The first Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer dropped early, it's coming in 2025
It's time for our first proper look at what Rockstar has coming in the next big GTA.
After a long wait of 3,156 days since Grand Theft Auto 5 first appeared on PC, the Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer is finally here a day early, following a leak. Drink it in above.
The Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer is very much in keeping with the GTA 5 trailer from way back when: It's a tone-setter, heavy on vibes and short on any actual details about the game. It does, however, look like we'll be getting two protagonists, a "Bonnie & Clyde-inspired" criminal duo named Lucia and (according to leaks) Jason, as previously rumored. Whether both characters will be playable isn't confirmed at this point, but they definitely seem to have equal prominence.
Portions of the video emulate Instagram and TikTok-style social media posts, which could provide some interesting gameplay twists depending on how (or if) a social mechanic is integrated into the game, and of course there's an abundance of nice cars, scantily-clad women, glitter and grime, and bad behavior throughout. It is definitely a Grand Theft Auto trailer.
The official announcement for Grand Theft Auto 6, which appeared about an hour after the trailer went live, confirmed that the new game will be set in the Miami-inspired Vice City and surrounding environs: "Grand Theft Auto 6 heads to the state of Leonida, home to the neon-soaked streets of Vice City and beyond in the biggest, most immersive evolution of the Grand Theft Auto series yet."
There's also this from the trailer, which is hard to overlook:
A less-obvious but nice touch is the song used in the trailer: Love is a Long Road is a track from the 1989 album Full Moon Fever, the first solo release from Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Tom Petty—and as brought to my attention by PC Gamer global editor-in-chief and apparent heartland rock aficionado Evan Lahti, Petty is from Florida.
The trailer also brings with it a release target: Grand Theft Auto 6 will be out in 2025. What we don't have, unfortunately, is any indication as to whether the PC version will come alongside the console releases, or if we'll have to wait. That's been Rockstar's style over most of its history: GTA 3, Vice City, San Andreas, GTA 4 and 5, LA Noire, Red Dead Redemption 2, and other Rockstar games all appeared on consoles first before eventually making their way to PC several months (or more) later.
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick recently hinted at the increased importance of the PC platform during the company's most recent earnings call, speaking effusively about the GTA modding scene and saying, "We want to be where the consumer is." To me, that strongly suggests that PC has taken on a new priority for Rockstar that it didn't have even just five or six years ago.
But the GTA 6 announcement makes no mention of the PC version at all: It only says that "Grand Theft Auto 6 is coming to PlayStation 5 computer entertainment systems and Xbox Series X-S games and entertainment systems in 2025." That doesn't mean we won't get a PC release at the same time, but given history, the lack of any mention of the platform doesn't strike me as a good sign. We'll keep our eyes open and update when we know more.