn't the first time a port was considered by eager modders, either.

GTA 5 modders got the game running on the Nintendo Switch way back in 2024 after the game's source code first leaked, so… yeah. I'm not sure it'll ever quite work out the way that fans hope, especially considering Rockstar's recent guideline changes.

GTA 6 fans replicate the $400 Collector's Box statue, and you can now 3D print your own ugly gator at home

Rather than pay $400 for the GTA 6 Collector's Box to get it, fans are now downloading and 3D printing the ugly alligator figure included in the bundle.

Rockstar Games releases are usually pretty popular, and there's no doubt that it'll sell a ton of copies the second it releases GTA 6 (or anything else) to the public. And with that sort of guaranteed success, it probably makes sense to drop an expensive collector's edition of the game for those who really want to go all-out for it, but uhh… a $400 box that doesn't include the game is probably not the most appealing prospect for many. So much so that scalpers were struggling to get one over on people at first, with the box remaining in stock for a decent amount of time.

And I can't really say I blame them. It's one thing to drop a massively expensive collector's edition, it's another to not include the game, but on top of that, it mostly feels like tat. One of the centerpiece items is a figurine of in-game TV show mascot Macca the Gator, who is a bright pink alligator in a blue shirt holding a blunt and a martini. It's pretty ugly, and feels like the type of thing Rockstar would intentionally make ugly as a commentary on tacky mascot characters.

But despite it being a certified uggo, clearly some people want it and now that the GTA 6 collector's edition has somehow sold out. Rather than pay $400 or pay for a scalper however, some are already coming up with other means to get their Macca fix. As highlighted by Twitter user Top5Gamingx, someone has already recreated the ugly reptile as a 3D model for people to 3D print in their own free time.

Of course, you'd need to own a 3D printer, pay for the filament needed to print it, potentially paint it, and then have to deal with an ugly gator figure in your vicinity. But it's the thought that counts!

Rockstar reportedly reminded GTA 6's voice cast they're still under NDA after actor Stephen Root let slip he's in the game.

Now that GTA 6 is mere weeks away, one emerging question is what Rockstar will go for next. The studio has multiple series it could return to; Red Dead Redemption 3 seems an obvious choice for the future, but according to a reliable leaker, LA Noire 2 is first on the studio's docket.

This particular bit of information is actually a few years old, stemming from a round of leaks from a user on 4chan back in 2023. They posted a number of titbits surrounding GTA 6 and Rockstar's plans that were then reposted on unofficial messageboard GTAForums.

For what Rockstar's looking at beyond the sixth mainline Grand Theft Auto, apparently the company's looking at going back to some detective work. A sequel to LA Noire is slated, heading to San Francisco to look for the Zodiac Killer.

At the time, the leaker predicted a release window of at least 2030, and aspirations of this being a standard-setter visually. I can safely imagine the latter, but even 2030 seems optimistic now. Supporting GTA 6 will take the lion's share of Rockstar's manpower through 2027 and probably 2028 as well, not leaving much room for another full-on release.

Many of the mechanics they mentioned for the new Grand Theft Auto turned out to be accurate, such as the dynamics between Jason and Lucia, where you decide how romantically involved they are through your choices. The accuracy of their predictions definitely lends some credence to their mention of LA Noire 2.

Rockstar's owner, Take-Two, even suggested LA Noire would be on the table for what's coming up. "There’s nothing to announce on LA Noire specifically, and if there were, it would be Rockstar announcing it, not me," CEO Strauss Zelnick said at the iicon event in April. "But in any case, with regard to our legacy IP, the teams are always looking at what we have and we’re always thinking about it."

It's now been 15 years since the first game, a noir-y detective sim where you have to rumble a drug ring that's infested the local police department in 1940s Los Angeles. It was an ambitious, charming project, and there's plenty of ground for a potential revisit. We'll see what emerges.

Rockstar reportedly reminded GTA 6's voice cast they're still under NDA after actor Stephen Root let slip he's in the game

There are two platforms notably absent from GTA 6's release. First, you have PC, which will inevitably happen within the first year or two, and then there's the Switch 2. Although no entries in the hyper-violent series have made it to Nintendo's systems yet, this would be a good time to set a precedent given the mutual popularity, but an ex developer from Rockstar sees it differently.

Speaking to Kiwi Talkz in a currently private interview, Jérémy Hartvick, a former open world designer at Rockstar who worked on GTA 6 from 2017 through to 2020, explains why he doesn't see a port happening. "I don't believe it even makes sense, because I'm not sure the audience for GTA 6 is so much the audience for the Switch," he starts.

"If you're a GTA fan, you would probably buy a console on which GTA will come out," he adds. The logic is fair – if you were hoping to get the new Grand Theft Auto, you probably opted for a PlayStation 5 or an Xbox Series X to begin with.

Sales for both jumped up on the back of the Netflix preview. Fans generally seem to understand and accept that if they want to play GTA 6 as soon as possible, there are only two options for doing so.

Nintendo exists in its own lane, because if you want new Mario, Zelda or Kirby games, you need a Switch 2. There are probably people who only have the hybrid platform who wouldn't mind checking out GTA 6, but I'd be willing to bet it's a minority overall.

"Does it make sense for you to go out of your way to probably deliver a subpar experience, because it does not run exactly the same when you know anyone will buy a PS5 to get your game?" he asks, rhetorically, but providing the obvious answer anyway: "No."

This is the other half of the equation. Such a large release would need to be boiled down and optimized for the Switch 2's hardware. That's a lot of extra labor for something that's already manpower intensive, for potentially spurious rewards comparatively. Hartvick does mention the notion isn't "totally ludicrous," but for the time-being, don't count on it.

GTA 6 scalpers are already trying to resell Rockstar's $400 Collector's Box for upwards of $1,500, even though it's still in stock.

As the GTA 6 release quickly approaches with November right around the corner now, folks ponder whether or not the $400 Collector's Box is worth its price – but scalpers aren't waiting around for them to decide, it appears.

In case you're out of the loop, yes, Grand Theft Auto 6 has a $400 Collector's Box (one that does not include the game itself, mind you), featuring everything from a six-inch alligator figure to a, erm, collectible spoon, up for pre-order right now over on the official Rockstar Games website.

It's not out of stock by any means – understandably, considering its hefty price tag – but that's not stopping scalpers from attempting to resell it already.

A quick look over at eBay, arguably eager resellers' favorite storefront, shows the GTA 6 Collector's Box going for everything from $800 to upwards of $1,500. There aren't only a couple of listings, either. There's a plethora of them, and not one comes in at retail price, y'all. Not one.

There are a couple of more generous offers sitting at $600 – but, again, the dang thing is still in stock over on Rockstar's own site.

I feel like this is one of those situations in which scalpers won't emerge victorious, honestly. Not only is, as I've said multiple times now, the GTA 6 Collector's Box currently available to pre-order still, but I'm not sure it'll even go out of stock any time soon.

There are loads of posts all over the web from disappointed fans expressing that they're unwilling to shell out so much cash for a bundle that doesn't even contain the game it's based on.

A Reddit thread on the hopeful scalpers says it all, with one comment reading, "Honestly, if people buy these, the scalpers deserve that money." Another adds, "Yeah, I'll stick with just the game. $100 is enough" – because, yes, the Ultimate Edition of GTA 6 already costs a whopping hundred bucks (although I suppose it at least includes the heckin' game).

So, yep, I'm not feeling as though resellers are going to get too much out of this one.

Who knows, though – I could very well be wrong. This isn't the first time that scalpers have attempted to earn quite a lot more money than an item is worth, especially in the gaming sphere, and they do sadly often succeed.

Xbox is "very happy with GTA 6 pre-orders," exec says, claims sales match "our share of the console market."

It's probably safe to assume GTA 6 pre-orders are going well. Rockstar's new crime sandbox, some 13 years in the making, is set to be one of the biggest entertainment launches ever. However, a new report suggests the bulk of the purchases so far are on PlayStation 5, leaving the Xbox Series X version in the dust.

This comes from The Verge, where it's reported that GTA 6 has been pre-ordered much more on the PS5 than the Xbox Series X, compounding existing worries about Microsoft's games division. No percentages or other details are provided.

Matthew Ball, the chief strategy officer of Xbox, responds to the article on Twitter. "We are very happy with GTA 6 pre-orders," he says. "The title is breaking records for Xbox, we expect even more records will be broken throughout the fall, and our internal analysis shows our share of pre-orders to be matching our share of the console market."

To be fair, he would say all of that, the problem is a lot of it doesn't count for much. By "breaking records," I presume he means for overall pre-orders on the Xbox Series X, which seems extremely plausible since it's such a mammoth release. But competition isn't exactly stiff on the neon green system.

We haven't seen many big exclusives from the brand, and of those, lots have been pushed on Game Pass, making their pre-purchases and day one sales seem secondary. "Matching our share of the console market," is fine and dandy until you consider data that has the PS5 out-selling its rival by a pretty hefty portion.

Ball's own tweet has prompted barbs from analysts on the Xbox Series X's performance compared to the PS5. Circana analyst Mat Piscatella writes on Bluesky: "Given what the Xbox share of the console market is, not sure I'd be gushing about anything related to a relative split but that's just me."

Available numbers show Sony's machine boasting up to 80% of a multi-platform game's pre-orders on console. Microsoft has maintained the split on GTA 6 is less than that, but to what degree isn't shared.

The climate at Xbox is pretty bleak at the moment due to extensive restructuring and layoffs. We'll see how the dust settles in the coming months – and how well Rockstar's epic manages to sell.

GTA 6's $400 collectible spoon is actually a reference to another, far more expensive GTA spoon from 18 years ago.

You can expect a lot of GTA 6 merchandise from Rockstar, and the first windfall is coming quite soon. There aren't any physical versions of the game, but you can buy a spoon, designer sunglasses, a fanny pack, and select other goods – all in a massive bundle that'll cost you around four times the price of the game.

The Grand Theft Auto 6: The Goodtime State – Vice City Collection was just revealed by Rockstar, a merch capsule you can now pre-order from the official store. It's described as "a premium Grand Theft Auto 6 collectible set featuring all the essentials for a good time."

To be frank, I think we've different definitions of that last part, but how and ever. Contained is a figure of Macca the Gator, the aforementioned spoon, designer sunnies from Oakley, a crossbody bag, stickers, and a few other miscellaneous items. There's a double-sided map, which is probably the thing I desire most.

Everything comes emblazoned in some sort of logo, whether for Vice City or GTA 6 itself or Rockstar, and you can get the whole lot for $399.99, or £349.99 in Britain. Pre-orders are open, and right now, this is an all-in-one purchase. You can't buy anything on its own, at least not for the time-being.

You may balk at that price – you definitely won't be alone if you did – but the there are parts of this inflating the cost. The sunglasses generally go for around $200, and the manufacturing and weight of all the other merchandise will form the bones of that payment.

Still, it's a lot to ask, especially when you still need to buy the game separately, and don't even get a disc for the trouble. This drop was previously spotted through private store listings by a user known as Razed in a thread on unofficial message board GTAForums.

They noticed there are apparently shirts, tote bags, and more hats in the offing as well. Plenty of ways to give Rockstar your money before the crime sandbox arrives.

NBA star warns GTA 6 will ruin November sports because players and coaches will be too busy playing to train.

NBA star Steven Adams has warned that sports performance will take a major hit in November because everyone's going to be too busy playing GTA 6.

I don't think it's too hyperbolic to say GTA 6 is perhaps the most-anticipated game of all-time within the general public. Rockstar Games titles are always very popular, obviously, but the 13-year wait since GTA 5 released and went on to become one of the best-selling games ever made has made that anticipation a bit more feral. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick predicted earlier this year that "a lot of people will be calling in sick on November 19," while automotive manufacturer Burger Motorsports has already given all of its staff the day off when GTA 6 drops.

Adams – who plays for the Houston Rockets – spoke at the team's media day this week, and dropped an ominous warning. "I will say: You guys should anticipate November." (Thanks, Coming Soon!)

He notes, "GTA is dropping. So look at NFL, look at all the leagues and watch them plummet," adding, "Just for the month of November performance is gonna go down, it should come back up." You would assume coaches would have plans in place to make sure the teams focus on training, but Adams reckons the coaches will also be too busy playing GTA 6.

However, now that Adams has given this warning, I can imagine there's at least one team that will be looking to take advantage of this and train even harder in November. That, or teams will be keeping a closer eye on their players in a couple months to make sure GTA isn't affecting performance.

GTA 6's $1 million billboard goes up despite protests from local police as Rockstar's real-life Miami takeover gets underway.

GTA 6 is just two months away, and Rockstar is spinning up the marketing machine in a big way. The studio's proposition for a big money takeover of Miami, the real-life inspiration for the fictional Vice City, recently passed muster with local officials despite protests from some police members in the area. Now, fans are looking on as a $1 million billboard gets the marketing stunts underway.

A massive "welcome to Vice City" sign has been going up on the Kaseya Center, home of the Miami Heat basketball team, throughout the day. Social media has been awash in images and videos as pieces of the sign slowly get airlifted on top of the building. It's tough to tell if the sign is complete – it's currently facing straight up, so it's either built for air-view marketing or it's eventually going to be stood up and be seen from the ground – but it's already quite a spectacle.

Eager GTA fans have already been crowding around live city cam footage watching the sign go up all day, and it's big enough to make quite an impression even from a distance.

The Miami Herald reports that Miami-Dade county will collect $975,000 from this sign alone. The county is hosting the most "elaborate" displays for GTA 6, but other parts of the larger metropolitan area – including Miami Beach and the city of Miami itself – also have deals with Rockstar.

For its part, Rockstar hasn't said much about GTA 6 since the game's big Netflix debut, except to warn modders away from creating pretty much anything cool. Sure, Rockstar can reshape a real-life city in its image. But the game itself? That's sacred.

GTA 6 will not be eligible to complete Baldur's Gate 3 and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's 'Big 5' GOTY sweep in the 2026/7 season.