Just when you’d accepted the reality that Grand Theft Auto 6 will be delayed until next year, Rockstar Games releases a whole new trailer.
Last week, the video game maker announced that the game had been put back to May 2026, surprising fans who had expected it to arrive this autumn.
It’s been 12 years since the last GTA game was launched, and the lengthy wait for the most anticipated sequel of all time has only gotten worse.
However, the firm already released a new three-minute video, providing interested players with a wealth of new material to sift through in the meantime.
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Here are a few of the highlights.
The record-breaking debut trailer for GTA 6, released online in late 2023, introduced gamers to protagonists Jason and Lucia, a couple who live a life of crime in Leonida, the game’s fictional US state setting.
We now know a little more about their past.
The new clip shows Jason working odd jobs before driving about Vice City, the Miami-inspired locale from the 2002 PlayStation 2 game.
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According to Rockstar, Jason was a troubled teen who joined the army to escape his terrible influences, but relapsed into criminality upon coming home.
In the trailer, he eventually picks up Lucia from prison, where she has been spending time for “protecting her family”.
From there, the video cuts to a montage of action moments, romance encounters, and glimpses into the game’s larger world.
We see the couple pull off armed heists, party on a yacht, and ride a jetski together.
According to a description on Rockstar’s website, the two desire to start a new life together but are thrust into “the middle of a conspiracy” after a “easy score goes wrong”.
New characters were revealed.
Players could also give names to characters in the game’s larger cast, such as bank robber Raul Bautista, smuggler Brian Heder, and rapper Real Dimez.
Like GTA 5, which was mainly based on Los Angeles and its surroundings, the sequel appears to include faithful recreations of some of Florida’s most iconic locations.
The trailer features Vice City’s rendition of Miami’s art deco, neon-lit shoreline, as well as Grassrivers swampland, which was inspired by the Florida Everglades.
Rockstar also unveiled the Leonida Keys, the industrial Ambrosia region, the seedy Port Gellhorn, and the mountainous Kalaga National Park.
In each case, it claimed that the areas would be home to a variety of groups and factions, ranging from “hillbilly mystics” to motorcycle gangs.
The trailer did not appear to contain any gameplay footage, but instead consisted of cinematic segments often seen between story missions.
Fans were quick to appreciate the game’s next-generation graphics in the teaser and photos released by Rockstar.
Video game trailers are commonly generated on powerful PCs, however a notice at the end of the trailer stated that the scenes were obtained from a PlayStation 5 console.
However, this does not resolve queries regarding new methods to interact with the game’s setting, or whether players can switch between characters on the fly, like they could in GTA 5.
Why did GTA 6 take so long?
The anticipation for GTA 6 is palpable, and Rockstar has a history of game delays and a reputation for perfectionism.
When it announced the postponement last week, it stated that it needed more time to “deliver at the level of quality you expect and deserve”.
According to Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier, the delay was also to avoid a “crunch” – a gaming industry word for forced overtime.
certain employees have previously criticized the corporation for the practice; the company acknowledged that certain employees worked “long hours” but claimed that some claims were exaggerated.
When GTA 6’s delay was announced, shares of Rockstar’s parent company, Take Two Interactive, fell 10%.
The industry was counting on the game, which would initially be accessible solely on Xbox and PlayStation 5, to bolster console sales and set software sales records.
However, now that GTA 6 has a clear release date of May 26, 2026, other publishers can avoid publishing their own games around the same time.
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