Rockstar Games, owned by Take-Two Interactive Software, on Monday, released a trailer of the latest installment of its best-selling “Grand Theft Auto” (GTA) videogame franchise, ending a years-long wait. “GTA VI” will be released in 2025, according to the trailer posted to the studio’s YouTube channel. The trailer was widely expected to be released only by Tuesday morning.
The new trailer shows a glimpse of a modern version of Vice City, the setting for the previous two games in the series. It also introduces the game’s first playable female character, Lucia, a Latina woman. In a preview that leans heavily into the theme of Bonnie and Clyde, she and an unnamed male partner are seen robbing a restaurant together. The pair are also shown breaking into a supermarket with bandanas covering their faces and guns drawn.
In a press release published on Monday, Rockstar said that GTA VI will be available in 2025 for only PS5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles. It didn’t mention a PC version of the game, and many users on Reddit who saw the trailer expressed disappointment in that decision.
While the game’s graphics look stunning, many of the story’s details still need clarification. Rockstar has not said anything officially about the plot, except that it will feature a story set in Vice City. Some people have speculated that it will be a tale inspired by the real-life events that led to the collapse of the Mexican drug cartels, which took place in late 2017.
As with the previous titles in the series, the new game will allow players to roam an open world and interact with the characters they encounter. The trailer features a variety of locals, from a skimpily clad bodybuilder watering his lawn in budgie smugglers to a deranged woman standing guard in a nightgown armed with hammers.
The title is the sixth in a series that has sold over 190 million copies and generated billions of dollars for Rockstar’s parent company, Take-Two. However, the company has faced criticism over its treatment of women and minorities in some of its other games.
GTA VI will be the first significant new game to feature a female protagonist, a positive step in a gaming industry that has struggled to include more female characters. It’s also the first time a female character has appeared in a Rockstar game that isn’t an action-based shooter.
The new GTA game will have more realistic weapons, and the story centers around a more complex conflict between law enforcement, business interests, and the mafia. How much of a change that will mean for the gameplay needs to be clarified, but it could give the game a different feel than its predecessors, which focused on hyper-realistic gunplay and car chases. Earlier this year, hackers who breached the studio’s Slack channel leaked 90 minutes of early gameplay for GTA VI.
