GTA 6 release date hint in Vice City ‘leak’ for ‘Narcos-inspired’ next Grand Theft Auto
GRAND THEFT AUTO 6 is on the way, with hundreds of developers, artists and actors across the world undoubtedly hard at work on it.
If the latest rumours are to believed it's going to be (primarily) set in Vice City, the GTA universe's answer to Miami, have a story that happens in the 1970s and 1980s, and be heavily inspired by Netflix hit Narcos.
The bad news for those hoping to see the game soon is that the 'leak' claims it's going to be next-generation exclusive.
It's being developed for Xbox Project Scarlett and PlayStation 5, with no plans as yet for Xbox One or PS4 versions, according to the leak.
It also seems likely it is being developed for Google Stadia, which has confirmed GTA developer Rockstar as a partner.
That means we won't see it until the end of 2020 at the very earliest, and realistically makes a release before 2021 seem very unlikely.
On the bright side, that does mean the game is likely to be very shiny.
According to a lengthy post on the new game is code-named Project Americas, and has been in development in some form since 2012, a year before GTA 5 launched.
It's been on-and-off since then, the post says, first picking up properly in 2015 before being put on ice while all of Rockstar's global studios focused on the final details of Red Dead Redemption 2.
The poster claims to have a number of games industry sources, and also insists that while a Rockstar source wouldn't confirme the details, says that their reaction lends credence to his claims.
We have not been able to verify the claims, and suggest you take with with a suitcase full of carefully-wrapped bundles of salt.
Many claims do line up and flesh out earlier rumours and make a lot of sense, though.
That having been said, GTA 6 will reportedly only have one main playable character, a wannabe drug lord called Ricardo.
Starting in Vice City, the game will also feature action in a new South American city, and some story content that takes you to Liberty City too.
The game's story will be spread out over several years too, with areas in-game changing as the years go by, according to the leak.
Going along with that is a new system to build up and manage your own drug-dealing empire that will draw inspiration from PS2 series entry Vice City Stories as well the business systems found in GTA Online but "dial it up to 10".
The weapon system will draw from RDR2 and previous Rockstar game Max Payne, with the player only able to use weapons you can carry "on your person".
However, to help with this you'll be able to store things in the trunk of your car, where you'll be able to tweak your loadout.
How plausible does all this sound?
IT SOUNDS pretty legit, to us.
We can't independently verify any of it yet, but it certainly meets expectations and matches up with earlier leaks.
GTA games have centred around three cities recently - Los Santos, Liberty City and Vice City.
Los Santos (based on Los Angeles) was the setting for GTA V, while Liberty City (based on New York) was your playground in GTA IV, while Vice City hasn't been seen since the days of the PS2's Vice City Stories.
That makes Vice City the most obvious location for GTA VI - and a period setting fit with everything Rockstar has done there.
Narcos also fits with where Rockstar take their inspiration from; GTA Vice City was heavily inspired by 1983 classic Scarface.
One problem is that Narcos only came out in 2015 - while this doesn't really fit with the 2012 start date for development , it does line up perfectly with the mid 2015 date given for when production started to "pick up properly."
That it's going to incorporate mechanics from GTA Online is also not surprising - the online side of GTA V has made it the most profitable product in entertainment history, much more so than the single-player side.
That it's only in development for next-gen platforms is interesting - given the fact that not even Microsoft is confident enough in Project Scarlett to make Halo Infinite exclusive to the platform would make this a pretty big leap for Rockstar to make unless the game is several years out.
That we have seen nothing of the game so far does lend credence to this, though.
We'll have to wait and see - but as Sony and Microsoft reveal more details of their next-gen platforms and we start to get official first looks at games running on PS5 and Xbox 2 hardware, expect to see GTA 6 teasers start to appear too.
The way the story is told, its look and its characters are all heavily inspired by Narcos, the Netflix drama about Pablo Escobar.
Escobar got his start in the drugs trade in the mid 70s, rising to prominence throughout the 1980s, becoming a folk hero and one of the world's richest men.
Negotiations are ongoing, the leak says, into securing all the music you'd expect for a GTA game set in the period.
Rumours have been floating around about GTA 6 for years.
Most recently there were suggestions it could be a PS5-exclusive with Sony reportedly considering buying Take-Two Interactive outright.
Those market rumours were shot down, though, so Xbox fans can breath easy for now.
April saw information about the game come out via an artist's CV, suggesting it was being planned for next-gen platforms, while financial reports from Rockstar's parent company Take-Two made it clear the next Grand Theft Auto wasn't coming until late 2020 at the earliest.
For now all we can do is wait and see.
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