Grand Theft Auto 6 will define 2026 and the future of gaming, for better or worse

A specter haunts video games, and its name is Grand Theft Auto 6. It seems like GTA 6 has been hanging over the release calendar like an atomic sword of Damocles for decades at this point, but it's scarcely been two years since we got a proper first look at the game. With its release date currently set for November 19th, 2026, it doesn't seem premature to already call it the biggest game of the year. This has become a bit of a tradition for the games industry – the early 2010s were dominated by GTA 5 for many, while GTA 4 was a huge event even back in the heady days of the late '00s.

To use the ghastly corporate term, Rockstar is a thought leader in video games. Where it goes, others are sure to follow: after all, the company effectively pioneered what open-world games look like. Even today, GTA Online has become one of the key titles that other multiplayer games try to unseat.

Gravitational pull

We still don't have a completely solid idea of what GTA 6 is going to look like when it rolls out in November, but we can be sure that it's going to make waves that reach the farthest shores of games. We can already see small hints of this. GTA 6's first trailer famously featured a TikTok/Instagram Live vertical video, which we saw repeated in the first trailer for Ananta. This isn't going to stop.

The upcoming year is effectively Rockstar's by default, and the choices it makes will likely be felt by gamers and game developers alike for years to come. If, for instance, it brings a business management aspect, as I vainly hoped for back in May, we're going to see it spring up in most major open-world titles.

Outside of systems, it will shape the approach that other devs take to world design, too. The map is going to be enormous, that much is certain, but we can likely expect unprecedented levels of detail, too. This has been a trend with Rockstar, who moved from the comparatively tiny GTA 3 to the sprawl of GTA San Andreas in one console generation, while Red Dead Redemption 2 expanded on GTA 5's map size and augmented it with varied terrain. We may also expect something of a tonal shift, even if it's not particularly seismic, as this is the first game in the series not written by Dan Houser – though the snippets of dialog that we've seen so far point toward a similarly satirical style.

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Backstage Pass

There are also some unfortunate side effects to Rockstar's influence on games. As arguably the biggest developers in the industry, rockstar has a responsibility to lead by example. While the studio certainly didn't invent crunch, we've heard a lot of rough stories, particularly across the development of Red Dead Redemption 2 and even Bully over the years. That's before we approach the ongoing case of alleged union busting at Rockstar, which has seen a cohort of recently-dismissed former Rockstar North employees claim that they were sacked due to unionisation efforts. This has become so high-profile here in the UK that even the Prime Minister has got involved, but the case itself is still in process.

We can reflect on the way that larger developers' approach to their teams affects smaller devs, too. Indie games aren't immune to crunch pressures, and, as many game developers are either new to the industry or have previously worked at larger developers, they seek to emulate these conditions, seeing them as vital for creating a great game. There are many that don't, of course, but the vicious cycle continues to rumble on across the industry.

Here's my wish, for both us as consumers and the developers around the world who are anxiously awaiting the release of 2026's biggest title. I want the game to be as great as it possibly can be. I want it to be groundbreaking. However, I want it to be a game that its developers don't regret working on, and is instead one that they're rightfully proud of, giving the industry the positive feedback loop it needs right now.