Rockstar Games - formerly DMA Design - kicked the franchise off with Grand Theft Auto in 1997. A 2D crime game viewed from an overhead perspective, it was hugely successful on PC and the original PlayStation. A similar sequel, Grand Theft Auto 2, was released in 1999, along with expansions to the original game set in London. The franchise went nuclear with the release of Grand Theft Auto III in 2001. Two sequels, each larger and more elaborate than the last, followed with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City in 2002 and San Andreas in 2004, the last of which became the biggest-selling ever game on the PlayStation 2 console. The company also expanded the franchise with multiple mobile games.
The series' popularity continued to grow with Grand Theft Auto IV (2008) on the PlayStation 3, PC and Xbox 360, something of a reboot of the series and the first to use full HD graphics. However, the game attracted criticism for being smaller than San Andreas in size and scope, and for featuring more gritty realism in lieu of the fun mayhem of the earlier games. Rockstar corrected the error with Grand Theft Auto V, released in 2013 on the same formats but also featuring substantial upgrades for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game.
Grand Theft Auto V, which also includes the phenomenally successful multiplayer game Grand Theft Auto Online, has become the second-biggest-selling individual video game of all time, with almost 160 million copies sold on multiple platforms. The game has generated over $6 billion in revenue since its release just over eight years ago. The game also attracted significant critical acclaim for perceived improvements to the GTA formula. However, fans have sharply criticised the absence of any sequel, and the perceived disregarding of the single-player campaign part of the franchise by Rockstar in favour of the monetisation of the multiplayer mode. Rockstar confirmed they would be continuing to develop single-player games with the release of the hugely-acclaimed Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018.
Rockstar have, presumably been working on Grand Theft Auto VI since the release of Red Dead Redemption 2, with likely over three and maybe closer to four years on the clock on the project. Some reports previously suggested they were only "early in development" on the game in April 2020. However, the franchise publishers, Take-Two, confirmed last year that they are planning a major marketing spend for financial year 2023-24, of the level usually only associated with a Rockstar franchise title. This suggests that GTAVI might still be two years away, and certainly no less than eighteen months.
Even that might be generous: Rockstar announced GTAV with a teaser trailer in late 2011, two years before release, and it sounds like Rockstar are still some time away from even releasing a formal trailer for the game. Certainly don't expect this too soon.
The game's setting and time period will be a source of speculation for fans. It is worth noting that Rockstar usually rotate their games between the fictional cities of Liberty City and Vice City, and the state of San Andreas. The current "HD Era" of the franchise has seen the revisiting of Liberty City (in Grand Theft Auto IV) and San Andreas (in Grand Theft Auto V and Online), so a reasonably popular guess is that GTAVI will be set in Vice City. The likely "VI" part of the title could be used to feed into the word "VICE" in that case. All of the games in the current era of the franchise have been set in the present day, so that will presumably still be the case.
There will be a big difference with the game and its forebears, however. It will be the first game in the series since GTAIII not to be directed by long-term designer Leslie Benzies or written by Dan Houser. Benzies left Rockstar in 2016, and Houser in 2020.
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