Although we'd expect a more specific release date to follow in due course, it's likely that Grand Theft Auto 6 drops in the run-up to Christmas. Why? That's exactly what happened with Rockstar's last two games with GTA 5 arriving on 17 September 2013 and Red Dead Redemption 2 following suit on 26 October 2018.
Where is Grand Theft Auto 6 set?
You only need to take one look at the neon purple hue of GTA 6's press materials to know that we’re heading back to Vice City, Rockstar’s stand-in for Miami, Florida. Of course, Vice City holds a near-mythical status in Grand Theft Auto's anarchic timeline with the 1997 original, 2002's eponymous Vice City for PlayStation 2 and the 2006 PlayStation Portable exclusive Vice City Stories all being set in the location.
If you were paying attention to 2022's GTA 6 leaks – where nearly 100 videos totalling 50 minutes of in-development footage from the highly anticipated crime caper – then you'll know that one of our first hints of the game's location came via a clip of a rail car with “Vice City Metro” painted on its side. Once GTA 6's trailer arrived, we were given pretty much instant confirmation of this long-held rumour with sweeping wide-angle shots of a fictional Miami Beach, Vice City signage and enough 'gators to fill a trailer park. Of course, bearing in mind the gigantic size of the studio’s recent open-world epics, it’s probably safe to assume we’ll explore beyond Magic City's limits in a way that wasn't possible in the original Vice City.
Personally, we're praying to visit a fictionalised Mar-a-Lago and the 45th president of the United States who lives there. Going off other rumoured locations for GTA 6 it seems like various incarnations of Little Havana, Little Haiti and Miami’s famously gritty Wynwood district are all set to play their part in what is sure to be a sprawling narrative.
So is GTA 6 set in the '80s too?
You don't need to be a particularly eagle-eyed viewer of the GTA 6 trailer to find multiple instances of pedestrians carrying smartphones, which famously weren't part of Tony Montana's arsenal. In fact, much of the footage from Rockstar's teaser is seemingly being live-streamed via the game's version of TikTok. Given Lifeinvader (Facebook) and Bleeter (Twitter/X) were both famously parodied as part of GTA 5, it seems certain that its sequel is also set to take place in the modern day. Honestly, wherever there's base jumping, monster trucks and hillybilly mud wrestling, we're happy to partake.
Who will you play as in Grand Theft Auto 6?
Despite its many wisecracks and lewd parodies of US culture, the Grand Theft Auto series hasn't been the most enlightened when it comes to gender dynamics. Prior to the release of GTA 6's trailer, a 2022 report on Rockstar’s work culture by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier had teased that the game is set to feature a female Latina protagonist, the first playable woman in Rockstar’s recent history. That's quite the come-up after GTA San Andreas' ‘Hot Coffee’ sex mini-game debacle.
