There was finally some relief for a large group of gamers that has been anticipating any official information about Grand Theft Auto VI, the next entry in the hit franchise developed by Rockstar Games.
After years of speculation, the company released a 90-second trailer on Monday night that said the game would be released in 2025. The sun-drenched beaches and gleaming condominiums confirmed a return to Vice City, a sinful spin on Miami that was the setting of 2001’s Grand Theft Auto III. Scenes of a masked woman robbing a store suggest that the game will feature a female protagonist for the first time.
Rockstar released the trailer about 15 hours earlier than it had planned, posting on social media, “Our trailer has leaked so please watch the real thing on YouTube.”
The commotion over early promotional materials demonstrated how a franchise that has indulged in hijacked cars and criminal underworlds since 1997 has become an industry juggernaut renowned for its gratuitous violence and slapstick humor.
The franchise’s previous entry, Grand Theft Auto V, has sold about 190 million copies on the computer and several console generations since it was released in 2013.
That game has sustained itself longer than previous iterations thanks to an online version with frequent updates, multiplayer adventures and micro-transactions that offer players advantages in exchange for real-world dollars. Analysts have estimated that Grand Theft Auto Online generated nearly $500 million in the company’s last fiscal year.
Before the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer was revealed, several gaming websites published short articles providing its scheduled release date in different time zones. Pandemonium ensued on TikTok when someone uploaded what appeared to be seven seconds from the new game. (The original video was quickly removed from the platform.)
In September, Rockstar, which is owned by Take-Two Interactive, said it experienced a “network intrusion” that resulted in nearly 50 minutes of footage from Grand Theft Auto VI being leaked online.