GTA VI is going to be released, it’s official: video game developer Rockstar Games will release a trailer in December. This announcement, made Wednesday on social networks, shook the world of video games.
“We are very happy to announce that in early December we will release the first trailer for the next Grand Theft Auto.” This is the message posted Wednesday, November 8 on X (formerly Twitter) by Sam Houser, president of Rockstar Games. After years of rumors and suspense, the developer will finally reveal the first images of GTA VI, the new opus of one of the best-selling and popular series in the history of video games.
This announcement, awaited by millions of fans, was made almost 10 years after the release of GTA V. Suffice to say that the wait is great, as evidenced by the 250,000 retweets of Sam Houser’s post in just two hours . The enthusiasm is such that GTA VI, which should be released on new generation consoles (PS5 and Xbox Series), is even considered the “most anticipated game of the century”. Raphaël Lucas, editor-in-chief of Video Games Magazine, explains to franceinfo why this expression is not exaggerated.
GTA V’s “extraordinary” sales give an idea of the crazy wait
GTA V is the second best-selling video game in history, behind Minecraft. “In more than ten years of operation, we are around 185 million copies sold, which is enormous for a video game. We had examples of games which sold very well and which were running around 50, 60, 70 million. GTA V is the leader in video games, so this shows that the sequel is highly anticipated.”, indicates Raphaël Lucas. The original release dates from 2013 and for example, in 2020, seven years later, the game sold 20 million copies. People have actually bought GTA V across multiple console generations, first on PS3, then on PS4 and Xbox, then again on PC, hence these huge sales.
GTA is a very unique game in the world of video games because of its universe
Many games take place in heroic fantasy or science fiction universes while GTA has the particularity of exploring the world of banditry. “It’s Tarantino and Al Capone-style organized crime, in a very modern version, describes the editor-in-chief of Video Games Magazine. This makes the game is very exciting since we do what we wouldn’t do in real life, like robberies, chases with the police, etc… And this resonates in our imagination because it reminds us of the policeman’s game and the thief, when we were children”. Even in the very first GTA, which was then in simple 2D, Raphaël Lucas notes that the concept was attractive. The new, more qualitative versions logically continue to please.
Rockstar Games always finds the formula that works through storytelling
When each GTA is released, the wait is immense and the developer never disappoints according to this video game specialist. “Even if the main elements are the same, that is to say we have the driving, the shooting and the fighting, it is the general mix, the narration that changes everything”, believes Raphaël Lucas. There are completely crazy characters like in V, or very serious, even in search of themselves like this migrant in GTA IV who arrives in New York and realizes that the American dream is not doesn’t look like he thought. The work on the voices of these characters, on the dubbing is also worth noting according to the editor-in-chief of Video Games Magazine. For him, the very ironic, very cynical narration regarding the American way of life also plays a big role: “In all the GTAs we saw, American cities like New York or Los Angeles were aped. It was a mixture of reality and the vision of the GTA authors”. Raphaël Lucas also specifies that many screenwriters work on GTA, as for a film or a series, which makes it possible to achieve such a result.
No release date has yet been specified. “It’s not an exact science, recognizes this video game specialist. Sometimes games are announced three months before their release, sometimes there is no more communication after the announcement because they don’t need communication, and the game comes out a year later. This is the strength of Rockstar Games, it is to perfectly control its calendar”. Raphaël Lucas is nevertheless banking on 2024, perhaps before the summer. “It’s such a huge hit every time a GTA comes out, that other publishers leave room and shake up their release schedule. They know that no game can live around GTA. There’s no point in go”he concludes.