At long last! After days of hype, months of anticipation, years of speculation, and a whole decade since the previous installment, Rockstar Games has finally released the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI. Dubbed Trailer 1, the 90 second trailer provides a vibrant look at the game’s environment while spotlighting one of the game’s protagonists, a Latina woman named Lucia. The trailer doesn’t give too much away about the game’s storyline although fans are fervently dissecting it for any clues and hints. And some may have gotten pretty close thus far.
Set in Vice City, the trailer begins with Lucia supposedly being released from prison and planning a return to normal life. We’re then treated to vast cityscapes with mighty impressive draw distances and a buzzing, living, breathing city that’s dynamic and choc full of little details that warrant their own articles. As is the case with the previous installments, the focus of the early trailers is to shed light on the city and the environment players will be spending a lot of time with. The trailer tells with Lucia and her partner, Jason, sharing a moment as they talk about trusting each other and having their backs right before they barge into a store, presumably to rob it.
Discounting the earlier 2D games, the Grand Theft Auto series games of the PlayStation 2 era always focused on a singular protagonist. GTA IV was technically the first time the series allowed players to play as more than one character – with Niko Bellic remained the core game’s central character as expansions The Lost and the Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony allowed the player to control other characters. GTA V was the first game that implemented support for multiple protagonists in the core game itself, allowing us to switch between Michael, Franklin, and Trevor. With GTA VI, Rockstar seems to be sticking to the previous game’s approach, but limiting the number of characters to two.
Previous leaks have suggested Rockstar’s inclination for going a lot deeper with the game as opposed to larger or bigger, and the trailer sells that beautifully. Vice City looks packed to the brim with characters and caricatures. High density traffic is frequently seen across the city. Draw distances are huge and the trailer intentionally contains plenty of shots to draw attention to them. These wide shots of Vice City’s landscape also help sell the sheer scope and size of what will undoubtedly be the game’s immense map. GTA VI looks gorgeous. The graphics in particular look downright impressive and appear to be a gigantic leap from the previous game. Don’t believe me? Here’s the first trailer for GTA V for comparison:
For now, Grand Theft Auto VI doesn’t have a concrete release date, except for the game coming out in 2025. If I were to bet, I’d say it should probably arrive around the same timeframe of the year as Grand Theft Auto V did: September 2025, or more broadly, Q3 2025. And it makes sense. Rockstar will need all the time at their disposal to make sure the game lives up to what this trailer has promised.
