GTA 6 is already breaking records despite being at least a year away from release.
21.11.2023 - 12:37 / rockpapershotgun.com / Rockstar Games / Leslie Benzies / Obbe Vermeij / Vice City
GTA 6 developer Rockstar Games were once working on a zombie survival game set on a Scottish island, which sounds like a mixture of GTA: Vice City and legendary Arma mod DayZ. That's according to former technical director Obbe Vermeij, who joined Rockstar North in 1995 back when it was called DMA Design, and left in 2009 following the release of GTA 4. In the run-up to the GTA 6 trailer reveal this month, he's started blogging about the development of several Rockstar games, from GTA through grotty snuff film simulator Manhunt to cancelled projects such as the zombie title and Cold War stealth fest Agent.
Discussing these latter "distractions", Vermeij noted that "[a]fter Vice City [in 2002] there was a sense within North that it would be nice to do something else. Something that wasn't GTA. Some of the artists wanted to do a zombie survival game. Programmers like fantasy. Artists like zombies. Not sure why that is."
Rockstar decided to pursue the zombie game concept for a bit, with the working title "Z". Unless there's another one I'm forgetting, it would have been Rockstar North's first and only game set in the developer's native Scotland. "The idea was to use the Vice code as is," Vermeij explained. "The game was to take place on a windswept foggy Scottish island. The player would be under constant attack from zombies. The player would need to use vehicles to get around but vehicles would need fuel. Acquiring the fuel would be a big part of the game."
Z was only in development for "maybe a month or so", however. According to Vermeij, the concept proved to be a bit of a downer. "The idea seemed depressing and quickly ran out of steam. Even the people who originally coined the idea lost faith. We dropped the idea and got on with San Andreas."
Zombies, of course, would eventually grace a Rockstar Games release in the shape of Red Dead Redemption's Undead Nightmare DLC. Rockstar also did a zombie game survival mode for Red Dead Online in 2020, which I gather wasn't quite the Undead Nightmare sequel people were hoping for.
Vermeij also had a bit to share about the development of Agent. A game of the same name was in development at Rockstar San Diego, across the pond, but fell through amid reports of crunch and a toxic work culture. Rockstar North announced their own Agent game in 2009, having begun development after the release of GTA: San Andreas in 2004. Vermeij doesn't specify whether the two projects shared any people or resources.
"After San Andreas we REALLY wanted to do something that wasn't GTA," he wrote. "Rockstar San Diego were working on a James Bond style game. Leslie Benzies was keen to do something along those lines. We did a demo doing some spy stuff in San Andreas. I think
GTA 6 is already breaking records despite being at least a year away from release.
There was little doubt that the GTA VI trailer would do well in terms of viewership. Still, the debut video of Rockstar's massively anticipated new game surpassed even the rosiest expectations.
The recently-released trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6 was officially released following a leak, prompting developer Rockstar Games to release the trailer earlier than it had planned. Soon after the dust had settled with the trailer’s release, however, several developers from the studio have voiced their disappointment about the trailer being leaked.
The Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer is finally out! After nearly a decade of waiting, Rockstar Games has finally released the GTA 6 trailer albeit in a manner it wouldn't have liked. On November 8, the Take-Two Interactive-owned publisher announced that the GTA 6 trailer would be released in early December. And just a few days ago, Rockstar Games set the GTA 6 trailer release date as December 5, 6:00 AM PT. To the company's dismay, the trailer was leaked online before Rockstar could release it. Now, we have a proper first glimpse into the world of GTA 6 (officially called GTA VI), and it confirms what leaks have suggested before.
This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss the first ever trailer for GTA 6 which was finally released following a tease from Rockstar, after the trailer leaked online ahead of schedule.
Doom scrolling social media looks to have replaced the age-old pasttime of watching TV in GTA 6, which has prompted feelings of alternating despair and increasing irrelevance in me this morning. I barely understand how TikTok works in real-life, let alone a video game pastiche of it, and oh god, how did I get so old and craggy? I'm just here for the nice-looking flamingos, Rockstar, not a 24/7 twerk stream I can access from the palm of my hand. Of course, TV watching may yet have been preserved beyond what we've seen so far in the first trailer for GTA 6, but even if it's been consigned to the bin of modern history, there might yet be one light in the TikTok-esque darkness to make GTA 6's in-game social media network worthwhile.
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The first trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI is here, finally taking the covers off of Rockstar Games' ambitious open world title. After years of leaks, rumours and speculation, we now finally have concrete official details about GTA 6, its world, characters, and tone. The trailer itself was published hastily ahead of schedule after it was leaked on X on Tuesday. Instead of waiting and putting out the reveal Wednesday at 9am ET (7:30pm IST) — as Rockstar initially planned, the studio released the trailer early Wednesday morning. “Our trailer has leaked so please watch the real thing on YouTube,” the publisher said in its post on X.
GTA 6 marks a "new vision" for developer Rockstar Games and the series at large.
GTA 6 will release in 2025 on both Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5, Rockstar has confirmed.
The wait is finally over, and perhaps a little prematurely so. Rockstar Games, the publisher of the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series, promised that they will release the first trailer of GTA 6 today, at 9 AM ET (7:30 PM IST). However, the trailer was leaked online a few hours ago. Once the news broke, Rockstar Games also released the game officially, much ahead of the schedule. The trailer, even when it was dropped unexpectedly, confirms many small details we have seen over the past year, such as the first female protagonist Lucia, and the Vice City setting. Additionally, the trailer also reveals the launch date, or more like the launch year of the game as well.
Rockstar has officially announced GTA VI but the official press release only mentions a 2025 launch for consoles and lacks any mention of the PC version.