This week has turned into a bumper one for GTA players, with a fresh update to Online having dropped yesterday and details regarding the highly anticipated and elusive GTA 6 having just emerged today.
This new information on the series' next entry comes via a report from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, which not only offers some glimpses into the upcoming title, but also discusses an ongoing overhaul at Rockstar Games.
Headlining the report is the revelation that the game will include the series’ first female protagonist and take place primarily in a fictional version of Miami.
Here’s How Things Are Currently Looking For the Next GTA Game
Regarding the female lead, Schreier writes that according to his sources: “the woman, who is Latina, will be one of a pair of leading characters in a story influenced by the bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde.”
He also specifies that this inclusion comes alongside efforts by developers not to include satirical jokes designed to target “marginalised groups”, a change from the approach to previous GTA games designed to coincide with Rockstar efforts to remould itself into a more “progressive and compassionate workplace” following accusations of it having a “boys’ club” culture and utilising too much development crunch.
The latter of these Schreier suggests having had an impact on the process of choosing a setting for the title, which is reportedly codenamed “Project Americas”, with the report stating: “Early designs called for the inclusion of territories modelled after large swaths of North and South America, according to people familiar with the plans. But the company reeled in those ambitions and cut the main map down to a fictional version of Miami and its surrounding areas.”
Instead, according to Schreier: “Rockstar’s plan is now to continually update the game over time, adding new missions and cities on a regular basis, which the leadership hopes will lead to less crunch during the game’s final months."
However, the playable area of the game is still suggested to be incredibly expansive, with more fleshed-out location interiors than its predecessors being cited as an example of this.
In terms of when it will arrive, Schreier suggests that all of these efforts to deviate from the negative established norms of game development by Rockstar have delayed progress a little, leading sources close to the game to predict that it’s still “at least two years away”, with some designers at Rockstar’s Edinburgh office having departed earlier in 2022, citing frustrations over the “lack of progress” on GTA 6.
So, chill out a bit before you start frantically researching Miami to see where you’d like to explore first and make sure to follow us for more GTA Online and GTA 6 updates as new content is released for the former.