A veteran developer who used to work at Rockstar Games thinks the massive GTA 6 leaks are no biggie because the majority of people who will inevitably buy and play the game aren't going feral over the various two-minute clips that have been spilling onto the internet.

For the past week, a hacker known online as Cyberleek has been leaking footage from GTA 6 in an effort to promote their crypto scheme and pressure Rockstar Games to protect players' digital rights, apparently. Parent company Take-Two is certainly taking the leaks seriously, but Obbe Vermeij, the technical director on games like GTA 4, says it's a "nothing burger."

"Calm down everybody," he tweets. "The leaks are a nothing burger." He explains that Rockstar has been keeping its crown jewel under wraps for "longer than other publishers" as a marketing strategy - mystery creates hype, after all - and "all that has happened is that some footage has escaped." If GTA 6 had gone through a regular marketing campaign with gameplay trailers already out in the wild, then these leaks wouldn't be revealing much in the grand scheme of things.

"90% of future players don't spend their time on the internet looking for video snippets," Vermeij goes on. "They don’t have the time and don't want spoilers. I imagine the teams are a little annoyed about it but not more than that. I was there during Hot Coffee" - the scandal involving a sex mini-game accidentally left inside GTA San Andreas. "It was a nightmare for management [Rockstar's New York offices] but didn't affect us [Rockstar North] much. The current leaks are far less consequential than [Hot Coffee] was. It looks like GTA 6 will be phenomenal and sell for the next 15 years or so. The leaks are just a tiny blip."

In a slight twist, a couple of days ago Cyberleek posted footage that implied they have an actual playable build of the game, which could complicate matters if they ever decided to dump it build online. Still, Vermeij says "it probably only runs on a devkit" since development kits have far more memory than an Xbox or PlayStation or your regular PCs: "There probably isn't a build in existence that would run on a retail PS5 at the moment."

GTA 6 and Red Dead Redemption 2 are "the north stars of gaming," says Gamescom chief, but they won't last forever because "most gamers aren't only interested in a single game"

GTA 6 currently feels like such a juggernaut that the entire industry is bracing for its impact, but the head of one of the world's biggest gaming events says he's not worried that Rockstar won't be at his show.

Speaking to GamesRadar+, Stefan Heikhaus, brand director at Gamescom, acknowledged that "games like GTA or other big releases over the last couple of years [...] are extremely important. For the game industry, they are the North Stars."

But GTA 6 won't be at Gamescom - in fact, Rockstar is directly competing with the event in Germany, with the GTA 6 Extended Look dropping on Netflix the evening before the show kicks off in earnest.

For Tim Endres, Gamescom director, it would be nice if those two things were happening in tandem - "of course we're always happy when everything happens at Gamescom," he says. But both he and Heikhaus are more focused on the hundreds of games that will be at the show.

At "events like Gamescom," Heikhaus says, "not only can you experience one game, but thousands of games, or at least hundreds. And this is the important difference. Of course, GTA will take some visibility and awareness from the digital Gamescom. But I believe that quickly, people will come back to Gamescom once they have seen the GTA content, because there are so many things, so many world premieres, so much new stuff to see, to experience. Hundreds of studios and companies."

Crucially, he points out, "there are not many gamers who have only focused on one single game. Most of them are interested in a lot of different games."

GTA 6 might be a tentpole release, but it can only hold players' attention for so long before something else comes along to challenge for it instead. Gamescom's continued growth - now at 1,600 exhibitors and counting - is evidence of that, and Heikhaus says "the indie scene has grown dramatically in the last 15 years."

It's not always easy to find an audience in that growing scene, especially not with massive releases like GTA 6 threatening to suck the air out of the room, but Heikhaus and Endres want Gamescom to be a platform for all kinds of games, whether or not they're made by Rockstar.

GTA 6 leaks go from bad to worse for Rockstar as new footage suggests leaker has access to a playable build.

Despite Take-Two and Rockstar Games' best efforts, the GTA 6 leaks aren't dying down. In fact, the hacker known online as Cyberleek is now teasing footage of the open-world game's strip clubs.

Parent company Take-Two isn't exactly having the best week - the plumbing that contains GTA 6 has been dripping for days, which is far from ideal considering the game's Extended Look special was supposed to give Netflix the world-first exclusive at the end of the month.

Cyberleek has already shown the world the full Leonidas map and what seems to be near-final gameplay of the game itself. The inclusion of Tate McRae's Sports Car, a pop song that came out in early 2025, is probably an indication that whatever build Cyberleek has access to isn't years and years old.

And, now, the hacker has spilled more footage onto the interweb. The fresh gameplay clips that are traveling faster than Take-Two can DMCA them reportedly show more of what you'd expect from a Grand Theft Auto game - fast cars, cop chases, shop robberies, etc - but it apparently ends with footage teasing GTA 6's new strip clubs, a carrot I'm sure Rockstar would prefer to dangle over players' noses instead. No doubt a move to have fans shower the anonymous group's crypto scheme with more cash.

This weekend's footage comes despite Take-Two's moves to put a lid on the leaks. The company recently filed subpoenas asking Discord and Microsoft to help it catch whoever's behind the massive leaks. Take-Two is essentially trying to "obtain the identity of an alleged infringer or infringers" using the backend data it can get its hands on. At the very least, Xbox is trying to help Rockstar.

Still, GTA 6: An Extended Look goes live next week on August 27 with the full game coming on November 19. How much of the game the internet will have seen before that date is anyone's guess.

GTA 6 leaker Cyberleek is now charging a $165,000 fee for a chance to buy ad space on additional leaks

GTA 6 developer Rockstar and publisher Take-Two Interactive aren't having good weeks. With just weeks to go until the Netflix extended look really kicks off the marketing campaign in earnest, a massive GTA 6 leak surfaced online Tuesday afternoon and revealed the full Leonida map as well as what looked to be near-final gameplay. The leaker, who goes by Cyberleek online, soon after revealed yet another leak that suggested they had access to a playable build of the game, which is really a worst case scenario for Rockstar and Take-Two in the final months to launch.

Cyberleek has threatened even more leaks if Take-Two doesn't reverse-course and print GTA 6 on physical discs instead of sticking to digital-only as is the plan right now. Rockstar in turn has issued DMCA takedowns but has yet to identify the leaker, and now as Cyberleek continually proves they'll make good on their threat, Take-Two has subpoenaed Microsoft and Discord in order "to obtain the identity" of the leaker and presumably sue them into oblivion.

Now, the reason we're here. The tweet. Xbox's chief technology officer Scott Van Vliet sent out a tweet Friday evening seemingly confirming the company's coordination with Rockstar and Take-Two on the GTA 6 leaks. "We are working closely with Take-Two and Rockstar Games to support efforts to protect creative works and intellectual property," reads the tweet.

Admittedly, the tweet is written in such a way that suggests it was reviewed and edited by a dozen lawyers and HR managers to avoid actually saying anything meaningful and specific. Is it about the subpoena Take-Two sent to Microsoft? Probably, but not for certain. Is it even about the GTA 6 leak at all? Definitely, but as Rockstar and Take-Two have declined to publicly comment on the leaks, it makes sense for Xbox to stop short of straight-up confirming their authenticity in a public forum. For now, it seems the takeaway, if there is one, is simply that Xbox seems to be cooperating with the subpoena from Take-Two, but again, that's not explicitly confirmed.

I've reached out to Xbox for comment and will update this article if I hear back.

GTA 6 leaker Cyberleek is now charging a $165,000 fee for a chance to buy ad space on additional leaks

Contrary to what your self-preservation instincts might tell you, GTA 6 leaker Cyberleek is not hiding under a rock that's under another rock that's in the middle of a rainforest with no cell phone service. They're not even taking extra precautions following Take-Two's recent subpoenas demanding Microsoft and Discord share information that might reveal the anonymous hacker's identity. Instead, Cyberleek has decided to publicly share its contact information.

The leaker is looking for advertisers. According to a new "contact" tab on Cyberleek's website, the merry group is "raising funds through community support and strategic partnerships" by selling ad space on its forthcoming GTA 6 leaks – well, if Take-Two doesn't turn it into canned peaches by then. Some of the "strategic partnerships" Cyberleek offers involve "custom-made gameplay footage tailored to specific brands (including sexual content)."

Sounds like a business venture with integrity to me; the stolen GTA 6 clips simply fell off a truck, anyway. Cyberleek emphasizes it's not demanding "a ransom where publishers pay to stop the leeks." It's just a shy boy looking for advertisers to send it a ton of Monero cryptocurrency to plaster ads across its copyright-infringing videos, so that Take-Two can more easily figure out who they are and where to put their graveyard plot.

"All pricing, terms, and deliverables are discussed privately over Session," a private messenger, says Cyberleek. "The Monero transfer serves as a contact fee that guarantees CYBERLEEK will respond to initiate the conversation."

Clicking a button to "generate contact details" displays a prompt to save your generated recovery password for Session, and then you pay the donation fee: 400 XMR (Monero), which currently converts to about $165,450.

This fee only guarantees Cyberleek will reach out to you over Session within 24 hours. The group stresses that, otherwise, advertisement "deal terms are worked out in chat," and it reminds interested parties, "You can advertise almost anything. Gambling and adult content are fine. No scams." No, I'd never think there were scams involved here. It's all squeaky clean fun with my friends – that's what handing a stranger $165,000 usually means, right?

Cyberleek's GTA 6 leaks won't change Rockstar's Netflix reveal plans, report says.

Despite a new wave of GTA 6 leaks, developer Rockstar Games reportedly has no plans to shift its August 27 Netflix gameplay reveal or alter other parts of the game's road to launch.

Bloomberg reports that, as Rockstar's lawyers subpoena Microsoft and Discord for potential account details on leaker Cyberleek, staff are also frustrated that GTA 6 has suffered another major leak so close to launch despite new security measures enacted after the last breach.

A source says Rockstar is still moving forward with the Netflix gameplay reveal as planned. Bloomberg cites an internal message reassuring staff that the actions of Cyberleek, a person or group which has used GTA 6 to pump a transparent crypto scheme and theatrically champion digital consumer rights, haven't devalued their work.

The extended trailer has no direct precedent in games marketing: Netflix subscribers will get early access to GTA 6 gameplay footage before the showcase is uploaded to Rockstar's YouTube channel about six hours later.

With GTA 6 due out November 19 after years of delays, Rockstar is likely looking to recenter the conversation in these final months. That said, by all observable pre-release metrics, GTA 6 is still on course to become the biggest video game release of all time.

Earlier this year, Rockstar suffered a third-party breach that, the company said, had "no impact on our organization or our players" and only impacted "a limited amount of non-material company information."

In 2022, a much larger GTA 6 leak saw lengthy videos of an in-production build of the game spill online. Arion Kurtaj, one member of the hacking group behind the leak, Lapsus$, was sentenced to indefinite hospital stay in 2023. Rockstar later said that the leak cost it $5 million and "thousands of hours" of work.

GTA 6 leakers called out by Stop Killing Games after demanding game preservation solutions and physical discs from Rockstar: "Using illegal means to make a point is unacceptable."

GTA 6 Online is still very much a mystery. The multiplayer sandbox is an incredibly popular part of Rockstar's ecosystem – which is impressive, considering GTAO is now over a decade old – so its presence in GTA 6 feels inevitable to me. But the fun doesn't end with GTA Online itself. That's where GTA RP comes in.

GTA RP is the game's highly-modded roleplaying experience. Made by and for players, it takes what fans love most about the official (or vanilla) GTA Online and turns it into a brand new game mode. Being able to act out real-life scenarios in a more fluid way allows a lot more freedom than the core experience – and I think it's a sizzling hotbed for GTA 6 inspiration.

Jobs for all

I'll admit I haven't played GTA Online in a while. It used to be my weekend ritual with friends, but 12 years down the line, we've gotten busy. Also, we got fed up with griefers. But despite GTA 6 Online being unlikely to arrive at launch, and to try and gain some insight into what the future of GTA 6 could be, I thought it would be a good idea to jump into GTA RP. Little did I know that it was going to open my eyes to something pretty special.

Joining a GTA RP server isn't the easiest. Some servers require getting whitelisted, filling out forms and carrying out interviews to gain access. I quickly realize that GTA RP takes itself very seriously, but that's not a bad thing. In fact, it means the players treat it with a lot more respect.

Fortunately, I found a server on the mega-mod FiveM that was happy to welcome me in with a quick Discord check and a stipulation that I must talk over my mic. I should caveat here that Rockstar acquired FiveM ahead of GTA 6, and that's something I'll get into shortly.

Upon entry to the GTA RP server, I immediately feel like I'm on a GTA 6 recon mission. The server wants me to join a profession. I optimistically choose to become a paramedic and spawn outside the hospital, where players dressed in medical scrubs are keen to recruit me. They take me through training, quiz me on whether I'm listening, and then tell me the strict rules for gameplay.

This ability to embark on actual careers in GTA RP is genius and my first hint at GTA 6's potential. And while I opted to become a paramedic, I also learned that in this server, you can join a gang, become a lawyer, or even become a member of the LSPD.

When gang fights go down, real players rock up as the LSPD rather than NPCs spawning en masse like they do in GTA 5. It all feels much more organic, which could (and seems likely to) become a big part of GTA 6. After all, there's been talk of overhauled police AI and a new dispatch system in GTA 6 – but all that is already going down in GTA RP. Yes, there's real people becoming police, but there's also an ingrained hierarchy that people take pretty seriously.

As a paramedic, I'm told I can't carry a firearm, enter active gang zones, and must tend to the victor of a fight before the loser. I'm also instructed to wear a bodycam that I can use to record players if they try to do anything bad to me.

While out on patrol, I come across players that show hints of disrespect – though still within reason. They know they need me, even if they think I've picked a nerdy profession, so stop short of griefing me off the game like they might have in GTAO. This is just one example of how GTA RP's cities feel more alive than the vanilla version's. There's more freedom here, but importantly, more respect.

Inspiration nation

The acquisition of FiveM and RedM is a big deal, and is very telling. Rockstar clearly wants to adapt aspects of GTA RP for GTA 6. The question is, in what capacity?

As reported by Rockstar Intel, there's been a callout for console-experienced staff to make content creation tools for GTA 6. Considering GTA 6 isn't coming to PC at launch and how these modded servers only work on PC, I wonder if the inspiration might be applied to the core game itself and not just GTA 6 Online.

These servers run on their own custom roles. They're policed by mods. They even have their own economies, controversial as that can be. On some servers, you can even fish. It's heavily speculated that fishing is coming to GTA 6 (there's hints of it in the trailers), similar to the mechanic seen in 2018's Red Dead Redemption 2. There's also leaks that GTA 6 may adopt a weapon wheel, limiting and refining player inventories to make it so you can't carry everything with you.

While both fishing and inventory management could be much more in-depth and realistic in GTA 6, it's something we already have in GTA RP. A step ahead, once again.

There's talk of a lot more enterable buildings being available in GTA 6, but you can already enter many random buildings in GTA RP that are otherwise reserved for specific missions in GTA 5. There's hints of deeper interior customization in GTA 6, but that's already happening in GTA RP – players can buy entire buildings and make them their own, if they want to.

GTA RP has opened up a new world to me, one I did not expect, but ultimately love. It's certainly not without its own difficulties. There are a lot more players in GTA RP than you can get Online, and that requires a lot of moderation. It's not built by a team of Rockstar developers, so technical issues are impossible to avoid. And there will always be people that won't follow the rules.

But ultimately, RP servers have had a lot more fun with taking the best of GTAO and turning it into something I've absolutely fallen for. I just hope GTA 6 has taken notes.

GTA 6's leaks prove AI disinformation is worse than you think

A three-year-old clip of Valve boss Gabe Newell dissecting the place of realism in games has resurfaced online amidst discussions of GTA 6 gameplay leaks suggesting cars in Rockstar's universe now use a realistic gasoline system which requires players to refuel them.

The response to this fuel system, even as part of a game build that may be outdated and which we've only seen a brief slice of, has been mixed. Some players embrace this added friction and detail, but others seem to worry that this gasoline system, assuming it's born out by the shipped game, will quickly become annoying upkeep.

In multiple debates on this feature, gamers and GTA fans have pointed to Newell's examination of realism in 2023's Half-Life 25th anniversary documentary. Around 15:40, at the start of one of the clips mentioned in GTA 6 leak debates, Newell dismisses the idea that games should pursue realism as a default.

"You'd have these conversations where you'd be sitting in a design review and somebody'd say, 'That's not realistic,'" Newell begins. "And you're like, 'OK. What does that have to – explain to me why that's interesting.' Because in the real world, I have to write up lists of stuff I have to go to the grocery store to buy. And I have never thought to myself that realism is fun. I go play games to have fun."

This has to be one of the most-cited Newell quotes around, and it holds up today. We frequently talk about how much more realistic some video games have become, often in discussions of lighting or NPC behavior, but games are still deliberately removed from reality for many reasons. Reality can be tedious and limiting, for one, and it turns out it's also very difficult to recreate.

The more realistic a game becomes, the more questions it has to answer. And the more questions a game has to answer, the more exceptions it has to make, sometimes to the detriment of gameplay or, ironically, immersion. We're getting to the core of why games generally aim to construct, and get players to believe, a reality that services their gameplay goals instead of trying to make absolutely everything true-to-life.

But for my money, the most interesting part is what Newell says next: how realism can be fun in games, and what it actually means.

"So we had to come up with some notion of what fun was," Newell continues. "We knew it was an ad hoc definition, and it was: the degrees to which the game recognizes and responded to the player's choices and actions. In behavioral science, you would say we're explicitly talking about what were reinforcers and what the reinforcement schedules were. At that point in time, that was a useful way of making design decisions."

Positive reinforcers encourage or reward behavior in a way that makes that behavior more likely to be repeated. The Skinner box, an experiment that saw animals trained to receive a reward like food by pressing a button, is one example that often comes up in game design discussions.

Here, a reinforcer would mean that a game acknowledging something you did and giving it observable consequences, big or small, makes it feel meaningful and makes you more likely to do something again. If you shoot a demon in Doom: The Dark Ages, it gets ripped apart in chunks. If you shoot a barrel in Borderlands 4, it explodes. If you shoot a random character in Fallout 4, the whole story may change. But you wouldn't shoot a random character to change the story of Doom, nor do Borderlands 4's barrels realistically buckle and leak fuel before exploding. Because now we've got realism working for games, rather than games working for realism.

This reward space is where you'll find immersive sims with seemingly impossible interaction chains that enable alternative solutions. This is where The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom lets you drop 50 metal weapons on the ground to connect an electric circuit instead of engaging with intended puzzle pieces. It's where crunchy, reactive RPGs like Baldur's Gate 3 blow players away by accounting for the fringe corner cases they got themselves into. And it's partly why Half-Life's convincing and systemic physics were so popular and, even outside the walls of FPS, formative.

The intent behind these and other design decisions isn't limited to reinforcement, but behavioral psychology is part of a lot of things in games – spaces that provide the agency we crave with the safety of play.

But where does pumping gas in GTA 6 fall – in Newell's grocery store rant, or in the magic of games carefully deploying realism? Personally, I don't think some shoddy leak videos are going to tell us.

"The point I would make is: if I go up to a wall and shoot it, to me it feels like the wall is ignoring me," Newell concludes. "I'm getting a narcissistic injury when the world is ignoring me. So to me, I was trying to convey to the user a sense of, yes, you were making choices, yes, you were progressing. Which meant the game had to acknowledge that back to you. If you shoot at a wall, there have to be [damage] decals. If you kill a bunch of marines, the marines have to run away from you. You have to have this sense of the game acknowledging and responding to the choices and actions and progressions that you've made. Otherwise, it loses any sort of impact."

To "obtain the identity" of GTA 6 leaker, Rockstar parent Take-Two subpoenas Microsoft and Discord as yet more gameplay footage is posted.

GTA 6 leaker Cyberleek taunted Rockstar today with yet another gameplay clip suggesting viewers continue throwing money at the anonymous group's crypto scheme, since "HIGHER MARKETCAP = MORE LEEKS." But while Cyberleek was perfecting its business scheme with its sixth untimely gameplay reveal, Rockstar parent company Take-Two was sharpening its knives; the owner has filed multiple subpoenas requesting Microsoft and Discord assist it in learning Cyberleek's true identity by providing user information.

Kotaku reports that Take-Two says in one subpoena filed with the Southern District Court of New York on August 20 that it's issued its Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) subpoena with the express purpose "to obtain the identity of an alleged infringer or infringers, and that such information will only be used for the purpose of protecting Take-Two's rights."

Both Microsoft and Discord have until September 4 to come up with internal records related to Cyberleek, says Take-Two, including Discord "account ID, registration email, registration and last-login IP addresses, phone number, linked connections (Google/Xbox/etc.), any associated device identifiers (MachineGuid/MSA), and content related to Grand Theft Auto (‘GTA’), Rockstar or Cyberleek from their OneDrive account."

The company is checking every bed and closet for Cyberleek, making several Discord servers part of its investigation, including CYBERLEEK itself and the server for DarkViperAU, a popular GTA 5 YouTuber. In the meantime, GTA 6 hopefuls on Reddit are complimenting the fidelity on the roadside Cyberleek recently revealed.

New GTA 6 activities, customization, and gameplay details revealed alongside 63 gorgeous screenshots.

For years, a group of GTA 6 fans has been painstakingly analyzing every screenshot, every teaser, and every frame of every trailer in an effort to piece together the map for Rockstar's open-world game. What do they think of the map that appeared alongside this week's GTA 6 leaks? Apparently, its contents check out with what they've spent years building.

"After comparing their work with the newly leaked #GTAVI map, they believe it checks out," according to a tweet from iGrandTheftAuto.com, a fansite whose members include folks involved with the GTA 6 mapping community. "While some smaller details appear to be missing, the overall map leak seems to be genuine."

The leaked map appears to be made up of a series of screenshots taken from the in-game map screen, stitched together in order to show the whole open world.

The broad strokes are very similar to the fan-made GTA 6 map, which you can browse in detail on the community website. The community map lacks detail through much of the wilderness, while the leaked map doesn't show smaller roads and other more intricate details.

"The map leak is 100% real," according to martipk, a member of the GTA 6 mapping community whose comments on Discord have been shared more widely on Twitter. "It's just a low render version that doesn't show buildings, small roads, bridges or runners. Everything is correct on the map. There are details everywhere so precise that aren't even on the community map but can still be confirmed from what we know. There is literally no way someone fabricated this."

A bit of skepticism remains among some fans over whether these GTA 6 leaks are even real, but personally, I think the doubt ship has long since sailed away. The video clips are far too specific and detailed to be AI-generated, and even the people behind the mapping project are convinced of the leaked map's veracity.

Plus, the DMCA notices against accounts sharing the leaked materials probably wouldn't be so aggressive if these were fakes. I suspect Rockstar's going to find the next couple of months leading into GTA 6's launch downright excruciating.

GTA 6 leaks go from bad to worse for Rockstar as new footage suggests leaker has access to a playable build.

PATCH NOTES v20.08.2026 – Fake GTA 6 clips have flooded the internet as Rockstar endures its third day of leaks, fooling many fans and reminding us how hard it is to trust anything you see online these days.

What's going on with GTA 6 and Rockstar?

• A hacker group named Cyberleek started releasing alleged clips of GTA 6 on August 18, with most taken down for copyright violations.

Why is this happening now?

• Rockstar Games announced that GTA 6 would be digital-only in June 2026, prompting widespread backlash from collectors of physical games.
• Cyberleek says it will stop leaking footage if the developer agrees to a series of demands, including a commitment to making physical editions of GTA 6.
• GTA 6 is getting a lengthy preview streamed on Netflix in the coming days, making it a crucial period for the developer.

Meta Shift

• Generative AI has made tracking game leaks even harder

An influx of fake GTA 6 leaks on X and YouTube show how sophisticated gen AI technology has become. While many can see through the charade by picking out "tells" in these fake leaks, such as odd camera movements and dodgy spelling, they are managing to fool others. Even the clips that appear incredibly high-fidelity are major AI red flags, given the photorealistic quality and inconsistent HUD detail – and there are some accounts you can find on X that appear to be teaching the public how to make fake GTA 6 clips using particular pieces of AI software.

Oddly, the only way to make sure you are seeing a "legitimate" GTA 6 leak is to look for the watermarks placed over the footage by the hacker, Cyberleek, who is using the opportunity to promote their own cryptocurrency. There is still no indication as to how or when the hacker acquired the footage. It could be from a year-old development build, according to an alleged Rockstar insider on Resetera, while other fans theorize that the hacker has stolen the footage from the upcoming Netflix special.

But the most recent leaks suggest that Cyberleek might have a playable build of GTA 6 rather than Netflix clips due to how the character appears to spell out the hacker organization's name with bullet holes.

But then again, how can we be sure of any of this? Put simply, we can't. The proliferation of gen AI has made everyone question everything. The result is that many of us are more suspicious than ever of supposed video game leaks, while less vigilant viewers might be easily duped into thinking they are experiencing something true to the actual product.

Patch Notes summary

As the GTA 6 leaks continue, gen-AI fakes are ramping up. It's never been a better time to ignore leaks, as excited as we all are for Rockstar's latest, because there's no telling how genuine any of them are. And for those who are actively trying to avoid spoilers ahead of the Netflix preview, don't worry. Cyberleek's clips are continuing to be taken down by Rockstar parent company Take Two Interactive, so if you're watching something on YouTube that's been up for 16 hours now, you are probably safe to assume that gen AI has struck again.

Related stories

We currently find ourselves on the cusp of a brand new appendage to the Grand Theft Auto series. A release that will find fans returning to a very special place. Liberty City is a virtual homage to the bustling streets of New York and is unarguably the most infamous metropolis of any videogame to date. It's become as iconic to the series as the freedom, the carjacking and the infectious wrongdoing, and for many it marks the very first time they ever came to experience an 'open world' environment in a videogame.

The person responsible for designing and building Liberty City was Paul Farley. Ironically, his background wasn't in programming or videogames – although he admits to being brought up on a staple diet of ZX81 and Spectrum – but in architecture. Working for a small architecture firm after finishing the first year of his degree, Farley came to realise that a career in construction really wasn't for him, and decided to answer a job advertisement, posted by DMA, who at that time were looking to expand and hire a new team of level designers.

"I had no real idea what a level designer was but I'd always loved videogames. The interview process was spread over two days and I remember thinking at the time that it was one of the most challenging things I'd ever been faced with," admits Farley. "On the second day I was sat down in front of a puzzle game that they had in development and was tasked to build a fully working puzzle in 30 minutes. I was left alone to sweat it out. I don't think the puzzle even worked. But they must have seen something, because I got the job."

At the time that Farley joined DMA, the company would be divided while it worked on two very different projects: Body Harvest, a planned launch title for the Nintendo 64, and another, slightly less highbrow game for the PC. Body Harvest was DMA's flagship project, and Farley remembers vividly the interest which the game generated among the new recruits.

"There were four level designers that started at the same time as me. I remember being shown around on that first day. We were going to be split up based on the needs of two new projects that had just been started and we all wanted to work on Body Harvest. It was just so damn sexy, all those 3D graphics, the N64 development kits and Silicon Graphics workstations sat around – it was like mission control at NASA," explains Farley. "Anyway, as it worked out, neither of us got to work on the Body Harvest project, our skills would be put to use on a rather drab-looking top-down racer which at that point had the working title 'Race 'N' Chase'."

'Race 'N' Chase' is where the genesis of Grand Theft Auto can be found. Mike Dailly, who at the time was lead programmer at DMA, had been working on a code that would produce isometric cityscapes. Viewed from an aerial camera that the player could intuitively manipulate, and coined Rotation, this engine would become the first Grand Theft Auto prototype.

However, fate would intervene when Bullfrog released Syndicate Wars, and after spotting its glum Orwellian Blade Runner-style skyscrapers, Dailly knew that his engine looked just too similar and decided to rework it. Oddly, it was after seeing the Sega Saturn game Clockwork Knight that Dailly considered switching the engine to a side-on perspective, but after a conversation with a colleague, he decided to set his sights a little higher.

"I was speaking to John Whyte (who at the time was working on Body Harvest for the N64), and he'd been trying to get an overhead racing game past Dave Jones [DMA's founder] for a while. Dave, however, wasn't interested," explains Dailly.

"It then occurred to me that although I had a side-on engine, all I needed to do was add a floor and it would easily become an overhead engine. I set about using the previous GTA prototype as a base. Using cubes, I built an array of perspective points then, with a simple 3D array, attached faces to each active cube. I removed interior faces (since they couldn't be seen) and rendered the resulting city. Looking at it, they decided to restart Race 'N' Chase, but using the new engine since it would allow far more freedom and a true perspective. GTA was a real team effort, and had input from every team member, this was how it all started. It shows how important true R&D is, without it several DMA games would have never been started."

The parallax movement of the buildings, and the way in which the camera would lock on to your car and pull away the faster it travelled led to the possibility of creating an overhead police chase/action game. And so Dailly's overhead city engine was used as the backdrop.

When Farley was assigned to the Race 'N' Chase project he was keen to utilise his knowledge of architecture, and set about plotting each map on a piece of paper. This was how all of the cities inside Grand Theft Auto would begin – as 2D maps of roads, sidewalks and buildings – and once complete, using a mapediting tool, they would be translated into the vibrant and detailed 3D cities that we can see in the game.

It's a well-known fact that the three game maps – Liberty City, Vice City and San Andreas – were based on the cities of New York, Miami and San Francisco respectively. They also contained subtle nods to well-known areas of each city. For example, Liberty City's sections included Park (Central Park), New Guernsey (New Jersey) and Brocklyn (Brooklyn).

Map at it again

The first hurdle that the team had to overcome was getting to grips with the mapping tools. None of the team had any experience of using map editors, and while the tool chain at DMA was very well instigated, it would take a lot of time for the new team to learn all the different techniques that were available. Also, the team would find that they had no way of viewing the city in three dimensions until they ran it in the actual game.

"Personally, it was a pretty smooth transition to go from designing individual buildings to then designing a whole city. The design criterion is different. For the game, you were designing form and function to support gameplay, rather than in real life where you design a building to support an activity or movement. But the actual process was remarkably similar," explains Farley.

Given the theme and subject of Grand Theft Auto, you'd expect the team to be governed by a strict list of rules and the missions to be pencilled in before development began to help ensure its safe passage through the censors. But Farley confesses that working on GTA was quite a liberating experience.

"The working brief was non-existent other than some guidance from the head of art," recalls Farley. "Most of us had no experience at all and were making it up as we went along. I think that spirit of adventure and freedom is conveyed in the final game and went a long way to helping to define many of the design decisions. In terms of the look and feel of the city the level designers worked closely with the artists to create locations and a style for each of the cities. Once a set of tiles had been completed it was then the level designer's job to use them like Lego blocks to create the city. I think the art team was always quite amazed and sometimes horrified at the manner in which we creatively used their tiles to create new textures and forms."

Grand Theft Auto is a brilliant juxtaposition of a dour and depressing world, but painted with vibrancy and colour. It certainly feels the most chipper of the series, as it holds this brilliant sense of irreverence and fun throughout its missions. The way your character would comically hop over the bonnets of cars and pepper those poor Hare Krishnas all over the road as they tried to cross in front of you was just so strangely enjoyable. The realism and popular culture references of the later games have all but drowned out those jubilant audience cheers and squeaky voices that pumped from those blue phone boxes.

"When we started the game it used 8-bit graphics and the palette was much darker and more realistic than the final release. At this stage PC technology was moving at a really fast rate and with the game taking a while to finish anyway, the decision was made to switch to 32-bit graphics, giving us a much wider palette. I think the whole art department at DMA spent the next two weeks redrawing the game tiles and sprites. The result was a much brighter and more colourful game, which in the long run helped reduce some of the impact of the adult nature of the game," explains Farley.

Liberty City took four to five months to design and build, and the mission design and scripting would take a further six months. Over the course of its development the core team would change, other departments would be drafted in to assist, and at one point DMA's entire art department were put to work on the game.

The original Race 'N' Chase design was the one that DMA pitched to BMG. And it wasn't until after the publisher was on board that the name would later be changed to Grand Theft Auto. As the game presented the player with so much choice, checking for bugs and glitches proved to be very difficult and the game's development would stretch from 15 to 30 months. Its 'open world' environment lacked constraints, allowing for plenty of different routes and ways to complete its missions. And each needed to be played through to its completion because, as was the nature of the engine, every new element that was added could potentially affect another.

"It's kind of hard to overrun when you don't have a schedule, but we were aware that GTA, like all the other projects DMA had then, was taking too long. I think the publisher was more concerned than us though," Farley says. "Most team members worked extra hours because we were all so excited by what we were creating. There was this energy and feeling about the place that what we were working on was really special and that it really mattered. At DMA there was this mentality that a game wasn't finished until they were happy with it. Very few developers are ever in that position so it was refreshing, and ultimately led to some great innovative games. It also led to some turkeys that should have been canned after six months but weren't."

Grand Theft Auto debuted on the PC in 1997. Initially developed in DOS, it would later be ported to Windows, PlayStation and it even found an admittedly poor, but technically impressive, Game Boy Color conversion. There were also rumoured to be Nintendo 64 and Saturn conversions in the works, which would have been refined ports of the PlayStation port, but sadly they never found a release.

What really helped to set Grand Theft Auto apart from other games of the time was its sense of freedom (hence the name Liberty City), as fun could be found by simply deviating from the missions and exploring the game's colourful environments.

On to new roads

The game was well received by many in the gaming press, garnering rave reviews and even a Gold Award in PC Format. However, the tabloids, most notably the Daily Mail, would criticise Grand Theft Auto for its violent themes, which many people felt it was trying to glamorise.

"I think one of the reasons GTA was so well received was the amount of detail – it showed the love and attention that had been heaped on the game by the people making it," says Farley.

"Team members would always come up with new ideas like the tank or the rocket launcher and they would just get added into the mix and no one ever said no, or that something couldn't be done! There are a few things looking back that could have been better – the road layout was trying to map too closely to New York and without diagonal road tiles the area around the park ended up being not much fun to drive around. Also, some of the missions were left over from the very start of the development process and perhaps weren't as well thought out as some of the later ones. But I guess for virtually everyone on the team it was a learning process and, despite all our mistakes, people loved the game, warts and all."

After the release of GTA, BMG was bought by Gremlin Interactive. It was under Gremlin that DMA released two expansion packs for the PC. GTA: London 1969 and London 1961 were Life On Mars-style mission packs that set the series on the streets of London in the swinging Sixties. These expansion packs would help DMA gauge the demand for a full GTA sequel and help to keep the franchise fresh in the minds of gamers.

Colin MacDonald was the producer and project manager for Grand Theft Auto 2, and joined the company shortly after the acquisition by Gremlin. MacDonald first got into games by purchasing a SAM Coupé home computer. Its relatively small installed base meant that there was very little software available for the machine, and what would begin as a hobby for MacDonald – writing software for the machine – soon grew into a small development and publishing company. This would lead him to handling some big licences, including Lemmings, and it would be this Lemmings link that would eventually lead MacDonald to join DMA as a producer and take on the reigns of GTA 2.

"We had a very good idea of what everybody had fun doing in the original, so we didn't mess with that. And in essence, every GTA game ever since has taken the same approach," says MacDonald. "But we added a lot of game functionality to try to enhance the GTA experience. We also gambled with moving away from the contemporary setting of the first game, and opinion has been split ever since on the particular pros and cons of that decision."

For the sequel it was decided that the setting would move 'X years into the future' and the missions, rather than bleating from the hearing end of a telephone or the buzzing of a pager, would come from the mouths of warring gangs that populated the game's three cities. You had the pristinely attired Yakuza, the twitchy Loonies, the Russian Mafia and the Rednecks, among others, and each was given a detailed backstory that fleshed out their world brilliantly. This idea of basing GTA around the criminal activities of contesting gangs has since become a mainstay in the franchise, although from GTA 3 onwards it's been used to help fuel the game's narrative rather than its individual missions.

It was agreed that the underlying engine for GTA 2 would remain similar to the DMA one – which MacDonald admits had gone through a few changes – but the engine was completely rewritten to make the cars look more solid and realistic against their shiny, futuristic setting. They would be first drawn and mapped in 3D before being transformed into the 2D forms that we saw in the game.

"Because we could see from the first game what worked and what didn't, we were in the fortunate position of being able to plan fairly effectively, so there weren't many drastic changes that occurred throughout the development. The GTA 2 pills scattered around the cities for collection is the only major feature that I can think of that wasn't planned from the very start," recalls MacDonald.

Grand Theft Auto 2 was released in 1999, and would debut on both the PC and PlayStation. It was later ported to the Dreamcast and also received a shamefully laggy Game Boy Color port a year later. Shortly after the release of GTA 2, Gremlin was bought by Infogrames, and shortly after Dave Jones decided to leave the company to join Rage Software. DMA was later sold to Take-Two where it was renamed Rockstar North; a move that would change the face of the Grand Theft Auto franchise forever.

Grand Theft Auto 3 was released in October 2001 and debuted on the PlayStation 2. Rockstar's decision to set the game back in Liberty City was a smart move as it would send out a clear message that its intention was to pull the game apart and rebuild it from scratch. The biting satire, glum urban setting and tangible sense of freedom would tilt the videogame industry on its axis.

If you strip it down, Grand Theft Auto 3 can really be seen as a brilliant hybrid of two earlier DMA games: Body Harvest and the original Grand Theft Auto. It's likely that when it was bought by Take-Two, the DMA team would have been a collective troupe that had experience of working on both titles, a team that had expertise in 3D sandbox gaming and a vast knowledge and experience of the Grand Theft Auto licence.

Welcome to the third space

Grand Theft Auto 3 was praised for the technical ground that it broke. Realistic weather effects and full night and day cycles helped lay down the foundation of what we now consider the 3D open-world template, or 'GTA-clone', as it's candidly known as now. The game became a global phenomenon almost overnight, and has retained its prestige ever since.

The series' weird adoration for the Game Boy would end in 2004 with Grand Theft Auto Advance. This Game Boy Advance exclusive, developed by Digital Eclipse, was originally promoted as a top-down port of the GTA 3 that appeared on the PS2. But, probably owing to a large technical chasm, the idea was dropped and instead the game was set one year prior to the events of that game. This would mark the first and only time that a GTA game was not developed by an affiliation of DMA.

For the highly anticipated sequel, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – which many consider to be the pinnacle of the franchise – Rockstar would continue its geographical trend and return to the second of the first three maps, but would add a brilliant twist: the Eighties. Setting Vice City in the Eighties allowed Rockstar to inject lampoon into the game and base its characters and missions on classic iconic Eighties cinema.

Elements from classic gangster epics, such as Carlito's Way, Goodfellas and, more predominately, Scarface, for its rags-to-riches story, were wholesaled over. And through its loud wardrobes, angular and colourful cars and radio stations, which blasted out emotive rock ballads, Vice City would recapture brilliantly the humour and irreverence of that first game.

If GTA 3 laid down the template that future games in the series would look to adopt, then, like all good cinema sequels, Vice City would lavish itself in its own success, a feeling that seemed to suit its affluent and ornate setting perfectly. And through its property buying elements, you could really begin to feel like you were stretching your power and notoriety and leaving your mark across the whole of Miami.

By the time Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was due for release, the groundswell of hype and hysteria surrounding the series was unlike anything seen before. Feeling the pressure, Rockstar would need to create something bigger and grander in scale than what had come before, and it would succeed in many ways with San Andreas.

With a main story that would take the best part of 70 hours to finish, a lifetime of secrets to uncover, three huge metropolises to work through – connected by miles of countryside – and no interconnecting loading times, thanks to its seamless streaming, no one could argue that the game wasn't a technical marvel. But many felt, by Rockstar adding levelling up and appearing to concentrate on subterfuge elements of the game, that San Andreas lacked one vital ingredient: structure.

In typical Grand Theft Auto fashion, the franchise's transition to a new platform, in this case the PSP, with the 'Stories' series, would prove to be another sterling effort by Rockstar. And also, in typical GTA fashion, it would kick things off by returning to Liberty City.

Liberty City Stories (which was later ported to the PS2) was set three years before the original GTA 3, and with a new protagonist, a new set of varied missions to work through and even allowing you to take to the skies in a helicopter, it would prove to be an almost flawless translation to the handheld. Although Liberty City Stories wasn't the first GTA game to see Rockstar incorporate multiplayer elements (San Andreas has a few co-op missions), it was the first in the series to incorporate an online multiplayer mode, courtesy of the PSP's Wi-Fi capabilities. Rockstar followed up the successful Liberty City Stories with Vice City Stories. It followed the same theme, but had the notable addition of allowing your character to swim and also included a refined targeting system.

So, history's taught us that a return to the oily streets of Liberty City seems to mark an inaugural shift in the franchise, affecting a trilogy of games that seem to span over one generation of hardware. Early word is that GTA 4 will be moving further away from those humble DMA days. Realism is said to be governing the game, with the gameplay, as well as the aesthetics, getting a customary burnished respray. Character customisation and levelling up is said to have been ousted, and the series has been given its most degenerate protagonist to date: Niko Bellic – a human trafficker and remorseless killer who hails from Eastern Europe.

Finally, there's the city itself, which is said to have less emphasis on scale and more on the denizens of Liberty City and the way in which they interact with one another and the player. For all of the cinematic storylines, controversial themes and bravado that drips from each new addition to the GTA franchise – despite being places which in reality we'd probably rather not visit – it's really the cities themselves that are pivotal to the appeal of any GTA game.

They are virtual playgrounds without constraints that allow us to run amok without any fear of consequence. This is likely the reason why many people break free from the main game, deviate from the missions and seem content to find and shape their own Liberty City stories.

This Retro Gamer blast from the past got you eager for more? Our best GTA games ranking runs down the series so far, while our best PS2 games list has more retro favorites you can play next!

The latest GTA 6 leak situation just went from bad to worse for Rockstar Games, as new apparent footage of the game suggests that those responsible may have access to a playable build, at least in some capacity.

Earlier this week, alleged clips of GTA 6 started circulating online along with an apparent map for the game, watermarked with the name 'Cyberleek,' and shared on a website using the same name. These clips were quickly struck down via DMCA takedowns, suggesting they were the real deal and that someone – AKA Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive – really didn't want us to see them.

More footage has since surfaced online, and while there's been some discussion about how old the builds shown in the clips are, the leaker's latest release certainly suggests they didn't just gain access to videos but to something actually playable. The new video shows an extended clip of the player flying a plane over the city before cutting to a different gameplay scene in which the protagonist, Jason, shoots a wall.

Jason isn't just shooting aimlessly, though. Using bullet holes, the person in the clip spells out the word 'LEEK' – an obvious reference to the Cyberleek name, which doesn't just serve as a watermark but also an apparent hint of what the leakers might have got their hands on.

Even if this is true, some elements remain up for debate – namely, it's still not clear exactly how old this build is or how extensive it is, as it may not be the entire game. There's also the question of whether this build is in the leaker's hands or they're receiving footage of it from someone else with access to it, but obviously neither outcome is good for Rockstar.

Regardless, this is also raising alarm bells for fans hoping to avoid spoilers, and if Rockstar wasn't already aware of the severity of the situation, there's no doubt that it will be now. The timing of this latest leak is especially unfortunate for the devs, as there's only a week to go until the release of the official GTA 6 Extended Look.

Rockstar Games is yet to release a statement acknowledging the situation. Back in 2022, following a different wave of leaked footage, it said it was "extremely disappointed to have any details of our next game shared with you all in this way." It was later said that the 2022 leak cost Rockstar $5 million to recover from, as well as "thousands of hours' worth of staff time." The individual behind it is reportedly awaiting retrial this November after previously being set to spend life in a secure hospital until deemed no longer a danger by doctors.

GTA 6 leakers called out by Stop Killing Games after demanding game preservation solutions and physical discs from Rockstar: "Using illegal means to make a point is unacceptable."

The death of physical media means the death of games leaking early. That was my grand conspiracy theory as to Rockstar's motive when it announced that GTA 6 would be digital-only and code-in-box, never mind the more obvious price-cutting explanation. I thought I had it all figured out, but if it's true, there's egg on both our faces.

The latest supposed GTA 6 leaks are big ones. These aren't accidental or innocuous posts from fans whose copies arrived early from GameStop. It's not yet clear how, but a hacker group managed to get hold of alleged GTA 6 footage and share it online before stating its ransom-like terms. The perpetrator is not demanding money in exchange for its silence, but the reinstatement of physical editions for GTA 6.

I got so lost in my own sauce that I forgot there's more than one way for games to leak – and one of them is much more unpredictable than the other.

Scammers never die

My original theory tied back to the death of physical video game stores. I can't count the times I've seen entire games leaking online in the days and weeks prior to launch. From Lies of P to Silent Hill f, physical discs pose a threat to game releases. They are artefacts you hold in your hands, creating a tangible thing that can be bought, stolen, or delivered too early.

Despite agreeing with my colleagues about the importance of physical games, I understand Sony's move to seemingly copy Rockstar from a distribution perspective. Without physical discs, digital copies going live at the same time surely means a reduced risk of early leaks happening, right? Only in the case of GTA 6, all the decision has done so far is antagonize a hacker organization called Cyberleek, who posted gameplay footage ranging from the entire map to shots of Lucia and Jason taking cars and scooters for a spin, which have since been issued DCMA takedowns.

We've seen blockbuster studios get targeted by such operations before. Insomniac's huge ransomware attack back in 2023 springs to mind immediately, when a hacker group called Rhysida threatened to leak Marvel's Wolverine before it had even been given a first official look. Those hackers were the usual type; pay us X, and we'll stop doing X. It was a greed and money thing through and through.

Cyberleek seems to think it is doing a huge public service to gamers by fighting for physical games, supposedly out of the good of its proletariat heart. It even released a manifesto that, as well as a baked-in cryptocurrency sales pitch, demands an end to digital pre-orders, paid DLC, and an offline playable version. It's a skewed and highly unusual attempt at vigilante justice – assuming its motive is genuine – and not even the most vocal game preservationists at Stop Killing Games can get behind.

Uphill battles

Digital-only is not the safety net or quick anti-leak fix that I thought it would be. In this case, it may have been an instigator that shows the magnitude of its unpopularity.

I'm not saying the Cyberleek attack will make Rockstar backtrack. Thieves are here to stay, and there's little a plastic CD can do to stop it. But if the footage was attained through server hacking, it would serve as a reminder of how fallible and unsecure the digital realm itself is – which, I guess, was Cyberleek's completely illegal point.

Whether it's a crypto scam of dramatic proportions or a genuine threat to GTA 6 ahead of its Netflix preview (an alleged Rockstar insider on Resetera says the footage is a year old, so who knows how much of it is legitimate), the GTA 6 hack sends an entirely different message compared to what happened at Insomniac. If money is not the object here, it's clear that physical games are now considered equally as valuable to some. Including, apparently, cyberattackers.

With Grand Theft Auto 6 on the way, it's down to the community to bring back the best (and stupidest) thing about GTA Online

Day by day, we're getting closer to GTA 6, and to the extended look that's coming to Netflix on August 27. In the meantime, there's been an apparent leak of some gameplay footage, though it's believed the clips are quite outdated by now.

A smattering of footage pertaining to be from Rockstar's new crime sandbox has started making its way around social media. The gameplay contains sequences of characters walking around a beach, driving, getting into fights, blowing up other vehicles, and more in a map that bears some resemblance to Leonida.

However, don't get too excited about seeking them out, because these videos have been hit with DMCA takedowns, and they've also been shot down for being old news. NatetheHate, a prominent leaker not responsible for this GTA 6 leak, but the The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake and Star Fox rumors that were later confirmed to be accurate, comments on a ResetEra thread alleging that the "footage is over a year old."

His claim has now been backed up by the alleged GTA 6 leakers, who say this gameplay is all from 2023 in screenshotted chat logs, and there are up to four more videos to emerge in the coming days. Either way, if the footage really is from builds that are that old, we shouldn't expect the final release to look exactly like what's just emerged online.

Again, these leaks are happening right in the run-up to the official GTA 6 Extended Look arriving next week, at which point, what emerges is likely to be pretty heavily curated, and not the hodge-podge of moments and sequences you're seeing in any unofficial clips. That official footage is bound to be up to date, too.

I know the wait for the sixth mainline Grand Theft Auto feels like it's dragging on and on, but you only have eight days to go before Rockstar reveals all on Netflix. Count your blessings, you could be an Elder Scrolls 6 fan.

"Don’t boycott GTA 6," fired Rockstar devs say: "Support our legal battle instead" and "win justice for the people who helped make it."

GTA 6 made waves when Rockstar Games announced that it would be digital-only and lock some single-player content behind the digital deluxe edition. You can count leakers among the folks who are concerned about these moves from the storied developer.

In case you missed it, a new GTA 6 leak made the rounds online last night, supposedly showcasing gameplay (combat, driving, and all) as well as the full Leonida map.

Rockstar responded in turn with DMCA takedowns – but perhaps most interestingly, attached to the leakers' online profiles was a manifesto of sorts… one railing against practices like selling digital pre-orders ("if publishers want revenue before launch, they can press discs"), "fake" single-player DLC, and demanding that single-player content be preserved with "an offline failback state." The leakers say they "will not stop" until targeted publishers "issue a public statement and apology with a concrete commitment to be better," and claim to be "raising funds for a secret project" of sorts.

It does admittedly reek of some kind of cryptocurrency scam, however, with various crypto tags and whatnot on the leakers' page – but one of those demands has caught the eye of Stop Killing Games, the video game preservation movement spurred by Ubisoft's 2014 shutdown of The Crew, and it's safe to say the folks behind it aren't exactly happy.

In a new statement on Twitter, Stop Killing Games makes its stance on the GTA 6 leaks quite clear. "Footage from GTA 6 has leaked, and a group of hackers, whom we will deliberately not name here, to avoid giving them further attention, claims responsibility," it reads. "The footage itself appears to be genuine: Take-Two has already been hitting it with DMCA takedowns, and the speed of those strikes is itself a strong signal of authenticity."

It then alludes to the leakers' crypto links and what have you.

"Do not send these people your money, no matter how much sympathy you may feel for their actions," Stop Killing Games states. "This is illegal, and frankly, we feel for everyone at Rockstar having to go through this ordeal again, especially just over a week before Rockstar's own official 'Extended Look' premieres."

The post is referencing the GTA 6 extended look coming to Netflix next week here, which will show off more of the game.

Stop Killing Games continues: "Using illegal means to make a point is unacceptable to us and does nothing to protect our right to keep using what we paid for. No matter how strongly you disagree with the decisions of upper management at these companies, there are still thousands of developers who worked hard on this project – and they're the ones being hit the hardest."

The thread offers an alternative to the leakers, too.

"Channel that frustration into something constructive instead," it outlines, explaining how making such demands of big publishers like Rockstar might only backfire – and citing the GTA 6 leak debacle from years back in which the teenager responsible was caught, only to be later deemed psychiatrically unfit for trial and subsequently, set to spend life in a secure hospital unless he was deemed to no longer be a danger by doctors (it was reported last month that he's now awaiting retrial).

It was a rough situation all around, to say the least.

"This kind of act is destructive and helps no one, worse, it risks tarnishing the reputation of our communities and our chances to make change," as Stop Killing Games says.

"History isn't on the leaker's side either: the last person who did this to Rockstar, back in 2022, ended up with an indefinite hospital order. This isn't a cause worth risking your money or your future on" – if that's what this leak was "seriously" about, anyway.

There's no telling, regardless, really – but I do personally agree with Stop Killing Games here. This isn't helping on any end, and it's evident it won't actually push Rockstar (or any other studio) to change its mind about going digital-only.

"Don't boycott GTA 6," fired Rockstar devs say: "Support our legal battle instead" and "win justice for the people who helped make it."

The group claiming responsibility for today's apparent GTA 6 gameplay and map leak is using the publicity that's come with the leak to promote its own crypto coin, all with the ironclad assurance that "this is not a cash grab."

A lengthy manifesto from online group Cyberleek – that is, the "CYBERLEEK Edict" – spells out three "Commandments" around digital rights. In short: end digital pre-orders, end baked-in DLC which can only be accessed through additional purchases, and ensure offline-playable versions for any single-player content in online games.

The whole thing reads like an unhinged version of Stop Killing Games, and likewise takes aim at Ubisoft's The Crew, a racing game that vanished as its servers went dark despite having a single-player mode, as an example of why games should be preserved.

That manifesto also calls on gamers to help fight shadowy corporations by shelling out for a meme coin on crypto platform Solana.

"To fight this war, CYBERLEEK is raising funds for a secret project," the manifesto reads. "The specifics cannot be revealed yet; showing the cards to the big corporations would only give them time to build their defenses. Let it be absolutely clear: this is not a cash grab."

This is, of course, exactly what I would say if I, too, was not running a cash grab profiting off of attention orbiting the most-anticipated game of the year, and possibly all time.

The GTA 6 map images circulating online bear a distinct call to action for this fundraising plan: buy our crypto coin. You know, to be used in "fighting for gamers' rights."

It goes without saying that this couldn't be more suspicious. That is, until you read more of the manifesto, which is steeped in '90s hacker mystique and seemingly assembled from rejected Cyberpunk 2077 item descriptions.

"CYBERLEEK has been patient," it continues. "That patience is over. What follows are three commandments. If CYBERLEEK targets a publisher, it is because that publisher broke one. CYBERLEEK will not stop until they issue a public statement and apology with a concrete commitment to be better. Words are not enough; restitution is mandatory."

It's unclear what "restitution" is expected from Rockstar. The last hacker to take on the studio like this ended up in court and a secure hospital. Parent company Take-Two has already begun slinging DMCA takedowns online in response to this new leak, so you can bet its legal department has its ears perked right up.

"Publishers should beware. If CYBERLEEK can reach Rockstar, no one is safe. This is a message to all big corpo: behave, or be the next target," the post concludes.

I stand corrected. Now it seems even more suspicious.

How to watch the GTA 6 extended look: Netflix streaming release date and times

A new round of GTA 6 leaks are here, showcasing what appears to be near-final gameplay alongside the full Leonida map. Social media accounts sharing the footage have been struck by DMCA takedown notices, but at this point, it may be too late for Rockstar to stop the videos from spreading.

If you want to see Rockstar's game presented in its shiniest form, you'll have to wait for the GTA 6 extended look on Netflix later this month, and you can take this as a SPOILER WARNING – you might also want to avoid the internet if you don't want to see anything else in the next couple of weeks. For everyone else? The footage is, for now, linked in several posts on the GamingLeaksAndRumors subreddit, and it showcases some key details about the game.

One clip shows Jason at a rundown waterfront property, picking up a basketball and shooting some hoops in an impromptu minigame. Made shots appear to fill up a meter labeled "focus," but we don't actually see what that meter does in the footage.

In another clip, we see Jason wreaking havoc in a beat-up car near an interstate. He crashes into a delivery truck, which prompts the driver to get out and start a fight. There's a bit of melee combat, then Jason knocks the driver unconscious and starts beating him repeatedly with a wrench. As this happens, a little devil icon appears on the side of the screen, suggesting that the game will track your actions in some sort of morality system.

Separate from the footage, there's also a full GTA 6 map breaking down Leonida's layout. It's light on detail, but it does show what seems to be GTA 6's entire road system, alongside numerous unidentified points of interest along the map.

The footage and images are all watermarked for a website called "Cyberleek," which I'm going to refrain from linking to directly because of security concerns. The person or group behind the leak purports to be fighting against the game industry's questionable monetization efforts, and they suggest that if they "can reach Rockstar, no one is safe." They're asking players to help fund their operation through cryptocurrency purchases, which… Well, I can't tell you how to spend your money, but if you're interested in consumer activism, I'd recommend checking in with a group like Stop Killing Games instead.

If there was any doubt that these leaks were real, the fast deployment of DMCA takedown notices against accounts sharing the footage will likely put those doubts to rest. One affected account is calhampton_, who reposted the footage and soon tweeted a warning that their "account has been locked. "I just received a very important and serious email," calhampton_ says in another tweet.

"Don’t boycott GTA 6," fired Rockstar devs say: "Support our legal battle instead" and "win justice for the people who helped make it."

A group of GTA 6 developers who were controversially let go from Rockstar last year is telling fans not to boycott the game. Rather, lend them your support by purchasing a t-shirt to help fund ongoing legal proceedings.

The shirt, which just launched, is available through the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain, and all proceeds will help the 34 ex-Rockstar devs. But in announcing this merchandise, the workers are making one thing clear: "Don't boycott GTA 6."

"Win justice for the people who helped make it," says a representative of the affected developers, another adding: "We spent years pouring our hard work, skill, and creativity into making GTA, and we want people to experience the universe that we helped build."

They note it's not about simply letting Rockstar "off the hook"; the last hearing for the case against the publisher is happening in September. The 34 people who were laid off will present their arguments in a final plea that Rockstar acted outside the bounds of the law when it cut them all loose.

31 of them live in Britain, with the other three in Canada, and their dismissal sparked immediate protests and demonstrations outside Rockstar's base in Edinburgh. According to their accounts in the video advertising the IWGB t-shirt, they were let go "without representation, evidence or a chance to respond."

They cap off the video with a pointed message: "If you love GTA but hate union-busting, don't boycott the game, support our legal battle instead," they say.

Wherever the verdict lands, it may set precedents for employee rights within video games. GTA 6 launches November 19, 2026.

Rockstar has long been able to pull off some incredible feats when it comes to bringing massive, technically demanding games to lower-powered consoles like Xbox Series S and Nintendo Switch, and while it's more fun to chalk it up to witchcraft, a lot of it likely has to do with the unparalleled resources available to a company funded by some of the most profitable intellectual properties of all time. Most people wouldn't take issue with that, but if you're the founder of a much smaller studio facing performance demands from people using games like GTA 6 for comparison, I could see that becoming tiresome.

That's exactly the predicament Thomas Mahler, founder of Ori and No Rest for the Wicked developer Moon Studios, is lamenting in a sharply worded tweet sent out today. In it, Mahler says he's sick of people who don't know an Xbox from an ex-box (a thing which was formerly a box) demanding 60 FPS on Xbox Series S just because the console will be able to run GTA 6.

"I just love comments like: 'How dare your game isn't running at 60fps on Xbox Series S yet when GTA VI will run on it?!?!'" says Mahler.

"1) We don't know yet how well that thing will run.
2) Well, gee, I don't know, MAYBE it's because Rockstar literally just spent over a billion dollars and had THOUSANDS of people working on it for over a decade now?"

As Rockstar's next game has yet to come out, there's no telling how it'll run on Xbox Series S, but again, there's little reason to doubt the studio's capabilities with regards to performance. Red Dead Redemption runs mostly great on the OG Switch and Red Dead Redemption 2 manages a rock-solid 30 FPS running at native 4K on the last-gen Xbox One X.

Continuing his rant about lofty performance expectations, Mahler says "it's always the people that have absolutely no technical understanding that are always the loudest," and that their hysterics amount to "pure fanboyism.

"But sure, the 6 year old machine that cost $299 at launch and literally has half the RAM that even a Steam Deck has ought to run all the newest games at perfect performance, makes sense. It's not like other devs haven't been struggling with this thing for a long time now."

It's true that the Xbox Series S has been a thorn in the side of developers trying to achieve performance parity across consoles for years. Although Mahler isn't the only prominent developer who's spoken publicly about the issue, he's probably the most outspoken about it, having previously compared the Series S's specs to those of mobile hardware.

"It's incredibly difficult to support these potato machines and none of your fanboyism will make that statement any less true," says Mahler.

The Series S seemed like a great, consumer-friendly entry point to the current generation of consoles in theory, but it's clearly a pain point for a lot of developers who want to release their games on Xbox without performance compromises. That's a real shame, because in a world where $1,000 games consoles are becoming more and more accepted, a cheaper alternative has never made more sense from a player's point of view.

GTA 6 isn't too expensive for superfans, as 90% opt for the pricier $100 copy according to analysts: "It lives in a league of its own."

Former Rockstar Games producer Leslie Benzies apparently wanted all of GTA 4's population to have their own schedules and believable lives, but implementing a feature like that turned out to be both a massive headache for the devs and not that important for players.

The tidbit comes courtesy of Rockstar Game's ever-chatty, former technical lead Obbe Vermeij, who spoke to Edge Magazine about the open-world game's development: "Leslie Benzies wanted all the [GTA 4] NPCs to have their own lives. A place to live. A schedule. Every morning, they would drive to work. We worked towards it for a bit, but it ended up being so problematic."

Rockstar might have been transitioning to a whole new console generation with the PS3 and Xbox 360, but making sure each civilian in its open world had their own inner lives proved to be too much of a hurdle for the then-next-gen hardware.

"There were so many bugs," Vermeij said of the NPCs' schedules. The other problem came down to the fact that it didn't add much to the game, anyway. "I didn't like the idea [of fully simulated NPCs] because it felt like it didn't really matter that much," Vermeij says. "It wasn't really important that everyone had their own schedule and their own life."

In fact, the opposite might have been true to Vermeij. "I actually think that, psychologically, players are fine with NPCs being a little fake and shallow," he explains. "I think what it comes down to is that realism is just not necessarily something to aim for in a game."

Grand Theft Autos have, historically, been at their most fun when they're focused on being chaotic sandboxes, rather than realistic city simulations, though I, too, enjoy the thrills of driving responsibly in GTA 5. We'll if GTA 6 leans one way or the other later this year.

Ahead of GTA 6, Rockstar ramps up GTA Online roleplay as nopixel V prepares for exclusive Closed Beta launch in September

GTA 5 roleplay server nopixel is nearly ready to show off its big GTA Online refresh, nopixel V, which was made in collaboration with Rockstar.

Nopixel creator Koil announced on August 13 in the server's official Discord, "Surprise! We are excited to show you what we've been working on, the hours poured into this project, and the journey that's about to start."

The lead developer shares that nopixel V's Closed Beta period begins for an exclusive group of players on September 8, so you'll soon have another distraction from the slow crescendo of GTA 6 paranoia as its November 19 launch date approaches.

Well… if you're eligible. Nopixel currently has a list of nearly 450 content creators and normal people with roleplay characters invited to nopixel V, which Koil calls "a full rebuild" in his Discord message. The creator goes on to explain nopixel V's refreshed "allowlist," in which "invites to nopixel V will roll out in phases. While the first phase of invites is nearly complete, it's just the first group. If you haven't received an invite yet, you haven't been ruled out."

"Over time, access will expand, including more phases of invites," Koil assures aspiring roleplayers. Previous versions of nopixel have stirred up ill will for charging server applicants for priority boosts, costing up to $500 for only 15 days of potential access, and offering extra roleplay character slots for a fee.

Koil doesn't mention the state of paid priority boosts in nopixel V, but it seems at least some things about nopixel's allow list are changing to be more inclusive. Koil says, "We're using this moment as a genuine reset and a fresh start for the nopixel whitelist. And for everyone on nopixel Public and nopixel 4.0, nothing changes. Both servers will remain active and supported. Everyone has a chance at a path in."

Meanwhile, Rockstar might be preparing a bigger renovation of GTA Online, or its online services in general. It acquired the mod team behind FiveM – the GTA 5 multiplayer mod that powers nopixel – back in 2023, and then it elected to collaborate on nopixel V after years of the server being just a fan project. Plus, nopixel V is coming to the proprietary Rockstar Games Launcher, which I think further indicates Rockstar wants you to think of its most popular mods as extensions of The Official Brand, rather than as unconfined experiments. It's trying to claim ownership over the online aspect of its own games.

I don't know whether that impulse comes from a need to stomp out fan-made competition, or as an easy way to invest in the longterm growth of the GTA brand outside of the firecracker release that will be GTA 6. Realistically, it's both, and simply by making me report the verifiable fact that nopixel V is "made alongside Rockstar," it's working.

With Grand Theft Auto 6 on the way, it's down to the community to bring back the best (and stupidest) thing about GTA Online.

A short while back, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed that the Ultimate Edition of GTA 6 has sold more copies (despite the $100 price tag and all) than the cheaper version… and boy, has it.

Now, we know exactly how much, thanks to new reports from digital intelligence firm Sensor Tower (as per GamesIndustry.biz).

Apparently, a whopping 89% of pre-orders so far have been for the Ultimate Edition rather than the Standard Edition, which costs $80 – $20 less. The percentages are comparable across PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, too: 88.5% on the former and 90% on the latter.

Those… are quite big figures, all things considered – even when you take into account what Zelnick said, that it "might be a reflection of the fact that the most avid consumers are the ones who are pre-ordering."

Karl Kontus, senior vice president and general manager of video game insights at Sensor Tower, finds it surprising, too, even though special editions "always tend to perform well during the preorder period."

According to Kontus, he's "never seen a 90% premium share before." He has seen 50% – but "typical premium shares for games tend to be at around 10–20%." While he sees the figure dropping over time for GTA 6, "it's likely it'll stay significantly above the industry standard" still.

Rockstar's long-awaited game is "very hard to forecast," though, "given it lives in a league of its own." That, it very much so does. "There is no benchmark for how this game will perform from here," as Kontus concludes.

But why is the Ultimate Edition doing so well now? There is, of course, the very reason that Zelnick gave – but Kontus also proposes another very simple one: the fact that the difference between $100 and $80 isn't all that much, considering all of the digital goodies you get if you opt for the pricier version of GTA 6… and, yeah, I suppose that makes sense.

I'm curious to see how GTA 6 does come its November 19 release, personally – and also to find out whether the split between the Ultimate Edition and Standard Edition's popularity stays the same or balances out by quite a bit.

GTA 6 fans don't "go around buying nerdy niche" games, indie says, so fellow devs don't really need to get out of Rockstar's way

In the leadup to GTA 6, I've got just one person on my mind: Lucia, the film noir protagonist. Anyone who has even casually played Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto series will recognize the debt it owes to Hollywood. From Vice City's nods to Scarface, to the '90s urban crime dramas echoed in San Andreas and numerous Back to the Future references in GTA 5, the games' magnetic style has always felt cinematic.

The series' women also belong to a particular big‑screen lineage shaped by film noir: mysterious, morally grey, and narratively intriguing, embracing the qualities that made classic movie stars immortal. Yet they also inherit the genre's limitations, often functioning as accessories in male‑focused stories with little agency of their own.

As Lucia Caminos becomes the first substantial female lead in a main GTA instalment, the historic parallels between celluloid and console offer clues to where her journey might lead.

Light, camera, action

Mid‑20th‑century noir specialized in categorizing women. There's the femme fatale, a seductive catalyst who lures men into danger; the hustler living on the fringes whose autonomy was framed as threatening; and the good girl who represents a path out of the shadows.

These archetypes produced icons — the lethal calculation of Double Indemnity's Barbara Stanwyck, Rita Hayworth's charismatic Gilda, and Lauren Bacall's graceful edge in The Big Sleep — but they were also bound by the era's constraints. Made largely by men and shaped by strict censorship, noir demanded that female transgression be punished, limiting how complex these characters could truly become. Historically, noir women operate on the sidelines, and GTA has been no exception.

The series' 3D titles absorbed noir's gender patterns wholesale. GTA 3 frames Misty and Maria as stylish side characters: seductive silhouettes or kidnapped catalysts who motivate Claude without shaping the plot themselves.

Vice City exaggerates the femme fatale through Mercedes, a glamorous presence reminiscent of Kathleen Turner in 1981's Body Heat, albeit with less control. San Andreas' date choices offer a variety of different women, each of whom symbolise CJ's choices rather than drive their own arcs. They weren't bad by any means – these are characters who can be funny, thrilling, and ultimately memorable – GTA 3's Misty, thought to be named after the 1971 Clint Eastwood neo-noir Play Misty for Me, became an icon of the game through its advertising. However, as the series grew in scale, these character boundaries became more obvious.

The HD era unlocked the true potential of the GTA formula: vast cities buzzing with businesses, characters, and missions all ready to explore. There were never more possibilities for the player, but the women in the lives of the playable characters were slower to evolve. GTA 4's Mallorie and Kate show glimpses of depth and drive the plot forward significantly, but are ultimately there as foils or moral leverage for Niko. The fifth instalment has a significantly larger cast, but still fits in those broader archetypes.

Amanda and Tanisha are variations on the good girl, while Tracey's fame-hungry exploits are the catalyst for Michael's interventions. There was more personality, but still, these characters were part of the greater architecture rather than standing out on their own.

Not-so shaken or stirred

It's here that it becomes clear that the role of women in noir hasn't evolved as much in the games as it has in its cinematic inspiration. Femme fatales, hustlers, and good girl archetypes served the earlier games well, as they were immediately identifiable in games where graphical limitations meant broader storytelling beats. In a sense, they were historically accurate, given cinema's own issue with female characters. However, there have been evolutions on the big screen that could inspire the route ahead.

In recent decades, the femme fatale in particular has evolved – Kill Bill's blood-spattered bride needed no male assistance in taking out her revenge, while in the world of superhero movies you could argue Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow and the various depictions of Selina Kyle aka Catwoman showed female characters who assisted the male lead while also have backstories and motivations of their own. The mystery, seduction, and strength of female noir characters doesn't preclude depth and independence, which is what makes Lucia's potential so exciting.

As a co‑protagonist, she can retain the charisma of crime movie heroines, but become a driving force for the narrative in a way no female character has done before in the series. The Florida setting evokes neo-noir hits like Out of Sight, Spring Breakers, and Zola, signalling a shift toward crime stories where women possess agency, humour, and substance. Lucia's presence forces Rockstar to rethink its long‑standing male perspective, opening space for a female character who isn't defined by how she destabilises men but by how she influences her own journey.

Empowered doesn't mean virtuous – this is still GTA. Lucia can be as messy, complex, and morally layered as her predecessors, showing female ambition that isn't punished and a character intriguing enough for players of every background. The walls of movie lovers the world over are adorned with posters of women who broke the mould and changed the way we saw things. If GTA 6 seeks to confirm itself as the world's biggest media franchise, offering a similar icon could be part of that masterplan.

GTA 6 fans don't "go around buying nerdy niche" games, indie says, so fellow devs don't really need to get out of Rockstar's way

Almost every video game under the sun is running away from GTA 6's November release date, but indie developer Tomas Sala doesn't think that should necessarily be the case because the main audience for GTA 6 probably isn't rushing to buy the latest buzzy visual novel or management sim about running a movie rental store, let's say.

The acclaimed developer behind aerial combat sim The Falconeer and its city-building sandbox spin-off Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles is gearing up to release another game in the gorgeous series: ShipShaper, a game about designing your own ships that's hitting early access on September 2.

Speaking to GamesIndustry, Sala explains that when it came time to settle on a launch window for ShipShaper, he "saw all this stress about, 'Oh my God, GTA [6] is coming, you have to pack it before September.'" But despite squeezing into the crowd of new games seeking refuge from Rockstar Games' blockbuster, Sala doesn't think it was strictly necessary.

"I don't see why people are scared of it," he tells the outlet. "It [GTA] has its own f***ing audience that doesn't go around buying nerdy niche sailing games or nerdy puzzle games or tiny story-driven emotional deckbuilders. They just want to play GTA."

Sala notes that purchasing habits don't support developers' fears that everything will be buried by GTA since most players don't actually buy games all that often, as odd as that might sound.

As GamesIndustry notes, a 2025 Circana survey found that only 4% of US players buy a game more than once a month, and 33% of the US gaming audience buys a game less than once a year: "I'm pretty sure that's not the GTA audience." Some of the biggest games on PS5, Xbox, and Steam are often ones that came out years ago, too.

Another big reason why GTA 6 is being treated like an incoming meteor is because it'll inevitably suck up a lot of air in the room - social media algorithms and the front page of websites will surely be full of GTA 6 stories come launch - but Sala also doesn't see that as a problem for most indie games that struggle to get coverage with or without a GTA on the horizon.

But successful indies can break out without influencers or traditional media "because they find their audience." The 'nerdy niche' crowd will find their 'nerdy niche' games, regardless. "We can talk about the industry as if it's in a downturn – and for many people it is – but if you look at what gets made and put out, it's a golden age," he says.

Take-Two boss says GTA 6's $100 Ultimate Edition is outselling its cheaper alternative thanks to "avid consumers."

Believe it or not, GTA 6 is apparently seeing more Ultimate Edition copies selling pre-launch than those of the Standard Edition version – $100 price tag be damned.

Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick confirms as much in a new interview with CNBC (available to listen to via YouTube), admitting that the Standard Edition (which costs $80) is not selling equally to the Ultimate (priced at a higher point of $100).

"Actually," says the executive, "it is skewing more to the premium edition." Zelnick explains that this might have to do with the Grand Theft Auto series' longtime fans.

According to the Take-Two lead, these fans are likely the folks who are opting for the more expensive version of GTA 6 – you know, commitment to Rockstar Games' beloved franchise and all that. "But that might be a reflection of the fact that the most avid consumers are the ones who are pre-ordering," as Zelnick puts it.

He also explains the difference between the Standard and Ultimate Editions of the game: "You get additional content" in the latter.

We do already know what this translates to: some digital goodies, but nothing that impacts gameplay, and sadly, no real-life collectibles. With that in mind, I'm honestly personally a bit surprised to learn that more Ultimate Edition pre-orders are going out than the Standard Edition, but I suppose Zelnick's point makes sense.

Fans have been waiting nearly 13 years for GTA 6 to hit the market, and nostalgia itself is no laughing matter.

I'm interested to see how this balance changes come the GTA 6 release, as well as its launch (that we all hope will happen) on PC – will it still favor the premium version?

Don't expect a GTA 6 discount anytime soon, says Take-Two CEO: "We preserved our pricing on Grand Theft Auto 5 for a very long time"

We are, as of now, just over three months away from the release of GTA 6. Despite the premium edition costing $100, pre-orders have been strong, and if you're someone who's holding out for the price to drop, you might be waiting a considerable amount of time, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick says.

During an appearance on CNBC, Zelnick addressed whether there'll be any kind of discount for the holiday period this year. The short answer is there won't, and we shouldn't expect to see one in the near future either - unless retailers take matters into their own hands.

"We establish our pricing, and then storefronts can do what they wish," he says. "We don't have any ability to control that. So if they reduce the price, they're obviously reducing their margin on the sale."

He mentions there'll be "certain situations" where stores may "price down" to push people towards other products available in the same retailer. This is where your bespoke console bundles come in and such.

Given the widespread appeal of GTA 6, and how it'll likely encourage many to finally pick up a current-generation system, I would expect to see quite a few of these packages across the major chains. But that's at the discretion of those companies, based on the wholesale cost from Take-Two and Rockstar. Zelnick points to the game's predecessor for how GTA 6's pricing will look one, two or three years from now.

"We preserved our pricing on Grand Theft Auto 5 for a very long time," he explains. "Much longer than a standard release and entertainment property."

He concedes that the price will "eventually" go down, but we're talking potentially years from now. GTA 5 has been a consistent best-seller since launch, routinely re-entering games charts around the world to this day. There's never been a need to substantially reduce the cost, though it has been offered for free on several occasions now.

But that's over the course of 13 years. You could be waiting a decade before GTA 6 goes the same route. I'm not saying it's likely, just possible. Either way, if you want to play it soon, you'll need to pay at least $80.

GTA 6's divisive Netflix exclusive gameplay reveal is just the start, Take-Two boss promises: "There's appetizers, main course, and dessert to follow"

With EA officially private under Saudi ownership, Rockstar owner Take-Two is now comfortably the largest publicly traded game company in the US, as GamesBeat points out in a recent interview with T2 CEO Strauss Zelnick.

On this point, Zelnick says, "I don't love winning by attrition, but I'll take it."

Zelnick examines the landscape of the games industry, which has been rattled by ceaseless layoffs, record acquisitions, widespread cancellations, persistent funding droughts, and other systemic issues at all bands.

The EA takeover, for one, doesn't change much in Zelnick's mind. "I don't think EA becomes any less competitive from our point of view, and they have a great owner and they have a lot of other assets," he says. Some of those assets are notably expected to be cut loose, along with plenty of EA staff reportedly fearing layoffs, in the coming quarters.

"We assume that our competition is always aggressive and performing, and we're always running scared," Zelnick explains. "So I don't see any of that changing. We do think there are benefits to being a public company if you're transparent, which we are, and honest, which we are."

Zelnick, who's now 69 and notes he's "been running public companies since I was 29," suggests public companies don't have to be, and perhaps don't always deserve to be seen as, bad. A key strength of being on the stock market is, "when you're trading well, it can give you a currency with which to pursue accretive acquisitions, which we've done," he reasons.

"The people who hate running public companies are the people who hate telling the truth and showing up and doing the hardest thing and being compliant while they're at it," he argues. "That's not troublesome for us."

As it happens, Devolver Digital – a giant among indies, but a minnow to Take-Two – just announced plans to stop being a publicly traded company, arguing that the private life better serves its games.

Zelnick has less to say about the Xbox layoffs, which have seen multiple studios spun out, cut in half, or otherwise out valuable developers. "I don't feel comfortable commenting on Xbox's business, except [to] say that they're trusted and valued business partners [and] that I wish them well," he adds.

On the subject of staffing during this time of contraction, Zelnick sees Take-Two doing better than most.

"We've continued to be in growth mode more or less all of the time," he says. "We had some reductions in force around the Zynga acquisition. And we subsequently had some minor reductions in force, very selectively. But once again, we expect to be in growth mode creatively. We don't want to expand the size of our business footprint, but I think we will probably continue to expand the size of our creative footprint as we aim to deliver more hits to the marketplace."

Earlier this year, Zelnick claimed "big tech companies who laid off thousands of people and said it was because of AI were not telling the truth."

Through all the turmoil, games continue to come out and break through, and seemingly record pre-orders for GTA 6 would have you believe gaming is bigger than ever. A non-trivial chunk of Take-Two's valuation notably stems from confidence in GTA 6.

Zelnick pulls the camera all the way back to examine the roughly "2.5 billion people" who play video games. He thinks there are more gamers out there, and better ways to monetize 'em, too.

"I think we're scratching the surface still, both in terms of the size of the audience and the monetization of that audience," he argues. In a separate response, he adds, "I think there will be new formats, new form factors in the fullness of time. I don't think we've reached the creative or technical [peak of] aspects of the business."

With GTA 6 digital only, Take-Two boss says discs "don't really make sense" – "if you're already connected, who cares if you download digitally?"

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick says there's more to come from GTA 6's marketing after the announcement of a limited-time Netflix extended trailer landed to a mixed reception.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.Biz, a presumably hungry Zelnick described the gameplay premiere as "one of the hors d'oeuvres." If you're feeling confused over what that means, exactly, he goes on to say "there's appetizers, main course, and dessert to follow."

Basically, the fancy Netflix preview is just the start, and there's more to look forward to between now and launch.

GTA 6's Extended Look landed with a mixed response for several reasons. There's hype for sure, as fans have been speculating when Trailer 3 would land since Trailer 2 dropped last year. But while a long-awaited glimpse at gameplay is welcome, it being locked to Netflix for 6 hours rubbed some the wrong way. Sure, it'll be on Rockstar's YouTube channel the very same day, but the idea of paying to watch it early still hasn't pleased everyone. Obviously, some don't mind, and others assume it'll quickly end up on social media anyway.

Elsewhere, GI.Biz did try to get some details from Zelnick about how much Netflix paid for the six-hour exclusive on GTA 6's gameplay premiere, though the Take-Two boss wasn't biting, calling the streaming provider "a great marketing partner for us, and distribution partner." He also calls the deal "a groundbreaking partnership that Rockstar arranged." Alright, Zelnick, keep your secrets.

Zelnick also wasn't saying much about GTA 6's "unprecedented and astonishing" pre-order sales. While everyone involved is "very encouraged," Zelnick has been keen to stress that the team isn't over the finish line yet.

"Nobody's ever seen anything like this before, at Take-Two or in the industry," he told analysts during the latest financial briefing. "One of the reasons we're not changing our guidance is, to be clear, we haven't sold one unit yet. You can cancel a pre-order. We're kind of allergic to victory laps round here, and we certainly don't do the victory lap before the event."

GTA 6 is set to release in November, though we're getting at least one bigger look this month.

As PS5 and Xbox prices endlessly balloon, Take-Two CEO says rising console costs are good for no one, but won't hurt the company as GTA 6 approaches.

Prolific Rockstar actor Robert Bogue may have appeared in the likes of Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony, GTA 5, Red Dead Revolver, and Red Dead Redemption, but he won't be making an appearance in GTA 6 – though not for a lack of trying.

Speaking to a fan through Instagram – since reposted on Twitter, verified by GamesRadar+ – Bogue shares that despite auditioning "for more than 60 roles," he hasn't heard back from Rockstar.

“I’m a little disappointed with Rockstar," he says. "I had an amazing experience working with them before. Some of the producers I worked with are still there, and so are several directors whom I have a great deal of respect for. I really wanted to be part of GTA 6, but they turned me down.

"I must have auditioned for more than 60 roles—some major, some minor. I didn’t care how big the role was; I just wanted to be in the game. I didn’t get any of them, and I never even heard back about a single one. Honestly, that was pretty discouraging.

"At one point, I even started wondering if they had some kind of unofficial policy against bringing back the same actors. Because being rejected that many times and not even landing a small role just didn’t make sense to me."

Indeed, Rockstar has had mixed fortunes with the actors who have brought its characters to life over the years. How much GTA 4's Niko Bellic actor Michael Hollick was paid still appears in forum chatter today, and co-founder Dan Houser has previously spoken about a bust-up he had with Burt Reynolds, and so on. That said, things seem to have got better, with other GTA actors making cameo appearances elsewhere in Rockstar's universe.

While Bogue himself has appeared in a few Rockstar games over the years, the recent experience clearly stings.

"There’s definitely some disappointment and resentment," he says. "It feels like falling in love with someone, only for them to suddenly leave you. The only things I know about the game are small details I picked up from the script excerpts I read during the auditions."

As part of verifying the quote for this story, I reached out to Bogue about the quotes, who tells me that rejection is sadly part of the gig, and that what he really wants to get across is how much he enjoyed working with Rockstar over the many years.

As for GTA 6 itself, Rockstar's next big behemoth is set to release in November, though you can look forward to an extended look at it later this month.

With GTA 6 digital only, Take-Two boss says discs "don't really make sense" – "if you're already connected, who cares if you download digitally?"

GTA 6 is finally coming out in a few short months, but it's also dropping into an environment where console prices are higher than ever. Rockstar Games' parent company Take-Two says the ever ballooning costs aren't good for anyone, though they won't exactly hurt the company, either.

"Look, the rising cost of hardware is not a good thing, and we wouldn't argue that it is," Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick says in a recent investor's call. The AI-fuelled memory crisis has sent hardware costs into a frenzy across multiple industries, video games included, with PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo all upping their prices this year. It shouldn't faze Take-Two much, apparently.

"I don't think it will slow us down any because, you know… we believe we're delivering experiences that people want. However, a lower price point for hardware would be a good thing because there'd be more hardware in people's hands. So I cannot argue this is a positive, but equally we don't see it as a headwind either," Zelnick explains.

Going forward, Take-Two's betting on the world moving further into the kind of open ecosystems that PC gaming offers, rather than consoles, which have traditionally been closed systems strictly controlled by their manufacturers.

"You know, 20 years ago when we showed up here at Take-Two for a console release that was available on PC at launch, PC would represent 1-to-2% of the overall sales." Nowadays, PC sales can account for 40-50% of a multiplatform Take-Two game, "and I believe that's going to grow... they work great as game machines, and I think that will continue," Zelnick continues.

And should consoles price themselves into obscurity, Zelnick reckons we'll all be streaming our games in a couple years anyway.

With GTA 6 digital only, Take-Two boss says discs "don't really make sense" – "if you're already connected, who cares if you download digitally?"

As discussions continue about the price of GTA 6, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has explained that the company's goal isn't to maximize prices.

Speculation was rampant for a long time as to how much Rockstar Games would be charging for GTA 6, and some were even worried that it would end up as high as $100. However, we finally got the answer back in June when GTA 6 pre-orders opened up that Take-Two was going with the $80 price point that Mario Kart World breached last year when the Nintendo Switch 2 launched. But just like Nintendo, that $80 didn't suddenly become the new standard price for releases from the publisher.

During an investor Q&A, Zelnick is asked why GTA 6 was given the expanded price only for NBA 2K27 to announce it will be releasing at the standard $70 price when it launches in September. Zelnick explains: "We've said this many, many, many times. Our goal is to deliver way more value to consumers than what we charge them." He adds that "the real cost of a AAA video game is a whole lot lower today than it was 20 years ago."

He explains, "to say that we expect that Grand Theft Auto 6 will be an incredible bargain as experiences go is a gross understatement, because Rockstar Games is known for over delivering." He cites that it's been 13 years after the launch of GTA Online and it's still bringing "record-setting engagements at times." Zelnick adds that the engagement is "our goal" and that "our goal is not to maximize price."

Zelnick also acknowledges that "given the hype around this title, I mean, I think we could have made any number of other pricing choices," but adds that "our focus is on delivering way, way, way more value than what we charge for something." And while "pre-orders are exceptional," he notes that "one thing we certainly don't do is take a victory lap before we run the event" as pre-orders can be cancelled.

Granted, analysts expect that GTA 6 will unsurprisingly have a strong launch, with it expected to make up to $5 billion within its first week.

After claiming GTA 6 devs have crunch "built into" their contracts, union says "first meeting with Rockstar management" was "a step in the right direction."

When I saw that GTA 6 was heading back to Vice City and the fictional state of Leonida, my first thought was whether a certain Back to the Future mod would find new life here.

Back in 2009, while I was using my PlayStation 3 to play games like Metal Gear Solid 4, Infamous, and the train level in Uncharted 2 on repeat, I'd also be going to my PC to find out what else I could do in Back to the Future: Hill Valley. Released in 2008 for the PC port of GTA: Vice City, the first version of this mod let you drive the DeLorean time machine from the Back to the Future trilogy, and almost twenty years later, it's still being worked on.

In 2026, you can switch on the time circuits, key in a random date, hit 88 miles an hour, and travel in time, leaving your five-star wanted level in the dust. Other features include instant time travel from one time period to another with no loading times, flyable DeLoreans, a playable Time Train from the third movie, and more. With work ongoing to port the mod to GTA: San Andreas, I spoke to the team about how the mod began and what could be next for it.

"If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything"

BTTF: Hill Valley 0.2g is the most recent update, released in November 2024, which now lets players customize their own DeLorean time machine vehicle, control it with a remote, and even travel to a strange dimension if your car gets damaged. The release also marks it as open source, meaning anyone can take the code and make the mod their own. It's easy to install the mod if you own the original PC version of Vice City from 2003, not the Definitive Edition – just be aware of the potential for random bugs.

The team consists of a mix of community members who have joined, left, and rejoined the BTTF: Hill Valley project since its 2008 beginnings. Two members, developers who go by Carlos85G and Delorean88us, recall the mod's early days. "It started as a small six-hour time-jump mod in GTA: Vice City, promoted in a thread at the now-defunct BTTF.com forums," Carlos85G says. "The original creator said he was in the process of making some new maps and trying to integrate the storyline from the movies." Neither can say for certain who started it, but the goals of the mod have remained to this day.

"I remember the mod initially letting players travel 6 hours forward in time, which would clear wanted levels; and it grew from there," Delorean88us says. "People started offering help, and a team was formed. Soon after, we began creating new models, effects, and after that, everything is history."

Working with an engine from 2002, which was much improved over GTA 3, has led to challenges. "Coding space for free-roam features was a big deal back then. Any new feature required trade-offs: Flying meant a helicopter or the seaplane had to go," Carlos85G explains. "New animations meant borrowing one of the map props and repurposing it! I think the biggest one was the effects and animations, because everything had to be calculated programmatically."

The project took a step forward when Vice City could be taken apart, allowing the team to change previously inaccessible parts of the game. "As time moved on and Vice City was reverse-engineered, we were able to change core systems, like adding a new flight model for the flying DeLorean, having seamless animations on the vehicles, adding our own sound engine to the game," Delorean88us says. "At this point, it turned from what we can do with the commands that came with the game, to what we could do with the game engine to expand the mod further."

Archer, who's been in charge of the mod's sounds, has been able to come up with innovative ways of keeping everything faithful from the movies. "Over the years, I was able to get better at getting the movie sounds. Going from the DVDs to the 4K releases, I'd clean up old sounds - and I'm still refining all the sound effects. I want them to be the best they can be - sound is important. The Time Machine wouldn't feel like itself if you didn't hear its engine, or the explosions when it travels through time," Archer says. "My favorite part was working on the interior sounds. For first-person mode, we had to record and design all the sounds for each of the buttons and windows. Plus, most of the interior sound effects were recorded inside a real DeLorean."

"Your future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one!"

With the original PC version of GTA: San Andreas still having a huge modding community to this day, players have always wondered when feature parity between the Vice City version of BTTF: Hill Valley and this game will be made. Work is ongoing to port it to GTA: SA, for one simple reason. "For me, it's because San Andreas has a bigger map and was more fun to have a flying time machine in than Vice City's flat map," Delorean88us says.

Carlos85G agrees, saying that the mod in San Andreas could be seen as an expansion. "Our main focus has always been, and will still be, Vice City because of the warm look and '80s setting; however, we recognize that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has a richer map and a bigger modding community, so we'd like to expand some of the features found in the VC mod into this newer game." He also notes that it's something players have been wanting for a long time. "Some people have asked for it for a while, and we have even seen some of our concepts translated into this engine; so we'd like to make something, as little as it is, that fits well in this platform."

With plenty of team members having left and rejoined throughout the years, Carlos85G also explains how it's been to manage this turnover. "It's been both a delight and difficult. We have had some amazing modelers, coders, mappers, and artists in our ranks, but progress is slow, and everybody has a say in how their assets are handled. It's hard to find people passionate enough about the franchise and accuracy and, also, willing to contribute their free time and labor for the goal."

If you're new to the BTTF: Hill Valley mod or a longtime player, you'll see how much love and passion has been put into this, despite the ever-changing team. You discover new and exciting ways of exploring Vice City, whilst also offering a lot of fun, especially if, like me, you play the soundtrack in the background as you play.

With GTA 6 coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles later this year, it seems inevitable that the game will come to PC, which could mean a new generation of mods. But could BTTF: Hill Valley fit into this in a full-circle moment?

Two developers, Mini-Me and DragonKing, weigh in. "Probably. It depends on how quickly modding tools become available and what (new) possibilities they offer. Also on how much developer Rockstar Games keeps locking down the game to prevent modification," Mini-Me says. "Especially with the GTA Online part for GTA 5, Rockstar Games has increased efforts to prevent modification of the game, i.e. through encryption of game data, so time will have to show whether Rockstar Games will again make it harder with the next installment."

DragonKing gives another reason why Hill Valley may not come to GTA 6. "One of the reasons we stuck with Vice City as long as we have is the 1980s aesthetic. While it would look better in GTA 6 with the realistic graphics, it just lacks that charm, plus none of us are spending $100 on a game for a garage."

So whilst the chances of seeing the mod on a potential GTA 6 PC port are currently up for discussion, the future of BTTF: Hill Valley is safe for the foreseeable future. If you've got the original PC version of Vice City, install the mod and discover why Tommy Vercetti doesn't need roads.

Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick says that over 90% of the company's sales are digital, so physical discs for games like GTA 6 "don't really make sense for the consumer." Also, considering you have to "register online to play" in most cases anyway, "who cares if you download digitally?"

A lot of people, I imagine, but anyway. As part of Take-Two's latest financial briefing, an investor takes the opportunity to ask Zelnick about Sony's controversial decision to end disc production and its potential impact on the publisher's plans. While Zelnick declines to comment directly on Sony's decision, he offers some thoughts on how Take-Two is approaching the current state of physical media.

"Our business is well over 90% digitally distributed, as it's already a digital business," he says. "So, in certain instances, especially if it's a big game, discs – and note I said discs – don't really make sense for the consumer.

"Also, in most instances you have to register online to play anyhow. So if you're already connected, who cares if you download digitally? It's all the same and it's much more convenient. So that's where the world is going in our opinion, and I think Sony understands that. We certainly understand that."

While Zelnick appears pretty down on physical media, though, he goes on to stress that it doesn't mean Take-Two and the various game studios it owns are unlikely to ditch it entirely.

"That doesn't mean that we won't have physical editions now and then," he continues. "I'm sure we will in the same way that there's still vinyl in the recorded music business, but in other instances it just won't make sense."

The topic of physical media has been ringing around the industry of late. A large part of that comes down to Take-Two-owned Rockstar itself, which announced that boxed versions of GTA 6 will essentially be a code in a box at launch. That said, Nintendo's game-key cards certainly had their moment, and Sony's announcement that PlayStation discs for new games won't be available beyond January 2028 has been the biggest talking point on the topic lately. Hence the investor question.

As a result, the question has been put to other publishers and developers, too. Final Fantasy 7 Revelation lead Naoki Hamaguchi recently told us that conversations about what the RPG's offering will look like are still ongoing.

Similarly, Capcom also mentioned in an investor Q&A that the Resident Evil maker isn't that worried about what happens with physical, as 90% of their sales are digital, much like Take-Two.

On the whole, it paints a bleak picture for the future of physical media, as players' clear preference for digital is evident in the sales data, and publishers mostly offer a collective shrug at the topic. Still, the backlash is fierce, and movements like Stop Killing Games aim to ensure that the ownership issues that come with digital aren't merely brushed away. Watch this space.

Here's how to watch the GTA 6 extended look later this month.

You can put aside your fears of another GTA 6 delay, for now – Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick is very confident that Rockstar Games is going to hit its release date of November 19, 2026.

After having been delayed a handful of times already and not really pulling back the curtain at all, GTA 6's November release date has been called into question by fans basically ever since it was announced. Even a former Grand Theft Auto 5 developer said he wouldn't be shocked to see the Rockstar juggernaut move once again, but it's not something the developer's parent company is worried about.

In today's Take-Two financial call, chairman and CEO Strauss Zelnick reiterated that the company expects to grab net bookings of $8-8.2 billion in its 2027 fiscal year, "which reflects both ongoing positive trends in our business and our high degree of confidence around the November 19 release of Grand Theft Auto 6."

The head of Rockstar Games' owner repeatedly mentions GTA 6's November launch throughout the rest of the call, too: "Looking ahead, fiscal 2027 is on track to be a milestone year for our company, led by the release of Grand Theft Auto 6." There you have it.

Of course, anything is possible in game development (and the world at large) so it's not entirely impossible for GTA 6 to be pushed back again, but all signs are pointing toward the mammoth open world making it in time for November.

GTA 6 pre-orders are already open, for instance, and An Extended Look at the game is debuting on Netflix later this month. One would think a studio wouldn't kick off a big marketing push three months before launch if another delay was looking likely, after all.

After claiming GTA 6 devs have crunch "built into" their contracts, union says "first meeting with Rockstar management" was "a step in the right direction."

The Netflix GTA 6 extended look is arriving in exactly one week, and to help you get ready for the premiere, I've put together this handy guide on how to watch the extended look both on the streaming service and YouTube.

Fans everywhere have been eagerly awaiting a GTA 6 trailer 3 ever since the last trailer dropped in 2025. With GTA 6's release date now getting ever closer, Rockstar Games excitingly revealed we're set to see an extended look at the new game by confirming an unexpected collaboration in an official press release earlier this month.

This came before an alleged leak supposedly started to surface, but it's best to take all of that with a pinch of salt. Still, it only makes me even more curious to see what will be officially shown of GTA 6. So, if you're looking to catch the premiere for yourself, read on as I breakdown when and where you can watch the GTA 6 extended look.

How to watch GTA 6 extended look

GTA 6 trailer 3 release date

The GTA 6 trailer 3 release is now officially set for August 27, 2026.

We're looking at the extended look as trailer 3 in all but name here, and it's great to see we now know when we're finally going to see more GTA 6 goodness very soon. Rockstar is keeping quiet on what we can expect to see, but we're betting this could be our first proper glimpse of GTA 6 gameplay after previous trailers showcased the setting and the dual protagonists, Lucia and Jason.

If you want a recap of the previous reveals, our GTA 6 trailer and GTA 6 trailer 2 breakdowns are here for you.

How to watch the Netflix GTA 6 extended look

You can tune into the Netflix GTA 6 extended look on August 27 at 3pm ET / 12pm PT / 8pm BST here if you have a subscription to the streaming service.

With Rockstar gearing up for GTA 6's release date in November, the studio announced the "first-of-its-kind partnership with Netflix", which gives subscribers of the streaming service the opportunity to see the GTA 6 extended look first.

"The anticipation and fandom around Grand Theft Auto 6 is unprecedented," Brandon Riegg, VP of Nonfiction at Netflix, said at Tudum. "[W]e're honored that Rockstar Games has partnered with us to debut the next part of the Grand Theft Auto story with Netflix members first".

If you have a Netflix subscription, you may see the extended look featured in its "worth the wait" section, or listed in what's upcoming, and you can currently set yourself a reminder for it within the listing ahead of its release.

It's yet to be revealed how long the GTA 6 extended look runtime will be, or how in-depth it will go, but we'll be keeping our eyes open for any further updates from Rockstar in the lead-up to the premiere. Here's hoping we see some official gameplay!

How to watch the GTA 6 extended look on YouTube

While the next GTA 6 reveal is dropping on Netflix first, it will also be going live on Rockstar Games' official YouTube channel on August 27 at 9pm ET / 6pm PT / 2am BST (August 28).

That means that if you don't have a Netflix account to tune into its initial premiere, you can watch the extended look on YouTube six hours later. With the previous trailers raking in an impressive number of views over the years since they debuted, it'll be interesting to see if GTA 6 trailer 3 reaches the same dizzying heights in terms of view counts.

While you wait for more GTA 6, look back on the series with our ranking of the best GTA games.

PATCH NOTES: V08.06.2026 – Rockstar Games just confirmed that an extended look at Grand Theft Auto 6 will be unveiled on August 27, 2026. In an unprecedented move, the gameplay reveal will premiere on Netflix – a bold partnership which underscores the belief that GTA 6 will be an unstoppable entertainment juggernaut.

What's the latest on GTA 6?

• Rockstar just announced that an extended look at GTA 6 is coming August 27
• The extended look will premiere on Netflix before hitting the internet

Why you should care

• GTA 6 trailer 2 landed over a year ago
• The game is set to release in 104 days

Who said what?

Meta Shift

• Netflix has six hours of exclusivity over the GTA 6 gameplay reveal

There's been this feeling that Marvel is finally starting to regain some momentum. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is shattering records, becoming the highest-grossing movie of 2026 after generating $1.15 billion from the box office in just seven days. It's the second-fastest movie to hit a one billion revenue threshold of all-time; that crown still belongs to Avengers: Endgame.

The success of Brand New Day does lend some credence to the idea that superhero fatigue isn't quite as pronounced as is frequently claimed, and that its success could even point towards Avengers: Doomsday being on-track to do the impossible come December 18 – surpassing 2013's Grand Theft Auto 5 as the biggest entertainment release of all-time.

Today's announcement that Grand Theft Auto 6 will launch an extended look at its action on August 27, premiering exclusively on Netflix, is a stark reminder of just how much of an entertainment juggernaut this thing is going to be. And that it's more than a video game – it's a monocultural moment that should be treated similar to the biggest entertainment IP in the world.

Netflix calls the reveal a "first-of-its-kind partnership," one which acts as a "reflection of what we hope Netflix is becoming: a place where the most ambitious storytelling, from any medium, can find the biggest possible audience."

In reality, I suspect that this partnership only helps ensure that Netflix obtains the biggest possible subscriber base. While the footage will land on YouTube and other platforms six hours late, there's little doubt in my mind that this reveal will spike month-on-month subscriptions as players (both core and casual) grapple with the FOMO of not being on the frontlines of this conversation.

It's been over a year since GTA 6 Trailer 2 landed, which Rockstar claims reached over 475 million viewers cross-platforms within 24 hours. It's impossible to know what heights this third trailer will reach, but with Netflix adding an air of prestige to the entire event, get ready for Rockstar to shatter records once again.

Known Issue

• There are just 104 days left on the Countdown to GTA 6 and Rockstar is still yet to show very little of the upcoming open-world experience.

Starring Jason and Lucia, GTA 6 will take us back to Vice City and push us out into the wider state of Leonida. After an easy score goes wrong, the two protagonists find themselves enveloped in a criminal conspiracy, forcing the pair to rely on each other more than they ever have before to make it out alive.

That's the basic premise of GTA 6 and, after years of teasers and speculation, we really don't know all that much else. Rockstar has always worked in mysterious ways, although the way it is presenting and marketing this long-awaited sequel is particularly condensed.

With little over 100 days until GTA 6 is due to release, the public hasn't seen any true gameplay – nor has the press had an opportunity to cut through the marketing lines and bring you any sort of first impressions. What are the biggest changes, evolutions, and boundary breaking ideas that will make putting a GTA 6 pre-order down worth it? I honestly couldn't tell you.

Given the anticipation, and how little of this project has been shown, it's a little disappointing that the publisher has effectively locked the first look at GTA 6 behind a paywall. It's not the sort of thing anybody else could get away with in this industry, but that only demonstrates the power that GTA 6 wields over the collective consciousness.

Ultimately, when we're all settling in for what will likely be a 30 minute gameplay showcase on August 27 – detailing the interplay between the two protagonists, how new heist systems intersect with a more socially-connected cohort of NPCs, and the most ambitious open-world in Rockstar's history – we probably won't care all that much.

Patch Notes summary

Rockstar Games works on its own schedule, and the decision to partner with Netflix for an extended look at GTA 6 gameplay speaks volumes for how the developer wants this release to be consumed by the world at large. It's more than a video game – it's a force of nature that's going to draw the sort of attention and discussion that Marvel's 2026 Avengers and Spider-Man movies could only dream of.

The battle for the entertainment throne is fully underway now. Spider-Man: Brand New Day will continue to break records, and I expect there to be a hell of a lot of eyes on Avengers: Doomsday come December. But whether either of these monstrously massive franchises really have the staying power to compete with Grand Theft Auto remains to be seen. I suspect that, come end of year, GTA 6 will reign supreme as the biggest entertainment release of all time.

Up Next:

Do exclusives still matter? It's a question Xbox and PlayStation have been asking themselves almost this entire generation, but Netflix thinks it's a pretty definitive yes. In fact, the streamer is so sure about its answer that it's paid to lock down an extended look at GTA 6, streaming exclusively on Netflix for… six hours?

As announced earlier today, Grand Theft Auto 6: An Extended Look debuts for Netflix subscribers on August 27 at 3pm ET (or 12pm PT, 8PM BST), before it goes live on Rockstar Games' YouTube channel and website six hours later. Perhaps the shortest timed exclusivity window in all of gaming.

It's an unconventional move, for sure, and fans are just as bewildered by GTA 6's patchy marketing.

"I know this community can be extreme sometimes, but this has to be the weirdest marketing I've ever seen for a videogame," one Redditor who probably doesn't remember the Xbox 360 MTV campaign writes. "A trailer for a trailer? A Netflix exclusive first? WTF is going on."

Another fan notes that maybe Rockstar Games has finally become the capitalist beast it's been satirizing for decades (others would argue that's been the case for years already): "Kinda feel like the whole idea of GTA games constantly criticizing capitalist America starts to show within Rockstar itself... A Netflix special for that? I feel like I’m in a GTA game."

"So this is a bad portent for what's to come with them monetizing the sh** out of every aspect of this game going forward. They found a way to paywall a f****** trailer," says a third. Rockstar already caught some flak for locking certain in-game shops and features behind GTA 6's $100 Ultimate Edition, so the Netflix exclusivity isn't leaving folks more hopeful about the game's monetization.

It's a sentiment echoed across social media forums, too. "Rockstar and T2 will make a buck anyway they possibly can. Can't wait to see what the new online will look like," one fan ponders.

Another GTA 6 delay "would not" shock a former GTA 5 dev who says it wouldn't "hurt" Rockstar at all

Folks, something is actually, finally happening – GTA 6 is getting its first extended look later this month.

As confirmed by Rockstar Games today, Grand Theft Auto 6: An Extended Look will be dropping on Netflix, of all things, on August 27. It'll go live at 3pm ET – that's 12pm PT or 8PM BST – on the streaming service, before it comes to the Rockstar YouTube channel and website six hours later.

How long the video will be or what exactly it'll show remains to be seen, but right now, all that matters is that we're finally going to get a proper look at GTA 6, over a year since Trailer 2.

Many folks assumed that the pre-orders for GTA 6 going live in late June would be a good time for Rockstar to drop Trailer 3, but alas, that day came and went. It was already stated that the game's launch marketing would kick off properly in the summer, so some news was inevitable, but the devs have certainly kept us on our toes as to when.

And hey, if we're being treated with a nice, lengthy look at some long-awaited gameplay footage, then that seems like a very reasonable reward for our patience. It's been repeatedly stated that the game is truly on track for its November 19 release date, and with something like this on the horizon, hopefully even those who felt badly burned by the previous delays will feel somewhat reassured.

GTA 5 dev "can only imagine the size of GTA 6" – "It must be monstrous."

For the time being, you can rest assured that GTA 6 is coming in November. I say that because, according to a former Rockstar Games developer, anything is possible, including another delay to the long-awaited crime sandbox.

I know, I know - don't shoot the messenger. But according to Mike York, an animator who worked on Grand Theft Auto 5, if anyone's not completely confident in the next installment, then it could be moved again. "Personally after being there and working on GTA 5, I don't currently work there so I can't give confidence based off that, but based on my previous experience, they could delay it again," he tells Indy100.

"Straight up, they could delay it again," he adds. "They can. They can do whatever they want and people will wait right now, it doesn't matter. If they need to do what they need to do, they'll do it."

Firstly, I would say he's right; people will hang around. They've done 13 years of it; what's another few months? Nobody will be happy about it, but those pre-orders will hold. Secondly, York points to the finishing touches, and how the anticipation is simply too high for anything to go wrong.

"So if November comes around and they're thinking, 'This final mission we have is still not looking very good and there are still a few bugs in this final mission,' they'll push it six more months if they have to," he explains.

"I would not be shocked at all," he finishes. "I don't think it would hurt them or anything."

Probably not, but it would hurt almost every other publisher in the industry, who would then have to shift their release schedules again to avoid whatever the new GTA 6 release date is. As these comments have circulated, York clarified on Twitter he's not predicting anything; he just wants to make sure fans know this could happen.

"Just so we are clear, I don’t think they will delay it again," he writes. "But I also said I wouldn’t be surprised if they did. They really want to release the best game possible even if that means pushing it out farther."

On the back of York's comments, there's a non-zero chance we haven't seen the third trailer yet because Rockstar is making 110% sure November 9 is sticking for the launch. We can only wait and see.

GTA 6 price officially confirmed, and at $80 fears that Rockstar would break the $100 barrier were unfounded

Something about the best GTA games dig into your brain. Whether it's the gleeful moments of parody that send up American crime classics, the freedom to go on a rampage across an open world urban sandbox, or little cinematic touches that remind you Rockstar's characters go beyond surface level, it's almost impossible to forget. And here, we're snitching on the best GTA moments, from the series' greatest heists to the pettiest robberies.

It's impressive in part because every Grand Theft Auto is huge. Even if you go back to the very first game on PS1, you'll find a sweeping, expansive ambition that remains incredibly moreish, your path through a city very much your own. And yet, so much sticks with you. As we barrel ever-closer to the launch of GTA 6, we've cracked the window on every game in the series in order to rummage through all those shiny memories, and stashed the best of the best in our trunk for you to look at.

With this week's update we've now got the first 60 entries live, spotlighting some great moments across the series as the Top 100 grows larger. Check in below as we continue to look back on one of gaming's greatest series. But, let us know your favorites in the comments!

100-91

100. Taking Chop for a walk

Game: GTA 5
Released: 2013

Easily the strangest protagonist in GTA history – briefly controllable in single-player, and during a GTA Online Halloween event – Chop is a rottweiler notable for his loyalty in a game full of double-crossings. In fact, the only crossing he does is over the roads near the Clinton Residence should you throw his ball too far. His companionship is welcome when the plot starts blowing up, even if he's behaving badly because you didn't bother to train him via the iFruit app.

But go the other way and you can put plenty of time into building the bond between man and best friend, making sure that Franklin shows love and care to his stalwart companion. Ditch all the crime and take a trip down to Vespucci Beach where you can go for walkies and play fetch.

While some of GTA's detractors will call the series a hedonistic sandbox that brings out the worst in players, it's hard to believe that after we've spent a good hour hanging out with our canine pal. For as sinful as your GTA life can be, it can also be quite mindful. Why not put the weapons away, dutifully park your convertible, and hit the sands with Chop while you take in some digital sun?

99. Getting a call from your cousin Roman

Game: GTA 4
Released: 2008

"Niko! It's Roman. Let's go bowling." The phrase became notorious among Grand Theft Auto fans in the years following the fourth game's release – one of the truly enduring early game memes alongside the arrow to the knee and the cake being a lie. While writer Dan Houser later protested that those calls didn't happen nearly as often as players believed, they were new and significant – a calling card for a relationship system. An important step forward not just for this game, but for many others too. And you'd better enjoy bowling. Strike!

98. Watching an actual comedy set in Liberty City

Game: GTA 4
Released: 2008

Ricky Gervais appears at the Split Sides comedy club in Liberty City. Not someone we'd pay to see, but back on PS3 and Xbox 360 the idea of being able to actually drive to a club and take in a proper show was novel. It's an idea Rockstar has revisited a few times, most recently in Red Dead Redemption 2 where you can watch full theater performances that change every week night. What will we be able to watch in GTA 6?

97. Blasting your ice cream van's jingle

Game: GTA: Vice City
Released: 2002

In Rockstar Games' satirical take on Miami for GTA: Vice City, even the most innocent occupation is a paper-thin veneer concealing rampant corruption and criminality. So it proves when Tommy Vercetti buys the Cherry Popper Ice Cream Company (*sigh*), and discovers a burgeoning drug distribution operation. The juxtaposition of sing-song chimes with the sight of grown adults running from the sidewalks for their favourite white-coloured, tooth-wrecking fix remains one of the most grimly comic scenes in the entire series – which really is saying something.

96. Driving past Deliver Me Timbers

Game: GTA 4
Released: 2008

Just a straight-up great name for a company in the business of logging and logistics. You'll spot it on a passing van, and that's about it. A throwaway line, and funnier for it. If you ever needed proof that beyond the grim depiction of a world rife with crime is some very silly comedy, all you need to do is pay attention to the rich detail. No opportunity is missed for a chortle.

95. Discovering the coral reef

Game: GTA 5
Released: 2013

The act of hitting the ocean bed near Los Santos in your submersible might be driven purely by greed – as hazardous as it might be, nuclear waste fetches a high price, and that means more moolah to put towards your next field hangar or golf club. But once you're down there, you discover that some of Los Santos' beauty lies there, below sea level, brightly coloured and alien. It's the lone chunk of on-land coral reef, however, found halfway up a mountain, that has bewitched players – for nine years and counting.

94. Sniping the moon to change its size

Game: GTA 3
Released: 2001

Shoot for the moon, so the saying goes. In GTA 3 if you do, you won't land among the stars as the rest of the saying claims, but it will get bigger. It's a bizarre fact of life in Liberty City that presumably has dramatic knock-on tidal effects for the planet as a whole. But don't worry – snipe enough times and it'll return to its usual size. That this bizarre Easter egg was ever discovered is testament to the sheer amount of time bored teenagers spent in GTA 3, taking potshots at the scenery.

93. Taking the Pisswasser

Game: GTA 5
Released: 2013

Simple gags can be the greatest. 'Wasser' is German for water, and you can work out the rest. Cheap lager made for export, with the slogan 'You're in for a good time'. You're in. Yep. If that's not enough, you can even invest money in the company using Bawsaq (more on that later), and deck out sports cars with the logo like it's a racing sponsor.

92. Turning a GTA Online session into a Frank Ocean listening party thanks to Blonded Los Santos 97.8 FM

Game: GTA Online
Released: 2013

Frank Ocean and friends play spaced-out, soulful music that runs the gamut of contemporary genres, while riffing on the surrealism of GTA's casual ultraviolence between songs. Proof of Rockstar's cool, and evidence that smart curation is still a major part of this online sensation's backbone that makes it a world worth inhabiting and messing around in.

91. Watching Michael's movie at the cinema

Game: GTA 5
Released: 2013

The premiere of the film Michael 'produces', or rather enforces, over the course of GTA 5 goes awry on the red carpet, when another of its backers orders a hit on his family. That's Hollywood, baby, possibly even more vicious than a life of crime. But you can head back to the cinema at a later date and watch Meltdown in full. What you'll find are 11 and a half minutes of oddly watchable Wall Street pastiche, impossible car physics, and driving monkeys. And who said gaming isn't a storytelling medium?

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90. Attempting to steer in cinematic cam

Game: GTA 3-5
Released: 2001-2013

There are a couple of entertaining yet unusable camera options in GTA. There's the '90s-style top-down view that's a recipe for flipped vehicles, but best of all is the cinematic camera – a favourite feature of Rockstar North's co-founder and president Sam Houser, who was adamant that Grand Theft Auto should look and feel like the crime movies of his childhood. The view periodically switches between various cool and flattering angles, all pretty much guaranteeing a gnarly crash. The cinematic camera is the very definition of style over sense, which is classic GTA.

89. Knowing why Sex Club 7 is funny because you're a fan of '00s British pop

Game: GTA 3, GTA: Liberty City Stories
Released: 2005

You had to be living in the UK between the years of 1998 and 2003 to know why Liberty City's bunny girl-adorned club was naughty – it's a reference to post-Spice Girls pop group S Club 7. Grand Theft Auto is a pastiche of American pop culture, but plenty of tongue-in-cheek UK references get a look in too. Originally Paulie's Revue Bar, you see the Leones take it over as missions progress and Luigi Goterelli comes in as an owner. Guess he's a 'Bring It All Back' fan.

88. Becoming Ammu-Nation's top customer

Game: GTA 3
Released: 2001

Rockstar North's outsider perspective on the US has served it well, and you can't argue with this simple, damning jab at the country where there are 120 owned guns for every 100 citizens. Frequent visits to the shop over the years have become comfortable and familiar – which is worrying in its own way.

87. Hot Coffee

Game: GTA: San Andreas
Released: 2004

All it took was a fan combing files to find cut content to cause one of gaming's biggest-ever controversies. On the trail of unused animations, 'hot coffee' turned out to be a cartoonish sex minigame, in which CJ has to rhythmically spank his girlfriend to elicit maximum excitement. Chaos ensued as, though the mini-game was inaccessible to the casual player, the incomplete files had been buried on the disc rather than deleted outright. Many fingers were pointed, and Senator Hillary Clinton called for new legislation to ban the sale of violent and sexually explicit games to American children, with a $5,000 fine for retailers in breach of the law.

86. Getting really into talk radio

Game: GTA 3-5
Released: 2001

The nascent Rockstar North dabbled in surrealist comedy radio in GTA 2, but it was only when the series went 3D that it dedicated entire channels to the kind of weird, rambling dialogues you can hear on local phone-in shows in real life. Eventually, the madness seeps in, and you find yourself sitting quietly in a sedan as a mafioso vents about his overbearing mother. "I do a man's job and all," sighs Toni, "but she treats me like a little boy."

85. Any scene with Samuel L Jackson's Officer Tenpenny

Game: GTA: San Andreas
Released: 2004

For those too young for Pulp Fiction, Sam Jackson will always be villainous Officer Tenpenny: a gangster with a badge. He brings his screen presence into the digital role here, crafting a character you love to hate. This is one of the meatiest roles in the series for a celebrity.

84. Walking away from the Chainsaw Masquerade

Game: GTA: Liberty City Stories
Released: 2005

Manhunt was a recent memory when Liberty City Stories came out, and there are a couple of creepy echoes during the latter's runtime. First, a character covertly films you taking out Sindacco goons so that he can use the footage in a snuff film. And second, Rockstar Leeds stages a survival horror showdown in the bowels of a cargo ship. The tension builds in the hollow vessel, until you're ambushed by baddies carrying more power tools than your local hardware store. Brr.

83. Thinking Heavenly Radio is a fantastic joke, then getting weirdly into it

Game: GTA 2
Released: 1999

The home of Hare Krishna conversion, and the only place playing "the sounds of whale love to help Saturn's moon squeeze through Neptune's tight red eye." Strange comedy that really helped to set the tongue-in-cheek comedy tone even before the series fully embraced 3D, classic GTA's radio stations oozed personality even with the generation's limitations.

82. Driving your 'Mini Cooper' wild in Hyde Park

Game: GTA: London
Released: 1999

By setting this early spin-off in a very specific time and place, Rockstar basically promised a playable Italian Job – and it delivered. The Myni, as it's called, may only be 135 pixels from its bonnet to its boot, but offers the best acceleration in the game. That's no small matter when yet another head-on collision takes away all your momentum.

Looking to test drive it? There's ample room at the centrally located Hyde Park, and the pigeons there present little resistance. It might seem quaint now, but the simple rendition of London was a joy to putter around in frenzied style, thanks in part to the design of UK cities, and also the novelty of having a game set in my home country for once. It'd be nice to have the series visit the UK again one day. God knows there isn't a lot more to lampoon now.

81. CJ goes cycling

Game: GTA 5
Released: 2013

Most series veterans quickly realised they were playing in CJ's backyard during the Hood Safari campaign mission of GTA 5, but few noticed him riding by on his BMX with Sweet and Big Smoke. It might not make sense as a canonically sound crossover, but it's a pretty neat nod to how far the series has come since the PS2 days.

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80. Building a 10x score multiplier

Game: Grand Theft Auto
Released: 1997

The oldest GTA games had a unique, often forgotten scoring system that's reminiscent of those in today's roguelikes. The more successive missions you completed, the higher your cash multiplier – massively increasing your chances of hitting the level goal and opening up a new city.

The twist? If you got arrested, your multiplier was halved. It was an arrangement that meant every high-stakes cop stand-off was navigated with sweaty palms. Get Outta Jail Free Cards were more valuable here than they ever were in Monopoly.

79. Getting fat as CJ

Game: GTA: San Andreas
Released: 2004

San Andreas introduced a surprising number of RPG-style stats that influenced protagonist CJ's abilities, but none was more visible than his weight. Though Carl began the game looking as trim as rapper Young Maylay, upon whose appearance his was based, he'd pile on the pounds if you sent him to Cluckin' Bell too regularly. Before long, running and jumping would become a problem, and life in Las Venturas started to feel like a lesson for those of us who'd spent too much time on the couch, lifting nothing heavier than a controller. As in real life, running and exercise machines would put him right.

78. Firing some rockets at Buckingham Palace

Game: GTA: London
Released: 1999

There was no reward for messing up sacred British establishments in GTA: London – the buildings were no more destructible back then than they are in the series today. But the mere presence of Her Maj's digs in a hedonistic videogame prompted transgressive acts, particularly when that videogame handed you a bazooka.

Sadly, Grand Theft Auto hasn't returned to London in its 3D era, but Watch Dogs: Legion is on standby should you feel the need to launch any more missiles outside the windows of the royals.

77. CJ meets Claude

Game: GTA: San Andreas
Released: 2004

GTA 3's central betrayal is foreshadowed in a race through the woods. Unsurprisingly for a mute protagonist, Claude lets Catalina do the talking during the encounter, then heads for Liberty City. This takes place in the '90s, remember, so the gruelling journey that's to come for Claude is still on the horizon, and provides an extra glimpse into Claude and Catalina's soon-to-be-troubled relationship.

76. Lamar picks you up from the airport

Game: GTA Online
Released: 2013

Those who played GTA Online as a male character missed out on a standout appearance from Los Santos' funniest resident. Should you be playing a female character, Franklin's foil and all-round-clown Lamar Davis shows up at Arrivals to greet you with a single red rose, only to realise within seconds that this online relationship isn't going to go the way he'd hoped. A mute protagonist gives GTA 5's biggest talker more space than ever to run his mouth, and without Franklin to keep him in check, things swiftly get daft. But romance is not on the cards.

75. Drive the bus fast or it'll blow

Game: Grand Theft Auto
Released: 1997

The coach looks innocuous enough, parked in a New Jersey-like area of Liberty City. It could almost be ready for a party of daytripping pensioners. Hop inside, though, and you'll discover a terrifying tribute to Speed, the 1994 Keanu Reeves film in which police desperately try to defuse a bomb on a bus that will detonate if the vehicle's speed drops below 50 miles per hour. Keeping up the pace while your pals work to disable the radio receiver is no mean feat in top-down streets with little warning about the traffic coming up ahead.

74. Finding the ElectroGun

Game: GTA 2
Released: 1999

The second GTA actually falls under the definition of science fiction, being set in a near future when US cities are battlegrounds for ruthless pharmaceutical companies and clone-makers. You could be forgiven for forgetting that fact while carjacking and machine-gunning your way through the game in the usual fashion, but the ElectroGun provides a jolting reminder that this is not the world you know. Aiming is tough in GTA 2, and so chain lightning is a welcome tool… which leaves fizzing, prone skeletons in its wake. Dystopian.

73. Buying a high-end apartment

Game: GTA Online
Released: 2013

While the series has long laughed at the quest for material gain that drives so much of US society, GTA Online has the goods to satisfy your soul if you covet flashy status symbols. And vehicles are not enough. No sports car is more aspirational than the Hollywood Hills mansions for sale on the Dynasty 8 website, and finally buying one after months of small-time crime feels like a real punctuation point. It helps that high-end apartments also unlock heists, the endgame activities that deliver the real meat of GTA Online's story.

72. Iggy Pop welcoming you to the big city

Game: GTA 4
Released: 2008

"Have a nice day sucking the corporate cock," says Iggy on Liberty Rock Radio. A year after GTA 4 he was starring in car insurance ads, but we'll let it slide. Even today, the grounded grime of this PS3 and Xbox 360 entry sticks out, and that includes how radio stations in this take on Liberty City are presented.

71. Getting a respray

Game: GTA (Series)
Released: 1997-2013

There's lots that doesn't make sense about the respray system in GTA. A quick paint job helps you avoid the consequences of your lawbreaking. But hang on, don't you need to change the number plates too? And how did the cops lose you when they saw you enter the garage? Ah, but those are mere details. You can't beat the palpable sense of relief as five stars vanish instantly – nor the sudden improvement in performance when a knackered ride's instantly restored to rude health with a lick of paint.

A bit of trivia for you: while the garages were later called Pay 'n' Spray, in GTA 2 they were named Max Paynt.

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70. Crashing head-first through the windshield

Game: GTA 4
Released: 2008

GTA 4's leap toward greater realism was a shock most deeply felt in its driving model. Less Driver and more Gran Turismo, it punished you for trying to take a corner at breakneck speed – often by, well, breaking your neck. Seeing your car's momentum transferred straight to Niko, who was hurled through the glass and against the scenery, was a traumatic moment for many in their first days with next-gen GTA. The harsh experience certainly taught us a lesson, though.

69. Hearing Billie Jean playing on the radio

Game: GTA: Vice City
Released: 2002

Contrary to popular belief, Vice City wasn't the first GTA game to feature licensed music on its radio – that was GTA: London, whose soundtrack was stuffed with period reggae. But newly flush with cash, Rockstar made a statement by filling Vice City with big-name artists, including MJ. The game introduced teenagers of the early noughties to the king of pop's trademark shuffle, and set the stage for a place where pastel suits weren't just accepted, they were encouraged.

68. Rubbing shoulders with Dr Dre

Game: GTA Online
Released: 2013

San Andreas made g-funk interactive, so it's no surprise Rockstar is into Dre, but it was still a shock to see him crop up in the Cayo Perico Heist. Then, in The Contract, he enlists you to help recover stolen music. Makes a change from stealing Mad Dogg's rap book, that's for sure.

67. Grand Theft Auto is condemned in the House Of Lords

Game: Grand Theft Auto
Released: 1997

Grand Theft Auto was declared a public menace before the series even began, and that's just how its creators planned it. The marketing team at BMG Interactive hired Max Clifford, the notorious publicist later found guilty of indecent assault, who at the time was famous for feeding stories to the UK tabloid press.

The decision was unconventional for a games company, and worried the owner of GTA's developer, David Jones, but future Rockstar head Sam Houser was keen to make a splash and show that Grand Theft Auto was no child's toy.

Clifford whispered in the ear of the elite, and within three months Grand Theft Auto had infiltrated the wood-paneled walls of the British establishment. On 20 May 1997 a former Scottish Secretary spoke in the House Of Lords about a shocking new game made in his country that featured hit-and-runs and police chases. "There would be nothing to stop children from buying it," said Lord Campbell of Croy. "We simply cannot allow children and young people to be given the idea that car crime or joyriding is in any way an acceptable or an enjoyable thing to do." He called on the BBFC to look into whether GTA should be legal to release.

After that, the free promotion rolled in. The Daily Mail claimed GTA would include "illegal alien assassination"; the Scottish Motor Trade Association said the game would "make children think it is okay to rob cars and kill." BMG's marketers, meanwhile, pulled clips from the House Of Lords debate for its radio ad campaign, capitalising on the image of GTA as something illicit, outrageous, and therefore essential.

The BBFC ultimately ruled that although GTA's subject matter was unprecedented, it wouldn't be banned. And ironically, the concern over members of the public getting their hands on the game ensured that they did, to the tune of 500,000 copies sold. GTA cost a million pounds to make, and had soon made £25 million, ensuring a sequel. Though GTA's notoriety would cause more problems later, that controversy was also the making of the series.

66. Becoming a drug lord

Game: GTA: Chinatown Wars
Released: 2009

A young Sam Houser loved to play space trading game Elite as a "space mugger", and thus far, Chinatown Wars comes closest to recreating that formative experience. Though set on terra firma, Rockstar Leeds' handheld classic introduced a deep drug trading economy. The name of the game is buying low and selling high, travelling around top-down Liberty City to find the best bargains, while dodging police busts that could leave just-as-deep holes in your pockets. Proof GTA doesn't need scripted thrills to hold your attention.

65. Jumping across the incomplete Callahan Bridge

Game: GTA: Liberty City Stories
Released: 2005

Liberty City Stories takes place before the bombing of the Callahan Bridge in GTA 3, and so Rockstar needed another reason to block your progress to other islands. In 1998, the bridge is still under construction, and under protest by local ferry workers. You're cut off from Staunton Island until paranoid mafia boss Salvatore Leone decides to evacuate Portland and commands you to vault the gap in a speeding Sentinel. All together now: "Ohhhhh, shiiiiit!"

64. Officer Tenpenny's Grove Street death

Game: GTA: San Andreas
Released: 2004

Frank Tenpenny represented an early portrayal of police brutality against black communities in games – a corrupting force determined to keep the poor of San Andreas down, and to initiate others into his twisted way of thinking. He was also Rockstar's best baddie, and went out in a climactic fire truck crash over Grove Street. "50 of me and this town would be okay," he monologues while coughing up blood. "I took the trash out, and I'd do it all again."

63. Getting your first haircut

Game: GTA: San Andreas
Released: 2004

GTA 3 and Vice City didn't give you much to work with in the style department, their protagonists little more than quiffs on legs. But with San Andreas you could make a statement with your appearance, garnering respect and even sex appeal with a new afro or cornrows. It's one of many ways in which the game celebrated African American culture, during a period when major action game studios were still unwilling to step away from buzzcut white blokes. (And, it's often argued, games are still in need of a decent range of styles for Black hair.)

62. Trevor kills Johnny

Game: GTA 5
Released: 2013

'Out with the old, in with the new' might be considered a cliché, but not so much when it manifests as a new protagonist caving in the head of an old one. It's a stomach-churning end for Johnny, which also makes for a striking introduction for Trevor, who arrives as a GTA 5 protagonist a fare bit later than Michael and Franklin. There's the sense we've suddenly been thrust into the deep end, and it's all treading dangerous water from here.

61. Phil Cassidy blows his own arm off

Game: GTA: Vice City
Released: 2002

GTA's best one-armed arms dealer finally gets his origin story, a sorry tale of mixing moonshine with homebrew explosives (don't try this at home). Tommy Vercetti drives Phil to the surgeon who saves his life, so don't say he never did anything for anyone. Alongside San Andreas' Claude cameo, the later PS2 games love tipping the cap to GTA 3.

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60. Dominating the stock market on Bawsaq

Game: GTA 5
Released: 2013

You can buy stocks in Pisswasser (and many other, silly brands) on Bawsaq, the home of GTA 5's stock market. Never has Rockstar's Scottish heritage been more apparent than in this play on the name of New York's own Nasdaq, where you can become more invested in brand name puns than ever before.

59. Michael and Franklin pull down a house

Game: GTA 5
Released: 2013

The player characters start GTA 5 primed for change. Michael is bored by financial comfort, and Franklin is hungry for more of it. But the story can't kick into gear until the pair get into real trouble, and that comes in the form of Marriage Counseling, the mission in which they tear down a house in the hills in retaliation for Michael's cuckolding. The spectacle is only outdone by the twist: the home belongs to a cartel boss.

This simple act of rage-fuelled vengeance is spectacular to behold, the game asking us to push down the accelerator as we watch it crumble bit by bit, but also a catalyst. Now you owe some very bad people a lot of money, which means there's only one thing for it. The life of crime calls once again. Though, you can't help feeling that one way or another Michael would have found some excuse to spice up his life once again, and dragged Franklin along for the ride all the way.

58. Being introduced to the power of reggae with the Heavy Heavy Monster Sound

Game: GTA: London
Released: 1999

Back in the '90s, each GTA radio station consisted of only two songs – but the uplifting Hammond organ sound of Harry J Allstars' reggae instrumental, Liquidator, sounded perfect on repeat. It just goes to show how vital a well-curated set of songs is to setting the tone of each GTA's setting, which has only deepened with time.

57. Seeing GTA 4's debut trailer

Game: GTA 4
Released: 2008

Following a 28-day countdown, the mere sight of GTA in its new, realistic HD form was breath-taking. Then the choir gave way, time slowed, and the heavy, staccato voice of Niko Bellic was heard for the first time. "Life is complicated," he said. "I killed people, smuggled people, sold people. Perhaps here, things will be different."

It was shocking for two reasons. First, Niko was an immigrant protagonist, and a former Yugoslavian one at that, in a country that still defaulted to Eastern European accents for its villains. Second, although GTA had played with darkness before, it had never adopted a tone as bleak as this. Almost unbelievable at the time, watching it still produces a tingle to this day.

56. Fighting for your patch

Game: GTA: San Andreas
Released: 2004

GTA has rarely given you much freedom in how and where you take the fight to your enemies, which is why San Andreas' gang warfare system stands out even today, nearly two decades after the game's release. The struggle between the Ballas, Los Santos Vagos, and Grove Street Families is one you can influence yourself by stepping into hostile territory and opening fire, triggering waves of opponents and starting a gang war in that location. Expanding the area under Grove Street's influence becomes a personal mission and gives you a stake in the streets, just like CJ.

55. Lindsay Lohan sues Rockstar

Game: GTA 5
Released: 2013

A bizarre episode in gaming history that took four years to resolve. Judges in New York's Court Of Appeals unanimously rejected actress Lindsay Lohan's claim that two residents of Los Santos – both Lacey Jonas, the actress character harangued by paparazzi in a random event, and the beach-going blonde lady depicted in a GTA 5 loading screen – were based on her. "The ambiguous representations in question are nothing more than cultural comment that is not recognisable as plaintiff," ruled Judge Eugene M Fahey.

54. Realizing the Soulwax FM playlist is perfect sports car music

Game: GTA 5
Released: 2013

Hosted by the legendary Belgian techno group of the same name, this 42-minute mix constitutes what has to be the best driving playlist ever conceived for stolen sports cars. Boosts your chance of winning races, the feeling of popping Franklin's talent to weave between heavy traffic while this blares is simply transcendent.

53. Niko's final choice

Game: GTA 4
Released: 2008

Can you put a price on principle? That's the surprisingly worthy question at the end of GTA 4, which asks you to make a binary decision about whether to go through with a dirty deal. In some ways, what you're offered is a false choice – Niko loses somebody important to him either way, and finds there's no escaping revenge in a business where bad blood inevitably leads to bad bloodshed. It's a perpetual theme of gangster fiction: in the end, nobody gets to simply walk away.

52. Biking straight off Mount Chiliad

Game: GTA: San Andreas
Released: 2004

By far the highest peak in GTA history at the time San Andreas came out, Mount Chiliad was irresistible to stunt-heads. The ramp at the very top helped, as did the knowledge that it was just about possible to land a dirt bike at the very bottom, if you were good enough. Impossible feats like this laid the groundwork for Just Cause and a whole series of silly sandbox games to follow, and ensured Rockstar would stick Chiliad in GTA 5 too.

51. Assembling a sniper rifle

Game: GTA: Chinatown Wars
Released: 2009

This minigame was designed to get the most out of Chinatown Wars' unique Nintendo hardware (the game was originally released on the touchscreen-equipped DS). Before using your rifle, you're required to pop open the suitcase, fasten the grip, twist the silencer, adjust the sights, slot in the ammo, and finally arm the weapon. It's a brilliantly tactile process that ramps up the tension before a mission. Firing the thing is unusual, too, since you view the map from a top-down perspective, as if shooting from the clouds.

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50. The Grand Theft Auto rap

Game: Grand Theft Auto
Released: 1997

Even if you haven't heard the original theme for GTA, you know the beat – its melody plays every time the pager goes off in GTA 3, as well as in the Commodore-64-style opening to Vice City. Titled 'Grand Theft Auto', it's credited to the fictional Da Shootaz. While far too corny to sit beside the West Coast classics in the series today, it still sounds big and baggy in true '90s fashion. "Just when I thought I knew justice, a cop behind me said: you just bin' busted."

49. Pulling a reverse prison breakout

Game: GTA 4: The Lost and Damned
Released: 2010

A novel twist on a crime caper classic, this counterintuitive final mission sees you blow open the doors of a correctional facility and fight through the guards in order to execute an inmate who's supposedly 'safely' behind bars. Ironically, the whole plan is an effort to get rid of a rat so that Johnny Klebitz and co can avoid being locked up themselves. Afterwards, the gang set fire to the Lost MC Clubhouse and eulogise the end of the Alderney Chapter. Aw, these bikers are sentimental.

48. Riding shotgun in multiplayer

Game: GTA: San Andreas
Released: 2004

You couldn't get much more limited than multiplayer as Rockstar first imagined it in San Andreas. Players were stuck together on the same screen, presumably for fear of breaking GTA's world-streaming system. Missions were out of the question; heists a pipe dream. Nonetheless, roaming freely and causing chaos as a duo was exciting. Not only was co-op a glimpse of the future, its tight implementation suited the fraternity feel that defined San Andreas in particular.

47. Flipping a car over onto its roof

Game: GTA 3-5
Released: 2001-2013

The driving physics that powers Rockstar's early 3D games isn't given nearly enough credit – would we have all stuck with the series for so many years if the cars hadn't been a pleasure to drive? Constantly entertaining, it lends even a boring family car a sense of buoyancy, as if the weight of the wheels is the only thing keeping the chassis from taking off. The danger is real: even GTA 3's starting area, Portland Island, is a very hilly environment, and rolling your ride is inevitable. Players quickly find out what happens next, and learn to run. Ka-BOOM.

46. Tense showdown at the dam

Game: GTA 3
Released: 2001

"You have been a busy boy, but you haven't learned," GTA 3 antagonist Catalina tells Claude. "I'm not to be trusted." And so with that inarguable truth she betrays you for the second time, walking away with the ransom money that should have secured Maria's release. The shootout that follows is a tricky one (not least because your arsenal was confiscated beforehand) and made tense by a timer. But when you pull it off, you're rewarded with a suitably explosive helicopter crash. Maria's brief epilogue is awfully misogynistic, mind.

45. Carefully playing the faction system

Game: GTA 2
Released: 1999

GTA games have always aligned you with and against gangs, making certain districts no-go areas for a leisurely walk. But only this first sequel allowed you to influence your reputation with each group, via a point system that was updated when you completed or failed their missions. Brilliantly, rival gangs appreciated you stuffing things up for their enemies – the enemy of my enemy is my friend, after all – so you could go on a killing spree in Russian Mafia territory, and unlock a Hare Krishna job in the process. Player-driven politics.

44. Getting hooked on V-Rock's odd mix of Twisted Sister and Lazlow's musings

Game: GTA: Vice City
Released: 2002

Even Lazlow's egotistical mutterings can't detract from a compilation uniting the cheesy stomp of Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot's wall of sound, and Slayer's apocalyptic arpeggiating. This radio station converted a generation, and has proven just as much a taste-maker as Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. GTA 6, we need you to educate the next one.

43. Going dancing at The Music Locker

Game: GTA Online
Released: 2013

By the time the Cayo Perico Heist came out in December 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic had made nightclubs the stuff of myth. (Yes, we did occasionally venture away from our PlayStations to meet real people). Having an excuse to dress up – so as to reduce the $150 in-game entry fee – and try out Rockstar-designed dance moves on the packed floor of The Music Locker beneath the Diamond Casino was a genuine joy, and a reminder of better times. The extraordinary light show and exclusive, motion-captured DJ sets didn't hurt.

42. Finding Grove Street

Game: GTA 5
Released: 2013

'Grove Street for life' was the refrain of San Andreas, and one fans repeated years later in nostalgic tribute. There was no better way to prove your lifelong devotion than to make a pilgrimage, almost a decade later, to CJ's house in GTA 5.

The crime-ridden cul-de-sac looks just as it did, though the Ballas occupy it now, and are keen to remind you "The Families were kicked out ages ago!" It's not just players who feel nostalgic about the place; Rockstar staged a firefight there, for old time's sake.

41. Facing off against the army with six stars

Game: GTA 2
Released: 1999

The wanted system has always had a dual function in GTA. Both dynamic difficulty level and moral pushback, it's a reminder that actions have consequences. But it undermines the point by making those consequences fun. GTA 2 was the first entry to call in the army, introducing a sixth 'star' – or angry policeman heads, as they were then – and raising the challenge to match. Armoured soldiers carried uzis and didn't attempt arrests, instead shooting to kill. Game over, man.

We'll be updating this list each week as we approach our number one pick as part of our Countdown to GTA 6 coverage!

With GTA 6 close on the horizon, the gaming industry is set to have a new standard thrust upon it with all the grace of tossing a molotov cocktail at your own carefully assembled traffic jam. It's not the first time Rockstar Games has shaken the medium by its shoulders. Arguably, they've been doing so since the very first Grand Theft Auto gave us an unprecedented amount of top-down criminal freedom.

Though, perhaps, it wasn't until the rightfully legendary Grand Theft Auto 3 crystallized the open world genre on PS2 that a standard was truly set, one the developer has committed to one-upping time and time again. By the end of the PS2 generation, it had been redefined again. Then, onto the next one. Here, we take a trip through each era of Grand Theft Auto, exploring what's defined each, and how they've pushed open world gaming forward. We're poised to see how GTA 6 will do it again.

1997-1999: It's in their DMA

Games released: Grand Theft Auto, GTA: London 1969, GTA 2

Back in 1997, when Rockstar North was still known as DMA Design, it released a PS1 game called Grand Theft Auto, and a gaming legend was born.

This top-down crime-'em-up was spread across three locations: Liberty City; Vice City; and San Andreas. Yup, all three have been GTA canon from the beginning. You may not be surprised to learn that the series, and its reliance on crime and violence, caused controversy from the very beginning. There was much red-faced bluster about the first game in the House Of Lords, and many people wanted the game banned from sale (which never happened).

1999 saw the release of two new games. Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 was an expansion pack developed by Rockstar Canada, and was set in – you guessed it – London. Over here, the expansion got a bigger, standalone release (bet you can't guess why). You could tell that it was set in the UK, because when you were arrested, the screen would shout NICKED at you instead of BUSTED. Alas, the series never returned to London or any other real-world setting.

The fully fledged sequel was released in the same year as the cockney-flavoured expansion pack for the first game. GTA2 introduced many things that carried through to the rest of the series in one way or another, such as a health bar, manual saving, side-missions, vehicle modding, and – for better or for worse – a large number of things to collect hidden throughout the city. A solid foundation for future games to build on.

2001-2004: 3D or not 3D?

Games released: GTA 3, GTA: Vice City, GTA: San Andreas

2001's GTA 3 was the final game to be developed under the name DMA Design (with help from Rockstar's New York division) but that, of course, is not the most notable thing about it. This was the first game in the series in full 3D, making the open world gameplay more enticing than ever.

The protagonist causing havoc in Liberty City was mute, but the NPCs weren't. The fully-voiced story boasted high-profile actors in the cast, including Kyle MacLachlan and Michael Madsen. It must've been costly to develop, but it paid off; GTA 3 was the best-selling game of the year.

The next game in the series arrived just one year later. The legendary GTA: Vice City was also the best selling game of its year, and it's little surprise, really. Not only was it riding on the phenomenal success of the previous game, the excellently curated licensed soundtrack and neon-happy visual design practically screamed 1980s at players. Another all-star cast certainly didn't hurt, with actors including Gary Busey, Dennis Hopper… and the late Ray Liotta as Tommy Vercetti.

In 2004 came the big one (literally); in terms of map size, GTA: San Andreas was much bigger than anything that had come before, over twice as big as Liberty City and Vice City put together. Despite this, there were – unlike in the previous two games – no loading screens while exploring the open world. Some still treasure it as the best GTA, and it was certainly met with a warm welcome on release. As is tradition for the series by now, it outsold all other games that year. It introduced stealth, hopping over walls, and the ability to swim. It was the first game in the series to feature character customisation via haircuts and the like, and RPG-style skill improvement.

2005-2009: Time to pocket the profits

Games released: GTA: Liberty City Stories, GTA: Vice City Stories, GTA: Chinatown Wars

Spin-off GTA: Liberty City Stories was released as a PSP exclusive in 2005. It was ported to PS2 in 2006, but the latter version was actually missing some really cool features from the original handheld release, namely the multiplayer mode and the ability to create custom soundtracks from your own music. (Now that's something we wish the series still had.)

2006 then saw GTA: Vice City Stories for PSP (also later ported to PS2). Although the Stories games and their recycled maps were filling a gap before the next 'proper' GTA, they were still pretty good, and retained some of the stars of the games that they drew from.

GTA: Chinatown Wars in 2009 never made the jump from DS/PSP to PS2, which is a shame, because it's absolutely brilliant. Using a similar top-down view to the original games, it had a retro feel while being a much sharper experience than those 1990s titles.

2008-2010: Relax at the Niko cafe

Games released: GTA 4, The Lost And Damned, The Ballad of Gay Tony

As the first GTA designed from the ground up for a new generation of consoles, GTA 4 wowed the industry when it launched for PS3 in 2008.

Liberty City looked better than ever, and the game featured a number of improvements and features that would return in the next entry in the series. These include the importance and functions of your phone, TV programmes that you can watch in the protagonist's home, the ability to make decisions at certain points during the story, and (a small but very neat thing) the ability to hail a cab and just sit in the back, enjoying the ride.

Two expansions, The Lost And Damned and The Ballad Of Gay Tony, were released individually for Xbox 360 in 2009, but in a single standalone package for PS3 in 2010. The Lost And Damned gained notoriety for briefly showing a man's 'unholstered pistol' (ahem) in a cutscene.

2013-Present: Five is live (service)

Games released: GTA 5, GTA Online

GTA 5 was released in 2013. And 2014. And, er, also in 2022. We're pretty sure that Rockstar is done making new versions though, if only because it's run out of PlayStation consoles to make it for. The game’s certainly stood the test of time; the PS5 story mode is essentially identical to the original PS3 one – yet despite this, it very much feels like a current-gen experience.

We don't have the space or the time to list everything the latest instalment introduced and improved, but multiple playable characters, the biggest map in the series to date, an optional first-person perspective, and complex heist missions are certainly worth mentioning. Then, of course, there is GTA Online.

Grand Theft Auto Online, which launched a month after the offline component in 2013, initially suffered from severe technical issues and arguably limited content. It soon recovered, however, and Rockstar has been constantly improving and adding to it ever since. The repeated rereleases saw some casualties along the way, though; PS3 updates were stopped in 2015, and PS3 servers were shut down completely in 2021.

The game as it stands today is crammed with content, so much so that a standalone version was released earlier this year. It has a full story with expansions, players can race with one another, set up businesses, take part in multiplayer heists, enjoy stunt races, and more. Up to 30 people can play together, yet much of it can still be enjoyed as a solo experience.

Is Rockstar's dedication to GTA Online updates a sign of how important online features will be to the next game? Even if it's not, each instalment has offered something new, and there's no reason to think GTA 6 will be any different.

But which one should you play while waiting for GTA 6? Our best GTA games ranking has the answer!

In the run-up to GTA 6, we've been spending plenty of time revisiting the best GTA games. Just as important as each sprawling new city to explore is who you play as. Every protagonist is a criminal, but with their own motivations, style, and equipment, the results can be very different. But, which one resonates with you the most?

You might have your own answer in mind, but for scientific purposes we've created this personality quiz to properly determine the Grand Theft Auto protagonist you're the most like. Though, we can't be held responsible for the results. Whether you're bound to become the next '80s criminal mastermind like Tommy Vercetti, or are more grounded like Niko Bellic, who you align with can say a lot about you.

We've focused on the main games in this quiz, with proper protagonists that aren't completely interchangeable (though there is one nod to the true classics in here). Each protagonist , whether it's the trio from GTA 5, or from an earlier gaming generation, has been mapped to each response, so no answer is purely binary. Which means there's no wrong answers, either. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time, but do do this quiz. If you're looking for more, we've got loads on our GamesRadar+ quiz collection page. Let us know who you get in the comments below!

Can't wait? Check out our games like GTA recommendations for what to play before GTA 6 comes out.

As Grand Theft Auto 6 slowly begins to emerge on the horizon like a portent of civilizational doom, and players endlessly speculate about what to expect from its multiplayer component, I find myself thinking back to what I consider to be the golden age of GTA Online – the late 2010s and early 2020s. Even back then, years after its release, endless post-launch updates adding science fiction weapons and flying supercars had long since robbed the multiplayer component of its crime sandbox of any claim to realism. Not when you could watch the hapless LSPD going up against players armed with Tron bikes and ray guns.

Perhaps this was why the playerbase ended up stumbling upon the perfect absurdist parody in response to this eternal escalation, one that would forever change the face of one of the largest online games in history.

Aliens among us

The "Alien Gang War," as it would come to be known, was not particularly complex at first. Such things never are. Teams of players would pile into panel vans, all dressed in neon green bodysuits, before driving around town until they found a suitable target based on… Well, it was never entirely clear, but comic timing was probably the most significant element.

With their prey decided, the van would come to a screeching halt, and between three and three thousand goons in cheap Halloween costumes would pile out and attack the offender with baseball bats and pool cues, before leaping back into their getaway car and squealing away.

Juvenile? Sure. Bullying? Maybe a little. But on a visual level it was always hilarious, a bunch of neon green mascots enacting frenetic street justice with broken bottles and hammers, ignoring the fact that there were actual ray guns and lasers available in GTA Online. Even players with heavy-duty firepower were generally taken aback by the sheer number of martians sprinting at them, and it only took a single whiffle bat to the skull to knock a target down and allow the rest of the crew to promptly beat them into the tarmac.

This all went on for months as a kind of background story, never really becoming too significant, but then the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic kicked in and things started to change.

As we all remember, lockdown forced many onto their computers for the hope of any sort of social life. This influx of people supercharged the extra-terrestrial conflict, driving Gang War participants well into the millions, and the community ended up producing a counter-force to the growing green menace: the Purple Aliens.

This led to all kinds of Green versus Purple skirmishes, with the former generally standing for chaos in all forms, while the purples usually just tried to obstruct them wherever possible. It was an obviously unwinnable conflict that was still deeply entertaining, even if the Green team reliably had about three times the numbers. Plus it didn't help that a lot of people seemed slightly uncertain what was even going on, but didn't see why that should stop them from getting involved.

And two factions were only the start of it all. Now other players would introduce themselves as human defenders of Earth, out to slaughter both sides, or war reporters documenting events from the peripheries, claiming the role of tritagonists in an ever-developing science fiction saga that had already put Rebel Moon to shame.

Beam me up, knock 'em down

Eventually the lack of a clear end goal or victory state for either side meant that it just petered out, but some players still try to bring back the Alien Wars from time to time, or simply fly the flag for their chosen team by digging out the bodysuit and battering a few people on a Sunday afternoon.

Me included! I'll admit I'm not above the occasional couple of hours spent in spandex while jumping people in dark alleyways, or as I sometimes think of it, "the mean meme green team bean and flee the scene scheme".

But what I hope is that this phenomenon – or something like it – re-emerges in GTA6, especially if it can happen organically without Rockstar's meddling and oversight. In many ways the Green vs Purple conflict was exactly what GTA needed back then, stripping back all the cloying, monetized elements and focusing on consequence-free fuckabouts with very little barrier to entry.

Meanwhile, such a thing never really could get a foothold in Red Dead Online, which ended up being the sensible, well-behaved sibling, less interested in wacky chaos than taciturn hat-tipping and herb gathering. If GTA 6 Online reels me in, it's because it'll have provided that same sort of playground for violent, team-building nonsense that its predecessor did.

Secure your copy of Rockstar's latest with this handy guide to GTA 6 pre-orders

The Countdown to GTA 6 has been activated. It's difficult to believe, but on November 19 you'll finally be able to leave Los Santos behind for a new sandbox to explore. Rockstar Games has booked you a ticket to the fictional US state of Leonida, the Florida-inspired region which also happens to include the neon-lit metropolis of Vice City. Mark the date on your calendars, because there's no stopping Grand Theft Auto 6 from landing this November now.

GamesRadar+ has launched Countdown to GTA 6 as a destination for all of the biggest news and updates on the upcoming PS5 and Xbox Series X release. We're also going to be celebrating the 13th anniversary of Grand Theft Auto 5, returning to the chaos simulator that is GTA Online, and looking back across the entire franchise – exploring the impact and legacy of a series which truly changed the world.

You'll find new Grand Theft Auto articles every week on GamesRadar+ as we countdown to what is undoubtedly the biggest entertainment release of the decade. This is a moment worth celebrating, and we want to do it together with you. So be sure to keep our Countdown to GTA 6 bookmarked and we'll see you out there on the road to release.

Countdown to GTA 6

Rockstar Games is yet to confirm an official release time for GTA 6. Right now, we're assuming that it'll be available globally from midnight local time. So until we have more concrete information, our Countdown to GTA 6 timer is set to 00:00 EST on November 19.

GTA 6: Essentials

Grand Theft Auto 6: An Extended Look

Secure Your Pre-Order

The Latest GTA 6 Trailer

Time Capsule

Essential GTA 6 Guides

Dive Deeper into GTA

The 10 Best GTA 6 Screenshots

Listen to GTA 6 O'clock

GamesRadar+'s Countdown to GTA 6 brings you new GTA 6, GTA Online, and Grand Theft Auto franchise coverage every week now that we're on the road to release.

It's typically difficult to predict when GTA 6 news is going to land. Developer Rockstar Games is historically secretive and tends to operate on its own schedule. But with around 110 days to go until GTA 6 lands on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X, that's almost certainly about to change.

The next 100 days are going to be critical. There's an exceptionally limited amount of information out there in the wild – we don't yet have a clear sense of how the latest Grand Theft Auto will play or the major gameplay innovations that Rockstar has developed. With that in mind, below you'll find my predictions for the 5 major beats that we should all expect to see on the road to GTA 6's release.

5. GTA 6 gameplay showcase

• Confidence: 95%
• Guesstimate: August

Rockstar previously indicated that the marketing for GTA 6 would kick into high gear over the summer, and with just one month left before the fall you should expect that a big reveal is on the horizon. Whether it's labeled GTA Trailer 3 or something else entirely, I predict that we'll get a detailed gameplay showcase in August ahead of Gamescom.

There's so much that Rockstar could reveal, but I suspect that a first look at raw in-game action would focus on core game elements such as character-switching between the two protagonists, Jason and Lucia, and focus on the new systems and mechanics that'll feed expansive cycles of crime and chaos across Vice City.

4. A Living World Deep-Dive

• Confidence: 80%
• Guesstimate: September

Given that it's been 13 years since the release of Grand Theft Auto 5 and eight since Red Dead Redemption 2, it's now that much of a stretch to believe that Rockstar has a bit of a point to prove. The studio is known for pushing the boundaries of what is possible within open-world sandboxes, and I think that it's likely we'll get a dedicated showcase that covers the living world of Leonida.

GTA publisher Take-Two has a shareholder meeting on September 17, so what better way to generate some good vibes than with a focus on dynamic NPCs, evolving neighborhoods, wildlife density, and graphical fidelity. This seems like a no-brainer to me.

3. GTA Online 2.0 reveal

• Confidence: 50%
• Guesstimate: October

GTA Online remains one of the most popular multiplayer games, with reports suggesting that it still receives millions of active users a week. In my heart, I do believe that Rockstar will want to keep the focus on the core GTA 6 campaign for as long as possible; why risk pulling attention away from Jason and Lucia's adventure?

But with so many GTA Online users spread across PS4 and Xbox One (not to mention PC, where GTA 6 remains unannounced with no release date) it seems only fair that the developer will let its online playerbase know what to expect. The cost of the PS5 and Xbox Series X only continues to rise, so clearing up the future of GTA Online feels more necessary now than ever.

2. GTA 6 previews

• Confidence: 60%
• Guesstimate: October

Will Rockstar let anybody play GTA 6 before it's released? As the Editor-in-Chief of GamesRadar+, I would certainly hope so – I'm as desperate to play a new Grand Theft Auto as I am to share that experience with all of you. Even if Rockstar does deploy gameplay and living world showcases, there will no doubt be millions of unanswered questions that could be addressed by letting members of the press, content creators, and the GTA community go hands-on.

It's common for studios to put previews of their upcoming video games out there (Rockstar included), but then there's nothing about this marketing campaign that's been conventional. And, given how much of the game leaked in 2022, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Rockstar keeps this one close to the chest.

1. A Final GTA 6 story Trailer

• Confidence: 95%
• Guesstimate: November

If GTA 5 and RDR 2 are any indication, then the last few miles on the road to release will feature a GTA 6 story trailer that is wholly focused on the relationship between Jason and Lucia, and the criminal conspiracy that they get dragged into after a heist gone wrong.

Rockstar has always sought to showcase the filmic quality of its productions, and with GTA 6 being purpose-built for PS5 and Xbox Series X, I expect that to be especially true this time around. Grand Theft Auto is one of the biggest entertainment properties in the world and Rockstar won't want to miss an opportunity to remind the masses that GTA 6 is far more than a chaos simulator.

What comes next?

If 100 days takes us to November 8, 2026, then the 101st day will see the marketing campaign kick into high gear ahead of the November 19 release date. Expect GTA 6 to be plastered everywhere in physical and digital spaces, especially as pre-load for PS5 and Xbox Series X is set to begin on November 12 for those of you with a GTA 6 pre-order locked in.

While you wait for GTA 6, why not check out our rankings of the best GTA games and the greatest Rockstar games of all-time.

As Sony inches ever closer to a future where it permanently halts the production of PlayStation discs and as GTA 6 prepares to ship without a true physical version at all, Rockstar Games and Grand Theft Auto co-founder, Dan Houser, has some thoughts about the physical versus digital games debate.

The former GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 lead developer - who also had a hand in several more Rockstar classics - was recently asked about the topic at San Diego Comic-Con 2026. His thoughts? Houser isn't personally enthusiastic about physical games shipping on discs, but he doesn't see why companies should stop making them altogether.

"I don't know that I care, but if people want that, I think companies should provide it," Houser tells IGN in an interview at SDCC. "But I don't know that I personally care."

He also acknowledges that people sure are critical of digital games, but from a developer's perspective, "the ability to update and fix problems in games has been really useful for the quality of games."

The future of physical games are on a lot of peoples' minds right now after PlayStation announced plans to axe PlayStation disc production starting in 2028. That means new games that come out past that point won't get true physical editions on PlayStation hardware - it also means your ability to lend, borrow, sell, and truly own the games you pay for is seriously constricted. An ironic demonstration of how our all-digital future could go very wrong happened this week, when The PlayStation Network almost went down and stopped waves of people from downloading or even playing their digital library.

Also speaking to IGN, former Rockstar veteran Lazlow Jones chimed in, too: "We all have that sort of feeling when you get that copy, and you put the disc in the console, but I also have to say I really like being at the airport and going, 'Oh, cool. I can download some quick games to my Steam Deck for this 12-hour flight.'"

Jones and Houser are now both working at Absurd Ventures, a company making multiple multimedia projects, including an upcoming AAA open-world game and a new comic book. Jones says that's "a different creative process but also just really fulfilling to have a physical thing you can say, 'Look. We made a thing.'"

"I love physical media," Houser adds.

PlayStation killing discs is bad for everyone, whether you care about physical games or not

The Rockstar Games Workers Union has had its first meeting with Rockstar management after seeking recognition, confirming that "it was a step in the right direction."

Last month, it was revealed that Rockstar developers in the UK were seeking official union recognition – something which would give the union the right to negotiate with employers at GTA 6 developer Rockstar on behalf of its members regarding things like employment conditions. Rockstar agreed to meet with the union reps, and now, the union has shared an update on Twitter.

"We had our first meeting with Rockstar management!" a new post from the Rockstar Games Workers Union states, confirming that, as it stands, Rockstar has requested negotiations before agreeing to the union's voluntary recognition.

As for how things went, the RSGWU says: "It was a step in the right direction. We were able to make the case that workers' voices need to be heard and that we can collaborate to achieve this." Crucially, it adds, "we managed to secure a roadmap for a speedy negotiation process."

Next, the union says, "we will now look to agree on the 'bargaining unit' – the list of workers that the union can represent."

Although the union is seeking voluntary recognition, that isn't its only option. "If negotiations over a voluntary recognition agreement hit a wall, we will pursue statutory recognition, which legally obliges an employer to recognise a union once it represents a significant proportion of the workforce," it explains. And, although it doesn't share numbers, it sounds like the RSGWU is pretty big. In fact, it's "already the biggest game studio union in Europe."

With that said, there are benefits of voluntary recognition – as the RSGWU writes, it'd mean "anything can be written into the agreement document."

In this case, the union wants "no crunch" – ensuring that overtime is "always paid" and aiming for "a stronger process" to avoid crunching in the first place – as well as pay transparency, flexible working options, "a commitment to no layoffs," and to make it so no one's job can be "replaced with AI."

Crunch is a big part of this for the devs. One anonymous dev who recently spoke about the goals of the union alleged that "crunch is prevalent enough that the company built into our contracts, as standard, an opt-out of the Working Time Regulations."

For now, it seems we'll just have to wait and see how this all plays out. Last year, Rockstar Games was accused of union busting after over 30 employees – who were allegedly either current union members or planning to organize one – were fired. Rockstar claimed at the time that "we took action against a small number of individuals who were found to be distributing and discussing confidential information in a public forum, a violation of our company policies. This was in no way related to people's right to join a union or engage in union activities."

"There is a magic to what Rockstar does," former GTA 5 dev says ahead of GTA 6, "I just wish they could do it at a lower human cost."

Yo dawg, I heard you like Grand Theft Auto, so I put multiple GTA games inside your GTA. That's probably what the modder behind the GTA multiverse was thinking, because he made it possible to quite literally jump between 3, Vice City, and San Andreas at will.

I'm not exaggerating, either. The creative mind in question is known as Dryxio, and he put up a video demonstrating his digital creation. Starting on Grove Street, the home of CJ in San Andreas, he's confronted by three portals: one going to a spot in the middle of 3, another to somewhere in Vice City, and another taking him to a different location in his current game.

He uses an assault rifle to show that what we're seeing is fully interactive. You can shoot through these portals at NPCs visible on the other end, as if it were a regular window. Stepping into one then places you in the shoes of the other protagonists, either Tommy Vercetti or Claude, and you can continue playing as normal through that particular installment.

It's truly a technical marvel, and in the YouTube comments he provides a bit of insight on how he did it. "All three games run inside the same process, sharing one Direct3D device," he writes.

"Each portal is a live GPU texture, the other game is actually running behind it, it's not a video or a captured window," he adds. "Walking through swaps which engine has control and the others keep running."

What he's saying is that all three games are literally running at the same time, and each instance of jumping through a portal transfers you over to that installment seamlessly. The modification isn't available publicly yet, but I'd advise following him for updates if you're keen to try it.

He's been modding Grand Theft Auto games for some time, with other videos on his channel for a San Andreas map editor and a filter for giving any clip the aesthetic of the 2004 classic PlayStation 2 release. This sets a pretty high bar for where he could go next. Can't believe we got all three PS2 GTA games running simultaneously before GTA 6.

GTA 6 probably won't include any cut content, says GTA 5 producer, even though Rockstar snuck "unannounced" game's missions into GTA 4

Rockstar probably isn't planning to slip any sneaky cut content from its previous games into GTA 6, says GTA 5 producer John Ricchio, though the developer has done it before.

Ricchio tells Kiwi Talkz about Rockstar's approach to cut content in a recent interview, "If the tech is fundamentally the same, or similar enough, you can sometimes plop it in as like, 'Hey, let's just see how this works.'" Ricchio specifically remembers Rockstar adding "some" missions from a cancelled, unannounced game into GTA 4, "which was kind of cool."

"So there's the notion like, 'Hey, this idea is cool. We should keep this idea going.' I think that 100% happens," Ricchio says. But "when it comes to actually, like, lifting scripting or a code into a new game, that depends a lot on how much the tech has changed."

Still, even when Rockstar devs could borrow intriguing concepts from previous games, they might choose not to. Ricchio explains, "In a lot of cases, there's almost never – you're usually not limited by ideas, right? Like there's always tons of ideas. The more creative folks you got, you got tons of ideas."

"I haven't seen a huge need to go back and pull from old stuff unless something was just really cool," Ricchio continues, "and people really want to bring the idea forward."

But what if I want to learn if Bully's cut Tie Headband Punk could turn his life around among GTA 6's Leonida beaches? "It's possible," says Ricchio about Rockstar adopting cut content, but "I don't think it's very common unless you're doing a fast-follow."

GTA 5 had "so much" cut content, including minigames that were almost "completely done," former Rockstar dev says: "They'll throw out entire levels."