It feels like the whole world is on tenterhooks for the release of Grand Theft Auto 6, if not because they are excited for a videogame then because it feels like Rockstar is propping up that part of the global economy not propped up by AI. But I'll tell you one guy who isn't going to play: Vitaly Milonov, a deputy of Russia's Duma from the United Russia party, who recently lambasted the game for carrying "the stench of Americanism."

In a recent chat with Russian radio station Govorit Moskva, Milonov gave Rockstar a piece of his mind: "GTA, from its very first version, has been about violence and hooliganism," Milonov told the station. "The last version doesn't differ at all from those before it, in terms of deviance."

What does he mean by "deviance"? Well, a little about Milonov: a member of Russia's ruling party, Milonov has long made a name for himself as a blowhard campaigner against gay rights and 'non-traditional values' in Russian society. He has, in the course of his career, spearheaded laws banning "gay propaganda," lost the plot over gay Finnish stamps, slung anti-semitic insults at Jewish political opponents, and called LGBT rights activists "non-human". He is deputy chairman for the State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children.

But despite his lifelong commitment to persecuting innocent people, Milonov actually doesn't seem worried that the GTA 6 hype will end up converting innocent Russians to lifestyles he disapproves of.

"I do not think that the game can strongly persuade anyone to adopt such a lifestyle," he continued, "if only because a normal person understands that it's about the world of the USA. There—violence, sex and drugs really reign. You immerse yourself in the stench of Americanism when you play GTA."

Milonov actually seems to welcome the regular ultraviolence of GTA's world, given that it only impacts Americans. "Any violence in GTA is violence against a potential enemy, so if they all tear each other apart—even just in GTA—it will only be for the better."

Rockstar's probably not going to put that on the back of the box.

We're yet to see a single drop of gameplay footage, but I can promise you Grand Theft Auto 6 is very real and definitely happening. At least, I certainly hope it is. Rockstar opened the door for pre-orders last week with its $80 and $100 versions, the latter of which I'm not overly jazzed about.

But we're a mere five months out from exploring a modern-day Vice City and everything Leonida has to offer. Well… I say we. As far as PC goes, Rockstar has decided to not include us in what might be one of the most fervorous videogame events of the decade. Worse still, we have no idea when a PC version of GTA 6 is actually going to happen.

The sad fact is that Rockstar simply doesn't deem us a core audience. I could sit here and rant and rave about how archaic that feels in the big 2026, but our own Harvey Randall has already gone ahead and done that for me.

So instead, let me go ahead and take a peek at the results of the poll I put out to you all last week: Are you going to buy GTA 6 on console, or wait for a PC version? And I say this in the least clickbait-y way possible, but the results did genuinely surprise me.

39% of you said you're simply going to bunker down and wait for the game to come to PC. And you know what, I get it, Double-dipping on a game that expensive feels ridiculous, especially when we can wait a little longer and then (hopefully) get a superior experience—from both our hardware and also months of patches Rockstar will inevitably be pumping into the game.

I do have to admire your patience though, especially as someone who suffers from a bad case of FOMO. I'd like to get up on my high horse and declare myself perfectly capable of waiting. But, erm, I won't. Because I definitely cannot wait.

That wasn't the result that was entirely surprising to me, though. It is, in fact, the second most-voted option that really caught my attention: 28% of you said you have no interest in GTA 6 whatsoever, and so won't be buying it.

Perhaps I've simply been spending too long in the eye of the Rockstar storm, but I had expected a good deal more of you to be in the FOMO camp alongside me. Or at least, to have some modicum of interest that had you side-eyeing a lack of PC release. Has the hype grown so feral that it's turned you off entirely, or have you never been much of a Grand Theft Auto gamer to begin with? I'd love to know why you aren't interested in the game down in the comments.

As for those of you who are interested, 16% of you said you'll be picking up a copy on console. Whether that means you've already preordered or plan to scoop up the game closer to launch, at least a few of you will be diving into the action alongside our console pals. And a further 8% of you would buy GTA 6 on console… if you had one, that is. I'll be manifesting a swift PC release for you.

A few of you are on the fence too, though—8% of you have said that you're going to wait until the game is out and then make a decision. Pretty reasonable if you ask me! A game this big certainly runs the risk of being a veritable hotbed of bugs, glitches, or external discourse, so holding out to gauge initial reaction is probably the smart thing to do. Or, y'know, you'll last a few hours before the hype train's power becomes too much and you cave on the first day anyway.

Whatever you're planning to do, let me know your reasons. Or lambast me for my terrible lack of self control and very real fear of missing out. Either one'll do.

Grand Theft Auto 6 pre-orders went live last week. To some it was a moment of joy, finally after all these years we find ourselves a step closer to the videogame that has been promised to end all other videogames. But for others the one look at the price tag was enough to reality check all previous hype.

And then there was another, smaller camp of players, who were able to have their cake and eat it too, as they pre-ordered GTA 6 and essentially paid nothing for it. Some clever folks had been planning for this day months, even years in advance, and had spent their time searching on Bing (stay with me) to rack up Microsoft points.

Thanks to Bing's reward scheme a few players managed to save up enough points to pre-order GTA 6 at no extra cost; other than the mental and emotional cost of using Bing, which in hindsight may be greater than $100.

"I pre-ordered [GTA 6] using 98,000 Microsoft points," player HugoWheynow explained. "Thank you Rockstar for all the delays, which allowed me to have all these extra months to save my Microsoft points." While another Bing user posted their Microsoft points-paid pre-order depicting the full amount being deducted from their Microsoft account balance.

Thank you, Microsoft Rewards. 😎 from r/MicrosoftRewards

Honestly, those players deserve a free copy of GTA 6, not just for braving Bing, but also for having the forethought to min-max it over the half a year or so. At a push you could earn up to 10,000 Microsoft points (roughly equates to $10) a month, which means if you start now you could at the very least shave some money off of GTA 6's price tag. Who knows, maybe you could even turn it into a reasonably priced game?

Searching on Bing alone can get you around 5,000 points every month. Combine that with opening the Bing app on your phone, playing any game on Xbox Game Pass, complete extra tasks under the 'More Activities' category, and even selling your friend's soul by referring them to Bing and you could be on your way to getting a decent chunk of money off on your GTA 6 pre-order or flat out purchase.

Once you have enough points, or are happy with what you've earned, you can head over to the Microsoft Rewards dashboard, select get my rewards and redeem your points into an Xbox Gift Card which you can then use to purchase GTA 6. All you have to do is weigh up whether using Bing is worth it or not.

Grand Theft Auto 6 feels a little more real this week after Rockstar dropped over 60 new screenshots and opened the floodgates for pre-orders. My cynical feelings around its $100 Ultimate Edition aside, it's hard to not at least have one toe on the hype train—just about everyone's talking about it, both the good and the bad.

So it feels like a great time to revisit a question I asked you lovely folks a few weeks back around what you want to see out of Grand Theft Auto 6's radio stations. For me, music is such an integral part of the series—its radio stations are a hotbed of parody and their music serves as wonderful time capsules for the time period each game is set in.

That's why I'm so interested to see what these stations will bring in GTA 6. As for what you guys want, you had some very insightful responses.

AgentZee is absolutely on the same wavelength as me, saying they'd love to see Something Good by Alt-J make an appearance, commenting: "This is a great song to listen to while driving". I absolutely fell in love with this track when it made an appearance in 2015's Life is Strange—a game with a soundtrack I still adore over a decade later—and I'm already envisioning late-night drives around Leonida while this blasts in my ears.

And speaking of Leonida, some of you want to see its Florida influences shine in its musical choices. Neogunhero said "Real Florida Jit" music is a must, citing artists like Denzel Curry (who I'm a big fan of), Kodak Black, Smokerpurpp, Trick Daddy, and Ice Billion Berg. Viddy echoed that sentiment, saying it'd "be a real shame if they didn't" have some kind of Florida roots station, including "other FL natives who'd understand the realistic absurdity this game is surely going for."

Lucky said: "I want to be able to drive the stand-in for a convertible Ferrari at night while In The Air Tonight plays," which is an image I can totally picture. Wind blowing through Lucia and Jason's hair, those classic Collins drums kicking right in. Plus, the song was already in Vice City Stories, which makes GTA 6 the perfect game to bring it back, since we'll be revisiting the iconic area in all its modern-day glory.

Some of you focused more on the parody side of things, too. XoRn said they "could drive around for hours" listening to a parody news channel, while Jimfurbath said stand-up comedian "Tim Dillon hosting a conspiracy talk show radio is what GTA6 needs!"

My favourite of the whole bunch, though, has to be what Ianik has in mind for the game: "Only radio station with monks and Gregorians chorals. Without options to turn off". Incredible cursed energy, which somehow makes it the perfect choice for a game like Grand Theft Auto 6. Bring on the chants.

PC gaming entered the digital domain long before any other platform, but my heart has always lied firmly with physical media. Before I joined this team and became a full-fledged PC GamerTM, I was a console gamer—a label I have long blamed on being a child of divorce and finding it far easier to ferry an Xbox between two households than a desktop computer.

And for the most part, my console collection has always consisted of physical copies. Real, tangible discs you can pop in and hear that satisfying little whirr. And a lot of those copies I've procured secondhand. Hell, I spent nearly four years of my life working in a secondhand videogame store. The act of trading and repurposing someone's once-loved game, DVD, or CD is woven into the very fabric of my being.

For a long time, physical media was one of the most accessible, affordable ways to play videogames. Hell, there was literally a time where Sony created a 22-second marketing video mocking Xbox over its attempt to make game sharing more difficult.

I grew up doing swaps with my schoolmates. I have a distinct memory of being freshly 16 and desperately attempting to trade away a portion of my Xbox 360 collection to score a copy of Fable 3—turns out trying to sell something without ID when you're still in secondary school is an absolute ballache. I could walk into a store and come away with a pre-owned videogame that was half the price of buying it brand new.

But that's a problem, isn't it? At least, I reckon that's a problem as far as Rockstar's concerned. Its recent preorder announcement for Grand Theft Auto 6 came with a little tidbit that really bummed me out: its so-called physical editions are little more than a box containing a bit of paper with a code on it.

Is Rockstar the first developer to pull this? Of course not. Nintendo has long been using box-with-code as a way to get stuff on store shelves without needing a cartridge to do so. Alan Wake 2 received a fair bit of backlash for going digital-only, but that was in the name of keeping the game's overall price down to a respectable $60 on console and $50 on PC. And as I said at the start, PC has been almost exclusively digital for years: When was the last time you bought a used PC game at your local EB?

But consoles have remained firmly footed in the physical world, at least until now, and Rockstar has no explanation for the lack of a GTA 6 disc. There's no deep discount to excuse its decision. And I can't help but feel like it's all in the name of some bizarre form on control.

You could say it's concerned that discs will hit street sale early which could—gasp—leak information ahead of release. But Pearl Abyss literally got around this with Crimson Desert by ensuring disc copies couldn't unlock until launch day with a download. Is that the best solution? No—I don't love anything relating to physical media that requires some online component to get it up and running. But it was a workaround nevertheless.

So what is it, then? If I buy a physical copy of Grand Theft Auto 6, why can't I lend it to my mate, or sell it on for someone else to scoop up secondhand at a more affordable price? It is, quite frankly, a horrifically anti-consumer practice. Rockstar has made an abhorrent amount of money pumping microtransaction after microtransaction into GTA Online over the last 13 years. I'm sure it can afford to lose the odd copy to the secondhand market.

And if a future arises where Sony or Microsoft pack up their servers and jump off the videogame ship, what remains of GTA 6? Will it even be playable in a legitimate way? These kinds of practices aren't just harmful in the present, they have the very real potential to be harmful in the future, too. PC gamers have extensive experience in just how impermanent games can be when they're only available digitally.

Rumours have swirled around the possibility of an actual disc version of Grand Theft Auto 6 arriving after launch, though the only evidence to support that is a Reddit post displaying an incredibly vague and confusingly-worded response from a Rockstar customer support employee. I asked Rockstar whether it planned on releasing a disc copy in the future and was given no comment.

Our news writer Andy Chalk emailed Rockstar support himself and received a boilerplate response pointing him towards articles relating to the game's various editions, a support FAQ, and redeeming GTA+ membership.

Even if it does emerge with a disc-only version later down the line, that feels worse to me somehow. The earliest adopters get shafted by some weird Rockstar semantics. Or even worse, it encourages said early adopters to double-dip just to add a disc version to their collection. Either way, the only party coming out on top here is a multi-billion dollar corporation. And that sucks butt.

When Rockstar announced that GTA 6 preorders would begin this week, everyone started speculating that a new trailer must finally be imminent. After years of leaks and delays, the developer must be planning to finally show at least a little actual Vice City gameplay. But preorders are live and there's no trailer in sight.

Nada. It's wild for Rockstar to be asking us for a minimum $80 to preorder a game it hasn't actually shown any gameplay for, right?

I know it's been over four years since the triple-A class of game started going for $70, and Nintendo's already been asking for $80, but it sure does chafe seeing GTA 6 preorders start at $80, and obnoxiously lock some gameplay behind a $100 "Ultimate Edition" right from the jump. The insult on top of injury is that Rockstar hasn't even shown us the game.

GTA 6 has had two trailers. The first was a 90 second reveal trailer and the second was a 3-ish minute spotlight on protagonists Jason and Lucia, both cinematic and story-focused. Even all those 63 new GTA 6 images were mostly Ultimate Edition ads, character artwork, and photo mode-style shots. We have not seen GTA 6 being played. Not at all!

Yes, we've seen some years-old leaked gameplay. Yes, it's a GTA game so we can probably pretty well guess what it plays like (a long conversation while driving then some snap-to-head gunplay). Dammit it's the principle of the thing though. I feel like I'm getting mugged, and not in a fun GTARP kind of way.

The elephant in the room, of course, is that aside from educated speculation we don't actually know when GTA 6 might launch on PC. So I'm not preordering nuthin' because I don't own a current generation console. It will come to PC eventually, though, and this doesn't bode well for how Rockstar will treat us when it does.

This can't be the first time a publisher has ever had the hubris to sell a game without a gameplay trailer, but it sure looks like the height of arrogance from Rockstar. I suppose it thinks GTA 6 is too big to fail. It's probably right.

Grand Theft Auto 6 now feels quite a bit more tangible—preorders are live, and November is right around the corner. But amid this flurry of information and unrelenting hype came a bit of bad news for the GTA Online crowd: GTA 6 is being pushed as a "singleplayer experience".

Despite its impending launch, there's actually been precious little information about the next phase of the madcap online world. Granted, there's been precious little information about the game period. Rockstar knows it doesn't need to give anything away. It could ignore the pleas for a gameplay trailer right up until launch if it wanted to.

Regardless, we know some new version of the online mode must be coming. GTAO is why people are still playing this 13-year-old game, and while Red Dead Online never exploded in popularity like its predecessor, this doesn't feel like something Rockstar is going to give up on—certainly not after it acquired Cfx.re, the team behind FiveM.

So we can reasonably assume that GTAO 2 will launch later—perhaps to coincide with the arrival of GTA 6 on PC, which really is the home of GTA roleplaying. There's no indication when that might happen, though. This is classic Rockstar. It's a closed book, and it doesn't matter that PC is GTA's most popular individual platform, because the near-mythical reputation of this company means it doesn't need to use the conventional marketing playbook.

Let's face it, there's also probably a more insidious reason: If you own both a PC and a console and are eager for GTA, you'll almost certainly be double dipping. I know I will be. Despite Sony's claim that GTA 6 will be best on PlayStation 5, we know the PC version will be far superior. But the allure, the FOMO, they are too strong.

As a journalist and critic, I naturally wish Rockstar loosened its lips a little, and I have a real problem with it selling a $100 game without letting prospective players actually know what it will be like to play. I am, however, not remotely fazed by the initial lack of multiplayer; indeed, I think it's a good thing.

Live service games have utterly dominated this decade, and while I do have some favourites, I tend to crave games where I don't need to share the space with a bunch of randos. GTAO is impressive and I had a lot of fun with it, but GTA's overwhelming popularity, since 1997 and until GTA 5, has been down to its singleplayer capers. And that should be the priority, at least initially.

This doesn't just benefit me; it benefits the GTA Online fans as well. By creating space between the two projects, both of them will get the attention they deserve. Of course Rockstar has been working on the online component for years, but there's a vast gulf between working on multiple projects and releasing them at exactly the same time.

Basically: there needs to be a focus. Given the length of its development time and the vast amount of money that's presumably been put into this behemoth, we can realistically expect an incredibly ambitious and gargantuan game. There's also an expectation of polish, but there will doubtless be myriad bugs and issues at launch. If Rockstar was also launching a massive multiplayer platform at exactly the same time, well that way leads to disaster.

With just one new live game to worry about, Rockstar will be better able to ensure a smooth launch and shore up any gaps left by its final polish pass. We will get a superior version of GTA 6, and then, further down the road, the best possible version of GTA Online 2.

Rockstar will also presumably have a huge amount of data and feedback to sift through after the singleplayer launch, which will allow it to adapt GTA Online 2 to the needs of its players. Any new systems and mechanics introduced in GTA 6 can then be refined, or changed if they create unwelcome friction, which would only become worse in a neverending online experience.

I'm hopeful—perhaps foolishly so—that the gap will also allow Rockstar to build GTA Online 2 with its community. With GTA 6 out in the wild and likely making a disgusting amount of money, maybe Rockstar will feel like actually opening up a bit, using GTA 6's playerbase to help make GTA Online 2 something properly special.

Besides: how many people would really be diving into GTA Online 2 right away? In GTA 5, GTA Online was effectively a sequel. It's what you plunge into after you've spent 100 hours mucking around solo. Granted, there's now a massive online community, so I have no doubt that some people will be more excited to get stuck into the sequel to their favourite online hangout, but they also stand to benefit the most from Rockstar taking its time rather than releasing two complex games on the same day.

Honestly, it's also just nice to see a singleplayer game dominating the dreaded discourse. I've been working in this industry since 2011, and for too much of it we've been bouncing from one multiplayer game to the next. If I ever become a supervillain, my origin story will be that I had to edit one too many Arc Raiders stories.

So yeah, this is good for everyone, and while I like to pretend I am too cynical to get swept up in all the hype, I am genuinely thrilled at the prospect of playing a new singleplayer GTA. Even if I will have to play it on my puny PS5. grand the

GTA 6 has revealed its pre-order editions and, despite lots of fancy customisation options, and a relatively predictable price for the Standard Edition, people are understandably upset about how much content (which arguably comprises a portion of GTA 6's identity) is locked behind a paywall.

Obviously, us PC gamers with consoles will have to decide whether we're purchasing, but at least we might be able to grab it on sale on PC. It is worth noting, though, that since this game is purely digital, Rockstar can keep the price high for a long time (and they almost assuredly will). Below, I'll run through the exact difference between the Standard and Ultimate Edition so you can decide which one is worth your while.

What's in the GTA 6 Standard Edition?

• Price: $79.99/£69.99
• At a glance: One month of the GTA+ subscription and the Vintage Vice City pack (only if you pre-order the game), but far fewer customisation options overall.

The cheapest option for buying GTA 6 is still $10 more than every other big-budget game launch right now and it doesn't include a bunch of the cosmetic and customisation features that the Ultimate Edition has. It's a bit dire considering going rags to riches and spending your ill-gotten gains pimping out your house, clothes, and car is a key element of the GTA series.

Both editions include a month of GTA+. The future of GTA Online is currently unclear, but it's practically inevitable that Rockstar will create a GTA 6 Online variant, too.

You do also get the Vintage Vice City pack if you pre-order (that's us PC folks screwed I guess, unless we get it in some future 'complete edition'), which takes a little bit of the sting off. This cosmetic pack contains:

• Outfits and hairstyles: "Dress for excess with Jason’s effortlessly chic linen suit in vintage pastel, complemented by the cut and coif of the decade of decadence. Show everyone the world is yours in Lucia’s red sequin mini dress and curls."
• '55 Vapid Stanier: "Cruise Shore Drive in this classic sedan and store it just a stone's throw from the glistening sands of Ocean Beach in the Shore Court garage, complete with a weapon locker plus a secure place to deposit stolen goods to be fenced."
• Exclusive Weapon Pattern: "Adorn most guns with a tropical pattern inspired by Tommy Vercetti's iconic palm tree button-up."

It's a drop in the bucket in comparison to the cosmetic options you'll lose by not purchasing the Ultimate Edition, but I guess that's why they made it a pre-order bonus, so people would feel less crap about what is essentially locking cut-content behind an upgrade. Post-release, this pack will likely be available for purchase, too.

What's in the GTA 6 Ultimate Edition?

• Price: $99.99/£89.99
• At a glance: One month of the GTA+ subscription, the Vintage Vice City pack, and the Ultimate Edition upgrade (which you will almost definitely be able to purchase separately post-launch, so don't feel pressured to decide now)

The Ultimate Edition contains everything in GTA 6, unlocking all customization features throughout Vice City. The annoying part is that it includes what sound like job-style activities and vendors who will customize your cars and characters.

Take the "Classic Car Collection", for example, which sees you "track down a variety of abandoned classic and work-in-progress project cars and revitalize them". That sounds like a whole mini-questline you won't be able to access with standard. There's also vehicle customisation, a salon, a tattoo parlor, and clothing shops you can't use without ultimate, which, frankly, sucks. Here's everything included:

Vehicles and garages

• '95 Grotti Cheetah: "Grotti's signature mid '90s sports car and ode to Shore Drive, the ’95 Grotti Cheetah is complete with a minimalist, retro-futuristic livery and available to punctuate later-stage action."
• Ganado Retro Build: "Inject some muscle and classic stylings into Jason's well-worn Vapid Ganado low-riding pickup with exclusive mods."
• Shitzu Squalo: "Perfect for casting in Gambit Bay and reeling in catches of all sorts, this gradient pink and blue Squalo docked at Washington Beach is made open-ocean-ready with an explosives-laden weapons crate."
• '67 Vapid Dominator Buggy and Garage: "A Mud Club monster offering impressive off-road handling for the backwoods of Mount Kalaga and beyond. Conveniently store it at the Paradise Garage in Watson Bay, which features a weapon locker plus a secure place to deposit stolen goods to be fenced."
• Jason's Safehouse Vehicles: "Switch gears and soak up the sun in an Army fatigue-tinged Dinka Enduro motorcycle or Crest Kayak."

Weapons and cosmetics

• Hawk & Little Morgan Revolver: "His and hers versions of this powerful revolver with classic Vice City stylings sourced from the Vercetti Estate, including palm-tree-etched grips, engraved detailing, and high-performance scope."
• Personalized Weapon Variants: "Personalized sidearms with detailed engravings for Jason's Girardi ES9 pistol and Lucia's Klose K17 pistol."
• Vice City Style: "Whether poolside or side by side, Jason and Lucia can look the part with exclusive outfits, tattoos, and more."
• Goodtime Gear: "A capsule collection of apparel and accessories inspired by the Goodtime State’s hit TV show character, Macca the Alligator."

Unique activities and vendors

• Classic Car Collection: "Track down a variety of abandoned classic and work-in-progress project cars and revitalize them to their former glory in this special commission from eccentric collector and local fixer, Wyman."
• Ptt Youngin$ Compound: "Raid the compound of one of Southside Vice City’s loudest and most socially active gangs and escape safely to score some special items and distinct contraband."
• Rideout Customs: "Transform vanilla vehicles into magnificent works of art with detailed interiors, exquisite rims, and donk stylings."
• Sara's Unisex Salon: "Get signature salon styles for both Jason and Lucia, including facial hair for Jason and makeup and nails for Lucia."
• Stock 305: "Style various unique and exclusive looks for Jason and Lucia at Stockyard’s premiere destination for elevated streetwear."
• Electric Fang Tattoo: "Choose from over 50 signature tattoos for both Jason and Lucia — all designed by the artist collective FAILE at Stockyard’s most iconic ink bar."
• One-Eyed Willie's: "Visit Lake Leonida’s storied mod shop, specializing in off-road modifications and hand-painted automotive artistry."

So, as you can see, the $20 upgrade unlocks an absolute ton of stuff. Should a lot of this have been part of the base game? Yes, yes it should. All I can really say is purchase accordingly or, hey, not at all.

We've been talking about it for years and yet we're still waiting to hear when GTA 6 will launch on PC. History says it will probably be around a year after the console launch and that Rockstar probably won't even confirm a PC release date until next year either. How deep into the Leonida weeds can I get trying to divine an answer? At least deep enough to get WASTED by rogue wildlife, probably.

When might the GTA 6 PC release date be?

The PC release date for GTA 6 likely won't be before November 2027. That's my best guess based on the timeline of Rockstar's past PC ports, because so far it hasn't even given an estimate for a PC launch window.

For its last three major releases (including RDR2), the delay from console launch to PC has ranged from 7 months (GTA 4) to 19 months (GTA 5), though Rockstar's original plan before delays was about 14 months between console and PC for GTA 5.

Adding insult to injury, it would be in keeping with its playbook for Rockstar to not announce a PC release date until well after the console version has been out. It confirmed a PC version of GTA 4 the summer of 2008, several months after the console launch. It did nearly the same with GTA 5, launching on consoles in September 2013, announcing a GTA 5 PC release date in summer 2014, and then delaying the PC version several times into 2015—yes, it launched on two console generations before coming to PC. With RDR2 it just straight up waited a year after the console launch to confirm what we all knew: RDR2 would come to PC, giving us just a month's notice.

So not only will GTA 6 probably not launch on PC until the back half of 2027, Rockstar may not even deign to give us a date until sometime next year either.

Rockstar's past PC port timelines

*Not to be confused with the version formerly known as GTA 5 Enhanced Edition which was the next gen console launch on November 18, 2014. My brain hurts.

Why is Rockstar still not prioritizing PC launches?

Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick has been giving some seriously mixed signals to PC players over the past year. In November 2025 Zelnick said that the games industry is "moving towards PC and business is moving towards open rather than closed."

Then in February 2026 he said "We have seen PC become a much more and more important part of what used to be a console business, and I wouldn't be surprised to see that trend continue." That sure seemed like a promising attitude.

However, in May 2026 Zelnick said "Rockstar always starts on console because I think with regard to a release like that you're judged by serving the core," and referred to console players as its "core consumer." In the same interview he guestimated that PC could account for 45-50% of the sales on a "major launch" for Take-Two. So we know, as presumably does Zelnick, that any claim that PC isn't the "core" audience for GTA 6 is total baloney.

Why, then, does Rockstar continue to hold back its PC launches? Our own Ted Litchfield called it two years ago: There's really only one reason for Rockstar to release Grand Theft Auto 6 later on PC. Zelnick isn't going to come out and say "because you suckers will buy it twice" but I think we all pretty instinctively know that's what the suits think of us.

Here at PC Gamer, we're all very excited about Grand Theft Auto 6—given it's one of the biggest videogame events of the decade. Rockstar games are becoming an increasingly rarer milestone that seems determined to bring some new big-swing advancement in tech. For instance, gorgeous graphics that're pretty enough to send me into an existential crisis.

Given preorders went up today, you might think that has us all a-flutter with excitement. But 'lo, what's this? It's not coming for PC? Phooey!

Back in 2026, Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Take-Two and occasional philosopher, told Bloomberg that "Rockstar always starts on console because I think with regard to a release like that you're judged by serving the core".

The implication that we're both not Rockstar's core consumer base. Left out in the rain, looking sad and glassy-eyed from under our collective umbrella while across the way console players giggle while crashing a helicopter into a building or something.

I echo PC Gamer's own Andy Chalk—and most of our staff—when I say: Hey, what the hell? I can't think of a real advantage, aside from maybe giving your developers more time to optimise and iron out launch day bugs, to abstaining. After all, PC gaming's one of the biggest growing markets in this massive industry.

And I mean, sure, maybe we're a little sore about the fact our coverage'll be impacted by the fact most of us don't have consoles—some of us do, and they'll be working tirelessly for your benefit, but certainly not the lion's share. But even those of us with the honoured videogame boxes are going to be felt put-out by Zelnick's artificial cool kids club.

There's a sort of sorrow to all of this by way of the fact that GTA 6 is likely to be one of the prettiest games in recent memory, and yet it'll be leashed to crummy hardware. Our online editor, Fraser Brown, rallied against the subpar experience of gaming on console as compared to his beastly rig, and I have no doubt will have a grumble about having to play on a blurrier resolution than his 4090s, which shall be sitting in his PC the entire time, neglected.

But even I, as a 3060 peasant without a console, don't think Rockstar's in the right on this one. GTA 5's modding community is lively and vibrant and a boon to the game, and—oh, what's that? Rockstar's been clamping down on non-official mod support? Ah, that makes more sense, then.

The cynic in me also wonders (loudly, in this very article) it has something to do with GTA 6's pricing. In case you're out of the loop, the ultimate edition of the game will feature some core perks hacksawed off and stuffed into its $100 price-point, which is a huge shame.

In a hypothetical scenario, enterprising pirates or modders on PC could find a way to circumvent these artificial barriers—it could be argued that Rockstar really wants folks to splash out for that $20 markup.

Or, I have to concede, stubbornly sticking to its guns. Rockstar games rarely come with day-one PC releases to, as Zelnick said, serve its core audience of console gamers. But also, in the very same interview, Zelnick said that "with regard to a big title, PC can be 45, 50% of the sales." God damnit.

Well, Zelnick, I've got some numbers of our own. We've been running a poll, linked below, that'll be closing on the 28th of June.

Let's take a look at the numbers at the time of writing, shall we? And—oh, 39% of you aren't buying it at all. Alright, that's a pretty substantial amount of PC Gamer readers that don't like GTA, fair does.

But just 13% are excited enough to go for the console release and, as our own Ted Litchfield theorised, potentially provide Take-Two with a double-dip of sales when the PC version comes out. Now, obviously our deeply scientific and accurate polls aren't, some might argue, conclusive snapshots of PC demographics.

It does, however, mean that the majority of you who are excited about GTA 6 will be just like us website staff: Sadly gazing through a window as one of the biggest gaming events of the decade passes us by, because Zelnick doesn't think we're a core audience. Despite accounting for 45% of his business' sales. I'm gonna have an aneurysm.

• We're keeping track of all the Amazon Prime Day PC gaming deals here

• We're keeping track of all the Amazon Prime Day PC gaming deals here

Sure, Grand Theft Auto has always been about the shooting. The car chases. The seedy criminal activity. But it's also about looking fly as fuck while you do it. Driving around the city in expensive, tricked-out cars. Nipping to the barbershop for a nicer haircut as you climb the criminal ranks. Spending your eventual riches on parodied designer clothing and jewellery. Hitting that level of wealth where you go from looking expensive and put-together to expensive and downright ugly.

• We're keeping track of all the Amazon Prime Day PC gaming deals here

I never expect to have to cough up too much of my own real-life finances to do that, but if GTA 6's Ultimate Edition is anything to go by, that's exactly what I'll be doing. Rockstar's calling it the game's ultimate edition, sure, but I can't help but feel like this is what the developer actually wants the standard version to be, while its $80 version is feeling distinctly Lite Edition.

Now Deluxe/Ultimate/Premium/Insert Fancy Upgrade Term Here cosmetic exclusives are not new to videogames, and preorder bonuses have become a plague on the industry. But usually it's the odd outfit here or cosmetic pack there. Rockstar, however, is going one step further by putting entire stores on the map of Leonida that won't be accessible unless you cough up the $20 upgrade, and quite frankly that's where I have to draw the line.

As far as we know, there are currently five stores that are paywalled: Two mod shops, a clothing store, a salon, and a tattoo parlour. All offering customisation options that, at this point, I deem an integral part of this series' identity. It feels criminal that a game touting itself as the "most immersive GTA experience yet" has the very real potential to constantly pull me out of that immersion by reminding me that I've yet to spend an extra 20 bones any time I get within the vicinity of these 'premium' stores.

Who knows if we'll even be able to enter any of these stores with our paltry, peasant $80 purchase? Will the doors be locked entirely, prompting me to open the store page and fork out for the upgrade? Will I be able to enter, but told that I'm not quite elite enough to get a new paint job—of either the vehicular or manicure variety? There's no winning strategy here besides paying the full, big hundo. And even then, I still feel like I'm losing.

To me, it's a bad sign of what's to come. Not just for GTA, but for videogames. Locking off little pockets of the map for only the biggest spenders does not feel good, especially when it's for a singleplayer game. It doesn't even seem to be ending at cosmetics, either—the pre-order page also lists "action" as something reserved for the Ultimate Edition buyers.

What that looks like isn't totally clear right now—at the very least, it seems to be referring to a series of side missions called PTT Youngin$ Compound and Scores, where you'll raid this gang's store for contraband and special items. This stuff used to be in the game for no additional cost, guys! Come on, now.

The worst part is, this is going to work. The FOMO of shuttered stores and exclusive cars will entice a whole bunch of people to settle on the more expensive version. And quite frankly, I can't blame them. But I also wish Rockstar had simply folded all of this in and offered a flat $100 videogame. That probably would've pissed people off too, but I'd prefer this over paywalling stuff that's been a part of the series for years and acting like it's some kind of cool bonus. Instead, the whole thing comes off as mighty greedy.

Grand Theft Auto 6—which you would be forgiven for thinking is a videogame, but is actually a civilisational event on par with man's exile from Eden—got a big infodump today, ahead of its preorders kicking off. One smidge of that infodump? A treasure trove of new screenshots to market the game's pricier Ultimate Edition, showing off Vice City, protagonists Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos, and a lot of guns 'n' cars.

Obviously, you would like to look at them, and I am nothing if not a servant of your will. So here are all the new screenshots Rockstar has published from GTA 6, divided conveniently by content.

Jason and Lucia

I'll be honest, I find these shots the most exciting. Ever since GTA 4, I've mourned the robust customisation options Rockstar gave us for CJ in GTA: San Andreas. Sure, GTA 5 had a suite of options, but I never felt like Michael, Franklin, or Trevor could get as varied as CJ could back in the day. Here, though? Jason and Lucia can look really dang different, aided in no small part by just how impressive Rockstar's graphics tech has gotten in the 13 years since GTA 5's release.

Guns guns guns

Looks like GTA 6 expands a whole bunch of GTA 5's relatively paltry gun cosmetics, taking a leaf out of Red Dead Redemption 2's book to let you style your weapons of war in all manner of ways. Including putting your names on them. Which seems like a bad thing to do. As a criminal.

Cars

Yes, Rockstar still likes cars a whole bunch, and I must admit they do look very good as they lounge in Vice City's sunset and neon. These are Ultimate Edition screens, remember—small temptations to get you to fork over $100 for the game's rich-guy edition, so if you want to get your hands on a lot of these wheels in particular, be prepared to pay for it.

Stores of Vice City

One of Rockstar's more egregious moves with its preorder campaign is that there are a few fancy customisation shops—tattoo parlours, vehicle mod joints—that will be straight-up closed if you don't have the (more) expensive edition. They do look nice though. Vice City's petit-bourgeoisie look like a classic rogue's gallery of Rockstar freaks and weirdos.

Boats

Florida, remarkably, is surrounded by water, and it sure looks like you'll be spending a lot of your time on the surf as you do your various crimes. My favourite part: that's a damn dolphin, no doubt rendered with Rockstar's classically unhinged attention to detail.

Well, gamers. It's been months of rumours and analysts offering their thoughts on what Grand Theft Auto 6 was going to cost. The big $100 has been thrown around a bunch in that time, despite living in a world where normal videogames cost $70. In this morning's meeting with a couple fellow PC Gamer writers, I theorised $80 would probably be the number.

Turns out, we were both right. Kinda.

In anticipation of pre-orders going live on June 25—here's when that'll be for wherever you are in the world—Rockstar has already laid out how much you can expect to pay. It's offering two editions, Standard and Ultimate, coming in at $80 and $100 respectively. Except I'd argue that the $80 is more of a basic edition, if Rockstar's insane marketing on the big hundo version is anything to go by.

That's because the Ultimate Edition is set to contain "an exclusive collection of premium vehicles, weapons, apparel, and action threaded across all aspects of Jason and Lucia’s story." How does that look in practice? Well, we know there's at least one exclusive salon offering haircuts for both characters, with makeup and manicures for Lucia and facial hair for Jason. There's also an Ultimate Edition-exclusive mod shop, where you can "transform vanilla vehicles into magnificent works of art with detailed interiors, exquisite rims, and donk stylings." That's perhaps the most egregious one in all of the Ultimate Edition "goodies".

Whether these are customisation options you can only get with the Ultimate Edition, or whether there'll be some peasant stores for us $80 buyers, isn't entirely clear yet. Either way, I definitely have thoughts on locking away some of the coolest things about the series behind an extra 20 bucks.

I really can't help but feel like $100 is the price Rockstar (or at least the big wigs) want to charge. "Hey guys! You want the FULL Grand Theft Auto 6 gaming experience? It's only an extra $20!!" Or something like that. The developer is certainly marketing the Ultimate Edition as the best way to play GTA 6—literally, the pre-order news says it "amplifies the deepest and most immersive GTA experience yet".

• We're keeping track of all the Amazon Prime Day PC gaming deals here

It does also feel a little strange to see all these extra cosmetics for a game we've barely seen any actual gameplay for yet. But hey, that's modern videogames for you, I suppose.

Locked shops and cosmetics aside, I am still pretty excited for Grand Theft Auto 6. All the excitement of new screenshots has been dampened somewhat by knowing they come with an extra price tag, but it's done the job of both giving me FOMO and making me hungry to see more of what Leonida has to offer.

The GTA 6 pre-orders are going live soon, letting you pre-purchase your chosen edition of the game for when it launches in November. You might be wondering why there's so much fuss around a pre-order, but since GTA 5, a GTA release has become a once-in-a-decade global phenomenon, even if it isn't confirmed when we'll be getting it on our personal computers.

Rockstar has officially released info explaining when pre-orders go live for each region, so I'll explain that down below, plus a few other things we've learned today.

GTA 6 pre-order release times

You can pre-order Grand Theft Auto 6 on June 25 at midnight local time. Yes, that means no simultaneous release across the globe, but it'll actually vary based on where you live. The info was shared on Rockstar Games official instagram, so you can believe the validity of the source. Sadly, there's no word of a PC release date yet, but it'll most likely come later on as with the previous game.

Rockstar has released info about each edition of the game and their bonuses on its official site. It does look like GTA 6 will also cost $79.99 and $99.99 according to info that's emerged, which is a little more expensive than many were expecting.

We might also get to see a new trailer when pre-orders drop as an added incentive, though I guess with where the hype's currently at it might not even be necessary. Hopefully those pre-ordering will get to see more of the game before they do anyway.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is still five months away (on consoles, remember, no PC release date yet) and preorders won't be live until later this week. But that apparently hasn't stopped numerous websites from promising eager fans that they can get early access to the game right now for a price. Lest there be any doubt, cybersecurity company Malwarebytes is warning that they're nothing but a scam.

A report posted today says "a new wave of scam websites" are offering "VIP early access" to the next GTA in exchange for a grossly inflated price of "a few hundred dollars," payable in cryptocurrency. Malwarebyte also shared a few images of the scam sites in question.

One site leverages GTA 6, Mr. Beast, and Lego all at the same time—a powerful combo, no doubt.

But of course, there's nothing to be had. Worse, because payments are made in crypto, there's no way to recover or report the loss. The money is gone and there's no getting it back.

Stefan Dasic of Malwarebytes described GTA 6 as "the perfect bait" for scams like this in his report. Grand Theft Auto is among the biggest game franchises in the world, with hundreds of millions of copies sold, and it's been 13 years since GTA 5. The hype for GTA 6 is enormous, and "scammers simply exploit that excitement."

You might think that this sort of thing is way too obvious for anyone to fall for, but as a wise old friend once told me, you don't know what you don't know. I've been online for almost as long as 'online' has existed, and I write about this stuff for a living—but a 14-year-old with a smartphone, no matter how hip to the scene he may appear, might be tempted to take a shot.

But it's not just kids, to be clear. As the report points out (and as we've all no doubt seen once or twice in our lives), burning desire can overwhelm chilled caution, and verbiage used on these scam sites encourage impulsive decisions. They also look pretty legit, and the situation is further confused by the fact that preordering a more expensive edition for "advance access" to a new release is very common for videogames now.

• We're keeping track of all the Amazon Prime Day PC gaming deals here

Dasic said Malwarebytes doesn't have information on how many people are visiting these sites but the bottom line is that, like all scams, they persist because they work.

"I am amazed when I see which scams managed to fool people," Dasic told PC Gamer. "There will always be at least one person that will fall for this—either being too young, or too immature, probably not well informed and just wanting to be the first to have their hands on something before everyone else."

Just about everyone is hot to trot for GTA 6, but keep this in mind and keep a clear head: There is no Grand Theft Auto 6 early access at this point. If Rockstar does announce some kind of premium "advance access" for GTA 6, you should only buy it from official sources. And last but certainly not least, if a site is insisting that you pay with crypto it's time to put your hand on your wallet and head for the door. (That last one is pretty much a universal truth, though, so apply it across the board.)

Grand Theft Auto 6 is set to launch for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on November 19, and preorders—official, real, not-a-scam preorders—will begin on June 25. We're still waiting for the PC version to be announced.

I've spent an inordinate amount of my life watching Grand Theft Auto machinima over the last decade. And while I can certainly appreciate the amount of editing and effort that goes into each video's production—I don't always think of that toil when gawping at the finished article. According to filmmaker Jordy Veenstra, however, that polished end result only tells half the story.

To this end, Veenstra recently broadcast a pair of "Machinima Dev Streams" on YouTube and Twitch, offering viewers a rare look behind the curtain at the often messy, highly technical process of creating films inside GTA 5. Rather than focusing on a completed project, the streams documented the work as it happened through the lens of location scouting, scene-staging, camera planning, technical troubleshooting, and the occasional game crash for good measure.

"Instead of sharing and reflecting upon the final cinematic product, the streams showcased the creative process in real time," Veenstra explains. "The viewers could observe how environments were not merely evaluated for their aesthetics but also for factors such as symbolism, lighting conditions, narrative intentions and composition."

The streams also highlighted the less glamorous side of machinima production. Veenstra demonstrated the use of tools such as Menyoo and ScriptHookVDotNet while experimenting with staging techniques and in-game programming solutions. Some ideas worked, while others didn't. At one point, the game froze entirely, forcing a restart mid-stream.

"Sometimes things don't work the way we want to and we must work around them," Veenstra says, describing it as one of the key lessons of machinima production. "In true machinima-type fashion, the game even crashed a few times live on stream or froze in such a way that the stream had to be restarted: all with live debugging.

"These events are all examples of the hands-on and participative nature of machinima (such as testing, rehearsing, adjusting and on-the-fly decision-making) and I think the streams captured them very well from a wide angle perspective."

Veenstra explains that the idea for the streams emerged from a simple question—that after spending countless hours working alone on projects, he'd wondered whether there might be value in sharing the "creative process, lines of thought, hardships, euphoria, bugs/workarounds and other events" that filmmakers encounter during production.

Through this, the response has been positive enough that more streams are already being considered. Future broadcasts could explore subjects ranging from framing and depth-of-field techniques to virtual lighting systems inside VRChat, Veenstra says, where creators can build real-time light shows using DMX protocols commonly found in physical venues.

Veenstra adds: "I hope during future Machinima Dev streams that I am able to share broader creative insights from a multitude of technical angles, software and games, all within a typical hands-on fashion.

"I started this series of streams on a single line of thought. I was working by myself on machinima projects for hours on end and simply wondered: wouldn't it be interesting to share some of the creative process, lines of thought, hardships, euphoria, bugs, workarounds and other events that I encounter on a day-to-day basis for fellow filmmakers, machinima artists or other enthusiasts to see?"

I got pretty excited when I saw the gator on the recently announced Grand Theft Auto 6 cover art yesterday, besides from being an icon of Florida, they're also just cute lil guys. But it seems that I'm not as big of a fan as I thought, because there's something not right about that gator.

"Something seemed off with the number of teeth the gator on the cover had (of course it did—why didn't I think of that) so I did a count and it seems the gator has 60 teeth," ITehJelleh says in a Reddit post. For those of you who are thinking "So what", first off, you're just as uncultured as I am, and secondly that's a big difference to how many gators are meant to have.

gta6 from r/GTA6/comments/1u9tdlr/mistake_with_the_gta_6_cover

"Alligators normally have 74-80 teeth so this is way below the normal amount," ITehJelleh adds. Gators do also go through something called continuous replacement, which sees them constantly lose and regrow teeth, they can apparently go through 2,000 to 3,000 teeth in a lifetime. So maybe this gator is just having a rough one, or just a juvenile .

On the flip side, it could just be a silly mistake—but one that has rocked players to their core. "Unplayable," one fan jokes. "This is just going to be another Cyberpunk release." Others join in voicing their disappointment with Rockstar—"pre-order cancelled"—and who can blame them? Gators are sacred.

But how could Rockstar make such a simple mistake? Well, ITehJelleh thinks it could all be part of something bigger: "Could it potentially have a meaning?" Yeah, ok, I'll play ball. What if we're getting another trailer in 60 days, on August 17, or maybe there'll be 60 different dirt bikes to collect in-game. What if the game opens with you having to fight 60 gators? Not sure of any of that really sticks though, maybe it really was just a simple error. Anyways, I'm just going to stick with the moon for all my GTA theories.

It may sound impossible, but the wait for Grand Theft Auto 6 is almost over. After a couple of delays, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has reassured fans that GTA 6 will release on November 19 this year, and now we have the pre-order date to prove it.

Rockstar just randomly—hold on a second, let me check what moon phase we're in—yup, randomly announced that pre-orders for GTA 6 will start on June 25, which is just a week away. Everyone, try to keep your composure.

Alongside the pre-order announcement came the official cover art reveal. It's nothing particularly surprising, as it follows the same design we've seen before with multiple fluorescent images spliced onto the cover. It's almost a shot for shot recreation of Vice City's cover art, with a couple of images swapped around.

This time we've got our main protagonists, Jason Duval and Lucua Caminos, a speed boat, a sports car, a helicopter, a hot chick, and then a couple of dudes with guns and motorbikes. Oh, there's also gator, because Florida—I mean Leonida.

Then, if you look extra close at the tattoo under the woman's bikini strap you can see it reads "Vice Baby". This checks out as GTA 6 takes place in the fictional state of Leonida, which is based off of Florida, and will let players return to the sunny streets of Vice City, the fictional city which is based off of Miami.

But aside from nitpicking at the details, players just seem elated to have any new information thrown their way, which is understandable considering we haven't had anything major since GTA 6's second trailer which came out over a year ago now. But now all we have to do is wait one week for pre-orders to open and then 21 more weeks for the game to release—easy!

For reasons I can't quite explain—except to admit that San Andreas was very good—the entire Earth has become one big millenarian cult awaiting the arrival of Grand Theft Auto 6, which will purge us of our sins and deliver us to apocatastasis. It will also make four hundred quintillion dollars.

No wonder, then, that its current November 2026 release date squats on the calendar like a big criminal troll, warding off any who come near. No studio wants to release in the vicinity of GTA 6, leading to a very lopsided 2026 release calendar in which every game has tried to squeeze itself into September. Well, every game but one.

"Maybe not *every* publisher," wrote Furyu Games in a post on X, responding to a Kotaku story titled "Sony’s State Of Play Showed That Every Publisher Is Terrified Of GTA 6". Furyu declared, boldly, like its upcoming roguelike Crymelight is due out November 5, two weeks prior to GTA 6's launch (and concurrent with Guy Fawkes Night; he would've been a fan). "Maybe we’re just not afraid enough".

Furyu has form for this sort of thing, as the studio itself notes: "Last year, [Furyu-published] Kemono Teatime launched on September 4... the same day as Hollow Knight: Silksong."

Which is, let's be absolutely clear here, very much a marketing manoeuvre. Being the plucky little studio that picks a David-and-Goliath fight with Rockstar is an arresting image, so arresting that Devolver Digital has made hay doing much the same thing—even moving the release date of an upcoming mystery game in order to make sure it releases on the exact same day as GTA 6.

But it's still pretty funny, if you ask me, and I suspect it's a good move for a smaller publisher whose games don't have GTA 6 levels of hype. Sure, releasing some big AAA thing the same month as "the largest game launch in history" won't do you any favours, but putting out a smaller game? Some of that GTA 6 aura might just rub off on you.

Someone has overdosed, so said the panicked man running down the street towards the infirmary. I follow, pushing through the red swing doors into the hospital reception area, and find a family huddled together in the adjacent waiting room. What happened, I ask. And I'm politely, but no less promptly, told to mind my own business.

They're right, of course. Because if this scenario were to unfold in real life, despite my best intentions, random strangers are indeed entitled to privacy. I should admire their manners in such a moment of distress, truth be told. Herein lies my first distinction that separates hyper-serious text-only Grand Theft Auto roleplay, and the fast-paced, voice-based servers I'm otherwise familiar with.

New world order

I've spent years cooking up off-the-wall roleplay encounters in the voice-based GTA 5 roleplay platform FiveM, and have revelled in the breakneck speed in which most of these encounters unfold. From robbing banks while posing as a journalist to running a nightclub as an active vampire, FiveM, in my opinion, is at its very best in its immediate experiences, where spontaneity and on-the-fly exchanges make and/or break each set-piece.

With speed comes variety—roleplayers definitely take themselves seriously in the throes of VOIP-only spaces, but if something goes awry or doesn't quite go to plan, the next tale is never far from the horizon. This is true of FiveM, alt:v, NoPixel, New Day, and the wealth of RP platforms whose servers tend towards all of the above, and while there definitely are players in it for the long haul, there is a strong element of pick-up-and-play to the majority of sessions I've ever experienced.

The opposite is true in text-only servers. I've long been intimidated by the seriousness of these spectrums, to the point where I've pretty much avoided them entirely. And while I've barely dipped my toes into the narrative-heavy scene at this stage, I've nevertheless been blown away by what I've seen so far. Stepping away from FiveM et al's action-oriented roleplay, what I've found has been more thoughtful, more precise and more longer-form; where stories gradually develop and actions have genuine consequences.

The hospital example above is but one pretty superficial example, but I've played in enough VOIP servers to confidently suggest the same scenario would have unfolded like a high-drama soap opera.

As a plumber who recently moved to Los Santos following the death of his family, I'm currently pursuing an honest life. The allure of the city's criminal underbelly is there bubbling away under the surface—this is GTA, after all—but my most enjoyable RP experience last week was installing a bathroom suite for a young student couple in Vinewood. It was a nice evening by the time I'd sealed the last fitting, so I decided to walk home. I chatted to a man busking on the edge of Union Square about the stock market. I went home and had an early night. It was lovely.

And so here I am, pausing the monotony of real life in the city of Glasgow to lose myself in the monotony of pretend life in the city of Los Santos. Perhaps it's an age thing. Perhaps it's getting older and realising that the unbridled chaos of vanilla GTA Online—where it's sometimes difficult to walk 10 paces without being sniped or stabbed or blown to pieces by a flying motorcycle equipped with homing missiles—is sometimes too much. Perhaps it's realising that the meme-inspiring, TikTok-fueling, fast-pace-favouring RP scene is fun but exhausting.

And perhaps it's realising that there's something endearing about being content just existing in a quieter slant on San Andreas—where today it's about fitting toilets, and in six months it could be about owning my own plumbing firm and treating someone else to the pleasure of working for me.

In GTA Online I have an arsenal of guns and umpteen illicit businesses. In FiveM I have an unhinged personality and a thousand faces. In GTA World I have a backstory and a civilian's dream.

I've written before about just how much I love Grand Theft Auto's radio stations. Rockstar has an incredible knack for musical curation, and there's nary been a track in those games that I haven't vibed with. Hell, I've spent most of my life as a raging emo in England and I absolutely loved the country-bumpkin-as-hell K-Rose back in San Andreas.

I've also got a huge soft spot for Non Stop Pop in Grand Theft Auto 5—Cara Delevingne's borderline robotic London accent cutting through nostalgic bangers from the '80s, '90s, and '00s like Amerie's 1 Thing and Pet Shop Boys' West End Girls, later introducing some more modern tracks like Lorde's Tennis Court and M83's Midnight City.

Every game in the series is always home to a huge spread of stations that cover just about every genre you could wish for, and it gives Rockstar so much room to play around with iconic tunes and more niche things you'd only otherwise hear from your mate-of-a-mate-of-a-mate-of-a-mate at a 4am after drinks in some stranger's diabolically tiny flat.

With Grand Theft Auto 6 set to take place in a modern-day Vice City, that gives the developer even greater liberty to go ham on which tracks it includes. We've got a whole Covid era of TikTok songs that feel like they'd fit right into the Florida-adjacent Leonida (but please no Dance Monkey, I beg of you), plus a wealth of untapped 80s and 90s tunes that would be fitting of this digital sunshine state.

We've got over a decade's worth of artists to pick from since Rockstar last added songs to Grand Theft Auto 5 who I think would be incredible for some late-night drives—PinkPanthress, Charlie XCX, Kaytranada, and Tame Impala come to mind as just a few who would absolutely bang in the new game. And my inner emo would love to see bands like Fontaines D.C., Don Broco, and Spiritbox appearing in Rockstar's oft-criminally underutilised modern rock stations.

But what about you? Are there some of your favourite artists who you think would fit Grand Theft Auto 6's world of Leonida perfectly? Or are there tracks you hope make it in just because they're funny, or would annoy a mate of yours? Do you want TikTok brainrot tracks? Please say no to that one.

Whoever or whatever you've got in mind, be sure to drop a comment and let us know the artists and tracks on your personal wishlist. After all, we're gonna be spending an awful lot of time in cars in that game—the songs better be good!

It's not that it's impossible to do some good deeds in Rockstar games like GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2. It's just that more often than not, you're on the other side of the law. Doing crimes. Getting chased. Fighting the cops. Being an upstanding citizen isn't really the aim of any of Rockstar's playable characters. (And, to be fair, most of Rockstar's law-enforcing "good guys" are just as terrible as the crooks.)

But in worlds built on crime and criminals, it can be fun to play from the other side of the handcuffs from time to time. Red Dead Redemption First Response (RDRFR) is a mod that lets you play as the law. Be the sheriff in a small town. Serve as marshall and hunt down outlaws. You can even be a copper in the booming city of St. Denis. It's similar to the mod for GTA 4 and 5 that let you fight crime as the police.

And conveniently, once installed, you can choose to activate the mod whenever you want in your singleplayer game. Just walk into the sheriff's office in any town (you'll see the star on your map showing you where) to begin your shift. Also inside the sheriff's office you'll see a wardrobe you can use (if you want) to change your clothes into the sheriff's uniform you like most, from the classic St. Denis cop uniform to a marshall's outfit to just normal cowboy clothes that have a shiny star pinned to the vest.

You can even change your character model, if you want to get into the roleplaying a bit more, and cycle through randomized lawmen until you get one you want. When you go off duty, your character will switch back to good old Arthur Morgan.

I decide to begin my law enforcement career in the tiny, dusty town of Tumbleweed, imagining I'm a brand new deputy with no experience. And if I do some good, I'll eventually promote myself to a nicer and bigger town. I walk into the jail, activate the mod using the ledger on the sheriff's desk, then visit the wardrobe to choose my lawman, finding a scruffy old coot with a handlebar moustache. Perfect! I look like the least-drunk of the town drunks, the guy a sheriff would swear in as a deputy simply because he was the best choice out of a bunch of terrible choices.

As I stroll around town, a citizen runs up to me to report a crime. That was quick! A horse has been stolen, and my first job is to recover it. Thus begins my career in law enforcement, which results in an entire day chasing one damn horse all over the map.

I'm not sure if it's the mod or if it's me, but the act of calming the horse, a common activity in RDR2, just isn't working. When I get anywhere near the horse, it bolts. I try riding my own horse after it, I try sneaking, I try walking slowly and calmly, I call to it, but the horse is so damn skittish I simply can't catch it. This isn't the sort of crime I'd pictured myself facing when I signed up. Chasing horse thieves down, sure. Simply following a runaway horse? No.

I eventually give up, go back to the jail, and go off duty. The horse, marked with a dot on my minimap, vanishes. Not a great first day on the job.

The next day is more promising. Another citizen runs up just as I go on duty, telling me there's a wanted killer in town. The map shows a search area, which covers almost the entire town, as well as a few small pips on my minimap indicating citizens who might have some information. I stroll around, ordering people to stop what they're doing and talk to me through a new interface added by the mod. Sometimes they'll give me information about what the fugitive looks like. Other times they'll give me a location. Sometimes they'll simply refuse to help (can't blame them, really) even if I threaten them.

But once I have two pieces of information about the fugitive, they're revealed on my map and I can chase them down.

I locate the first fugitive thanks to a woman standing in the town graveyard. Seems rude to interrogate a mourner, but the law doesn't sleep. She tips me off to a guy near the saloon. But as I creep around the back of the building, he comes down the steps and pops me right in the dome. I'm dead! My career as a lawman so far consists of failing to catch a horse and getting shot in the face.

After respawing, I take another shift, and use another feature of the mod: the ability to recruit a partner. I walk over to a fellow sheriff and tell him to follow me as we begin searching for another fugitive in town. This time I narrow down the culprit's location to the graveyard, and wouldn't you know it? It's the same woman who gave me the tip about yesterday's fugitive. She opens fire when we get close, so I sprint around the corner and get out my lasso, determined to make my first arrest.

I nab her with my rope but my partner didn't get the memo. He keeps shooting, killing her before I can tie her up.

Cloaked in failure, and feeling Tumbleweed is a bit too small to fight crime when there's only a handful of people who can turn out to secretly be villains, I head to Blackwater, more of a proper town. Maybe here I'll get a little more action and a chance to actually arrest someone properly.

The fates aren't with me, however. A woman runs into the sheriff's office to report a fugitive, and I start interrogating the locals for clues. One fella won't cooperate, but two more give me the perp's appearance and location. Which turns out to be right across the street from where I'm standing, and he immediately opens fire.

I ready my lasso to arrest him, but some enterprising citizen takes out a gun and shoots the suspect in the head.

Sheesh! With citizens as trigger-happy as that, does the town even need an extra sheriff?

Mod Jobs

Other professions I’d like to see in Red Dead Redemption 2 mods

The next crime is a group of armed outlaws, who strangely spawn in the water and slowly swim to shore while I patiently wait for them with my rifle. It's a decent gunfight, and I manage to lasso the final outlaw and ride him back into town on my horse. I throw him in a jail cell, but having failed to frisk him, he pulls out a knife and stabs me.

I want to be very clear that my intent was to punch him. And I do punch him! Unfortunately, I am also holding a knife, so my punch kills him. Whoops. I lock the cell door and slink away, yet another arrest tarnished.

Okay, enough small town blues. It's time for the big city. St. Denis. I have in no way earned my promotion, but I'm taking it anyway. And here, things finally begin going my way. Another fugitive investigation leads me to find the suspect calming eating dinner in the saloon, and me and my partner get to approach his table with our guns drawn, tell him to put his hands up, frisk him for weapons, then tie him up and call for backup (by blowing my police whistle) to take him away on their horse.

It's like an episode of Law and Order, except the cops on that show use handcuffs instead of lassos and usually don't take suspects away on horseback. But most importantly, I've finally arrested someone and there wasn't any bloodshed!

Not all suspects go so quietly, and there are still a few shootouts that day. But one crook leads me on a non-violent chase through the city—he's not shooting but he's not surrendering, either—letting me sprint down the sidewalks knocking people out of my way until I finally put a single round in his leg, and then tie him up. Fun!

The shootouts in St Denis are usually exciting, too. With so many (relatively) tall buildings, narrow alleyways, and gated areas, the crooks can appear on rooftops, behind fences, and inside buildings. It's fun racing through the city while my partner follows, taking cover, and trading hot lead with the outlaws because you never know exactly where they'll appear. I'm killed once, my partner is killed once, and a few times we wind up with wounds but still come out ahead.

So if you try RDRFR yourself, I'd definitely suggest the St. Denis beat. It just works much better there than in the smaller, scruffier towns. Just stop by the sheriff's office and go on duty for a few hours.

And when you're done, you can go right back to being the outlaw in the equation.

Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two Interactive (which owns Rockstar, as well as several other companies) has a pretty middling view on AI. He's not purely against it (of course not, he's a CEO), but he's at least been relatively realistic about not only its potential, but also what its adoption will mean for the company as a whole.

Those are comments echoed in an investors meeting (shared here by YouTuber FunThere) wherein Zelnick commented on a hypothetical put forward by another tech bigwig that AI would let a team of three people make a GTA. Zelnick takes issue with the idea that "therefore they will make a hit that's as big as GTA, and there's zero evidence for that."

He continues: "Making hits seems to get harder and harder and harder as entertainment industries mature, we do not have a monopoly on hit creation … Arrogance is the enemy of continued success. I don't believe for a minute that technological advances give someone else an edge or give us an edge.

"It's just the toolset, it's available to everyone. The key thing is that all of this is gonna be totally commoditised. Show me one AI company—just one—who's offering their services or products to companies on an exclusive basis. They don't exist. So when that executive has that button to push, I'll have the same damn button."

Zelnick then gives certain studios the side-eye: "The folks at Rockstar seem to be able to make these massive hits, and lots of other people have tried. Lots and lots including former Rockstar employees—and so far they haven't been able to do it."

He doesn't mention it by name, but it's hard to imagine a higher-profile, recent example of what he's talking about that isn't MindsEye. Here we have a game put together by former Rockstar North president Leslie Benzies' studio, which has spent the past few months trying to convince itself and the public that internal saboteurs are responsible for the fact its first proper game isn't good.

Also by making a DLC where they vaguepost about the supposed saboteurs which, wouldn't you know it, also kinda sucks. Either way, that's gotta sting.

Still, that's not a reason to grow complacent: "Doesn't mean they can't in the future, by the way, we're always running scared. It won't be technology that changes the game. That won't be the change. What'll change is that some extraordinarily creative individual or individuals are gonna show up and do something astonishing.

"Our goal is to get those people to work within the Take-Two system, if we fail to do that? We fail. If we continue to be the home of creativity, the company that welcomes and encourages and supports and finances the best talent in the business, then the rest will take care of itself."

Grand Theft Auto 6 developer Rockstar fired 31 employees in October 2025, allegedly—according to the terminated employees—because they were trying to form a union. Rockstar denied those allegations, however, and said the employees were terminated because they revealed "specific game features from upcoming and unannounced titles" in "a public forum."

Legal action was filed against Rockstar over the firings, and that matter is still working its way through the system. But one outcome has been reached: Rockstar workers have formed a union.

The Rockstar Game Workers Union (via Game Developer) is a part of the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain, the union that's been leading the effort against Rockstar on behalf of the employees who were fired in 2025. The union was announced with a play on gamers' longstanding desire for the next Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer: "The video GTA fans have been waiting for."

GTA fans have been on the edge of their seats at the rumours a new video is about to drop…Well the wait is over.We present: the public launch of the Rockstar IWGB Game Workers Union.Our platform, to tell our story.youtu.be/iLOq_6rOpoM

— @rsgworkersunion.bsky.social (@rsgworkersunion.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-05-28T22:29:04.668Z

Instead of a videogame trailer, though, the video recaps the events of the past seven months, from the dismissal of 31 employees last year through protests at Rockstar offices, a commitment from the UK government to investigate the matter, and the legal action filed by the IWGB. And, the union says, rather than impeding unionization efforts, Rockstar's actions only catalyzed them.

"We are now bigger and stronger than ever with more and more workers joining from across every one of Rockstar's sites in Edinburgh, London, Leeds, Lincoln, and Dundee," the narrator states. "Together, we are organizing around the things we want to change, starting with pay transparency, flexible working, and an end to crunch."

The union is also raising funds to pay for its legal case against Rockstar: "We're determined to win justice for the 31 fired workers and to show studios like Rockstar that they cannot get away with this disgusting treatment of the people whose talent, skill, and creativity are what capture their audiences and generate their billions."

Rockstar does indeed expect to earn billions on Grand Theft Auto 6: Parent company Take-Two Interactive said last week that it expects revenues for its 2027 fiscal year to surpass $8 billion, a year-over-year increase of more than $1 billion powered by the console release of GTA 6 on November 19. We're still waiting for official word on a PC version.

I've reached out to Rockstar for comment on the new union and will update after I receive a reply.

Grand Theft Auto 6's impending arrival has left other developers worried about how their own game will fare in the face of one of the most anticipated launches of all time. It looks like Remedy's new CEO, Jean-Charles Gaudechon, isn't one of them.

Chatting to The Game Business, Gaudechon is pretty sanguine about the whole thing, despite it serving as steep competition for any action game launching in 2026, including Control Resonant.

“It’s a year, I believe, that’s going to raise the tide,” Gaudechon says. “It’s going to put the spotlight even more on games than maybe in past years. Hopefully [GTA] will sell consoles. And raise the tide for all the players out there."

It's an optimistic perspective, but also a pretty practical one. While, yes, GTA 6 is going to be a massive launch, sucking all the oxygen out of the room, it's still just one game. Even with GTA Online, most players will finish the campaign and then be looking for new things.

I've pretty much shelved my PS5, but since that's going to be the only way I'll be able to play GTA 6, since the PC version hasn't even been announced yet, I'll be dusting off the console. Maybe a lot of you will be, as well. Which might also inspire you to keep playing on it, maybe picking up Control Resonant.

I suspect it's also going to attract folk who skipped this console generation initially. And they might stick around after.

“[For us], it’s less about trying to make your money back in a few days," Gaudechon says. "Now you’ve got multiple ways to have a longer tail. It’s going to be fun. You can expect quality from us. You can expect a voice that will cut through the noise. Expect us to be as loud as we can and hopefully pique people’s interest."

In the interview, Gaudechon also discussed the reaction to his appointment in February—there were concerns about his time at EA working on live service games and sports betting platforms—and the need to make cross-media deals to build up Remedy's franchises like Alan Wake and Control.

The Rage:MP multiplayer platform for Grand Theft Auto 5 says it will begin a "structured shutdown" after receiving a cease-and-desist order from GTA publisher Take-Two Interactive.

The news of the looming closure was shared by the admin team in the Rage:MP forums (via Dextero): "Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive have made it clear that FiveM is the only authorized platform for GTA 5 multiplayer modding, as defined in their Platform License Agreement (PLA). In accordance with that policy, and at Take-Two's request, Rage:MP will begin a structured shutdown process. We are asking all server owners to wind down their operations and migrate to FiveM."

FiveM was the big daddy of multiplayer customization modding platforms for Grand Theft Auto 5, enabling players to engage with the game in ways that Rockstar probably didn't envision—like trying to start a GTA Online fight club and ending up with a shirtless gang called The Friendly Boys, for instance, or becoming a big game trophy hunter and then getting murdered in the forest by a psycho who takes issue with your hobbies. (I guess that boy wasn't so friendly after all.)

Rockstar put considerable effort into banning FiveM for violating its policies as "an unauthorized alternate multiplayer service that contains code designed to facilitate piracy," but eventually (possibly after it noticed all the money trucks that kept rolling by) it relented and bought the Cfe.rx team that makes it instead. In 2025, Rockstar announced Nopixel V, "the next evolution of the GTA 5 Roleplay experience," and now, inevitably, it's also the only permissible GTA 5 roleplay experience.

Rage:MP admins said as a result of Take-Two's request, public access to its server toolkit has been discontinued and no new community servers will be accepted; current owners of Rage:MP servers are encouraged to migrate to FiveM as soon as possible. On June 1, the Rage:MP public server listing will be shut down, and on August 31, everything else goes away: The game client and server toolkit will no longer be available or supported, and all backend infrastructure will be shut down.

"We know this is tough news for everyone—both developers and players," the team wrote in their farewell message. "As FiveM is now Rockstar Games' official platform for modding-based experiences, we've done our best to give you extra time to move your servers to their new home, and we will continue to do everything we can to make the switch over as smooth as possible.

"All of us have put a huge amount of time and energy into building Rage:MP. Thank you for being part of this journey and for everything you've done to help multiplayer grow. Rage:MP was always defined more by the community than by the codebase."

It is rare that I sit down and write one of these 'CEO has spoken' articles with a charitable mind, mostly because I have this irritating habit of punching up, but also because they are, typically, a little divorced from reality. Like the head of Amazon Games saying videogames don't really have voice acting, or Microsoft's Satya Nadella trying to retroactively justify AI for the nth time.

Which is why I have to come forward and say that Take-Two CEO, Strauss Zelnick, has been extremely reasonable in a recent interview with IGN. When asked whether or not Red Dead Online is considered a missed opportunity—and it has, admittedly, been less of a breadwinner for the publisher than GTA Online—he had this to say:

"So let me be clear. There is literally nothing about Red Dead selling 85 million units that could signal a missed opportunity. And Red Dead Online has been immensely successful and long lasting."

Furthermore, Zelnick adds, even if GTA Online didn't exist, producing one of the other most successful open-world videogame franchises out there would also be absolutely fine: "I think if we didn't have Grand Theft Auto here at our company, then people would just talk about the fact that we have this massive franchise in Red Dead.

"I actually personally think Red Dead is just amazing and I love engaging with it. And I think the reason it continues to sell is that it's just spectacular entertainment. It's beautiful and it feels very up to date despite the fact that it's not a new title."

As to whether or not Red Dead Online is a little underserved from a player perspective, well—that's another thing entirely. I'm not partial to Rockstar's online games myself, but the PC Gaming Show's own Joe Donelly noted last year that "despite its scope to match the ambition of GTA Online once upon a time, RDO instead persists in the lurching shadow of its modern day cousin."

But that's a bit different from the business-related implication that Red Dead Online is somehow a missed opportunity. I'd argue selling 85 million copies of anything is good enough, even if you never updated its online component ever again.

And while I've got sympathies for RDO's doubtless passionate playerbase, I'm not sure every game with an online slice needs to be a perpetually-maintained live service mill. I even kind of miss the day where superfluous multiplayer modes would come and go—but hey, I'm a games journalist, and my live service fatigue doesn't speak for cowboys, cowgirls, and horse girls everywhere.

Do you remember where you were just over a year ago, on May 6, 2025? That's when Rockstar released its second trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6 and also confirmed its updated release date: May 26, 2026. Neither can I, but I do know I was excited as all hell alongside every other gamer, and that's what makes today so painful.

A few months went by before Rockstar made the announcement that the floodgates to Leonida wouldn't open on May 26, instead delaying it for a second time to November 19, 2026, to "allow us to finish the game with the level of polish you have come to expect and deserve."

It's never a bad idea to give developers more time to polish a game, and as Take-Two's CEO Strauss Zelnick previously said: "we've never regretted [a delay] in retrospect." But that doesn't mean the delay didn't leave a mark. Something that plenty of fans have reflected on, especially today.

If you dare venture over to GTA 6's subreddit you'll find a bevy of despairing fans, all mourning what could have been had Rockstar not delayed GTA 6 for the second time. People are reposting Rockstar's initial post about the May 26 release date, grasping at a reality that's no longer there.

There's a mountain of depressing videos. We've got Tobey Maguire's breakdown in Pawn Sacrifice, Al Pacino screaming his lungs out, and an obligatory James Gandolfini scene from The Sopranos.

Today was supposed to be the day for us all to rejoice. 🥺 from r/GTA6

Some dude even got all dressed up in their Sunday best and started queuing outside of GameStop: "I'm waiting in front of GameStop until it opens because they said that the game comes out today but I'm the only one here. I don't get it. I thought that everyone was excited for this game."

"Today was supposed to be the day for us all to rejoice," another player says. "Let's just pray there's no more delays." Well the good news is there won't be any more delays, that is if Zelnick is to be believed (I'd say that's a safe bet). And while I'm not sure I believe all the theorists claiming that Rockstar'll give fans some more scraps to chew on because today is such a special day, at least we only have to wait 176 days until its release—oh god, that's a long time.

Rockstar parent Take-Two Interactive has been adamant that the November 19 release date for Grand Theft Auto 6 is on track, but doubts have lingered: The game has already been delayed twice, after all. But at this point it looks solid: With just six months to go, Take-Two reaffirmed the date in today's FY2026 financial report, and said it expects to make a lot—and let me emphasize, a lot—of money on it.

"We believe fiscal 2027 will establish new record levels of operating performance driven by the November 19th launch of Grand Theft Auto 6, along with strong execution across our portfolio," Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said. "We expect to sustain this higher level of scale, generate strong cash flows, and deliver long-term shareholder value as we release our robust development pipeline, continue to optimize our live services and capitalize on new business opportunities."

Take-Two does indeed have a lot of very valuable games and properties to its name (come on, BioShock), but GTA is the unrivalled money machine. Consider: Take-Two reported $6.72 billion in revenues for its 2026 fiscal year, exceeding the high end of its guidance range—basically, what it expected to make in the year. Take-Two's guidance for the 2027 fiscal, though, is $8-$8.2 billion, a year-over-year hike of more than $1 billion.

"FY27 is poised to be a breakout year for Take-Two, led by the November 19th release of Grand Theft Auto 6—arguably, the most anticipated entertainment property of all time, and we are excited that Rockstar Games will start their marketing campaign this summer," Take-Two said.

Which makes for an easy segue into the "no news" part of the report: No trailer 3 today, no information on price, and the biggest 'no' of all, no confirmation of GTA 6 on PC.

Does any of that matter? If you're reading this, it's very likely you've already made up your mind about whether you're going to buy GTA 6 (you are), whether you care how much it costs (you don't), and whether you're cranky about this shoddy treatment of PC gamers because you're going to buy it on console on day one anyway (I remain cranky, but you do you). But as a matter of simply wanting to know what the hell is going on? Yeah, I think we're all pretty damn eager for that.

Summer, for the record, starts on June 21. I don't expect Take-Two is going to kick GTA 6 marketing off on that particular day just because Strauss Zelnick said "summer," but I'll be watching, just in case.

Last week, Best Buy sent emails to affiliates that teased a May 18 kick-off for Grand Theft Auto 6 preorders. The emails were presumably sent in error, but that didn't necessarily mean that the date was wrong: If GTA 6 is on target for its November 19 console release date, it wouldn't be shocking for pre-orders to start soon.

Alas, it is May 18 and no Grand Theft Auto 6 preorder button has appeared, and no new trailer has dropped, which some assumed would happen alongside the expected reveal of the price and preorder bonuses.

The day isn't over, but if it were going to happen today, it probably would've by now, I'm sorry to say. We'll update this article if that changes.

Over on the GTA 6 subreddit, users are passing around the "Fell For It Again Award" as expectations have once again been dashed.

I think we probably will get a preorder announcement, or at least a new trailer, relatively soon. Last year's trailer came in May, and it'd be typical of Rockstar to preempt Summer Game Fest with big news rather than participate directly. SGF kicks off on June 5.

I've heard rumours. Whispers of an underground rave for the ages, deep within the bowels of one of GTA Online's myriad entertainment venues, away from the prying eyes of the LSPD. The question is: where?

As a child of the '90s, I was a touch too young for the techno scene that swept the UK in the early stretch of the same decade, where community-led DIY club nights saw revellers packed into hatchback cars like sardines, windows down and ears pricked, following the rhythmic beats of a bass drum reverberating from a random field somewhere off the M6.

I was around instead for the post-millennium dance music movement, frequenting the likes of The Arches and the Sub Club in Glasgow on a weekly basis during my formative years, and spending every summer in Ibiza. GTA 5's After Hours update of 2018, then, was literally music to my ears with the likes of the Blessed Madonna, Tale of Us and Solomun—all of who feature in-game—among my favourite real-world DJs.

Now 40 years old, I've since hung up my dancing shoes—but as a one-time old-school raver, I've longed for, but have invariably struggled to find, a Grand Theft Auto roleplay scene slant on popular IRL events filled with like-minded soft shoe shufflers.

Enter Roleplay UK's 'BOILER ROOM', a fan-led GTA-inspired take on the real-world event of the same name, which ran its first ever night earlier this year. "No ticket raffles, No fighting, No egos," says the event's organiser Liam Miller. "Just people here for the love of music."

Turn it up

As a fellow techno enthusiast, Miller says he'd always wanted to launch an illegal rave inside GTA 5, and reckoned doing so within the game's RP scene made sense. After spending a fair chunk of time combing the Los Santos and Blaine County playground for the perfect spot—within the bounds of a map players have spent 13 years covering from pillar to post—the space beneath the Vanilla Unicorn strip club was deemed the prime location. After that, it was all about planning.

"One thing that was particularly enjoyable about running the event, and something I think worked really well, was taking the time to build everything up," Miller explains. "First off, I created a Tweedle account [an in-character social media app used within GTA RP servers to share in-character information] called "Boiler Room".

"I then started posting cryptic-style short and punchy posts with no context and without telling anyone it was me. Then I started putting up posters to draw more attention to the event, all pointing towards some sort of underground dance event coming up that was strictly invite-only.

"Now, in a world that's been explored every inch by most players, people tend to be lured in by what they don't know. 'Who is it?', 'Where is it?', that sort of thing, you know?"

Party planning

Indeed, the elusiveness of the event in its organisational phase lent it an air of exclusivity and intrigue that helped Miller sow the seeds firmly in his community. He snuck out of the woodwork to liaise with the heads of the server's organised crime outfits, for example, offering personal invites and ensuring only the most powerful players would have access to the underground initiative.

Then came the logistics. The food, the drink, the cost of it all in terms of in-server funds, the DJs, the photographers, and even, ahem, the less-than-legal wares that have perhaps been known to help hedonistic revellers enjoy nights like these that little bit more, both in-game and in the real world.

Miller says: "So, the planning was all done by me. Until the night itself, it was my baby, I steered it the way I wanted and planned it all out—and it was bloody stressful! I used a couple of Discord channels in order to organise all the food and drinks and how much I'd spend in-game, who I would order from, when the collections were to happen and all of those sorts of things.

"The next thing that made it a success was the drug NØISE, a custom narcotic brought in especially for the night. I can't thank the developers enough for this, especially BOBINZ. The server's Tiki Bar provided food and drink too, and without them I'd have been stumped—so a massive shout out to them."

Miller extends his praise to the staff at Roleplay.co.uk and their help in realising his vision from inception to execution. He adds: "I had thought of where in the city I wanted to host the event, but I needed decks and equipment set up and the staff took this way further than I could have imagined.

"They built me an interactive elevator behind a disused building that took us all down into a disused bunker, where they built a full club setting that I could use. With the secrecy around the event, the custom drug (which I roleplayed was coming in from overseas) and the fact we were telling people it wasn't just a standard MLO [map-loaded object], excitement was now high. So, a massive thanks to all the staff at Roleplay.co.uk."

Photography, such as the eye-catching imagery shared in this article, was captured by various members of the server's community—not least Just Shoot Photography—and security was, for the most part, handled by the Arms of Outcasts motorcycle club.

It just so happens that Miller is a sergeant at this particular MC, and his buddies helped ensure tensions stayed low while the energy remained high for the duration. With plenty of police roleplayers keen to shut down events such as these at the drop of a bat elsewhere on the server, maintaining order, Miller says, was especially important.

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times: I will never not be inspired by the boundless creativity that exists in the Grand Theft Auto roleplay scene.

From the first time I robbed a bank while pretending to be a journalist, to happening upon cool set-ups such as this one and reporting back from the outside looking in, I absolutely love how a game rooted in violence and crime continues to be stretched like pizza dough in some many different directions.

The arrival of GTA 6 will inevitably extend those horizons further than ever before, but in the shorter-term future, I can't wait to see what micro-scale events such as Miller's Boiler Room Los Santos do from here.

A quick glance at the event's still-active forum thread shows one player who was so inspired by the last outing, they've offered to livestream their own set at the next one. Whether or not that's possible remains to be seen—Miller is keen, but says there are some obstacles to be ironed out in order for it to happen—but what is nevertheless impressive is the broader cultural appeal the event has had within this community.

This, of course, captures the essence of techno culture on a much wider scale, and so to see that reflected in one of the most influential videogames of all time warms my old-school raving heart.

"I've gotta say, from a roleplay point of view, everyone really leaned into this," says Miller. "People didn't stop dancing the full time, and people were chatting about the made-up drug in the city for months afterwards—if I could get more in and things like that. It was really good and big love to the community."

With that same sense of nostalgia, then, my next question to Miller is one I've asked a thousand times in the wake of a killer rave: so, when's the next one?

"We're absolutely hoping to do another one!" he says. "This time with a bigger crowd, that would be sick—we counted 96 people at the first one, which is absolutely brilliant. But something more packed out than before with people just dancing and socialising, that'd be amazing.

"And as far as GTA 6 is concerned… Well, with roleplay and creative imagination, anything is possible."

The likelihood of another Grand Theft Auto 6 delay seems a whole lot less, well, likely now, as a reported leak out of Best Buy says preorders for the game—the most anticipated videogame in years, if you haven't been keeping score—will go live next week.

The leak was first reported by content creator Frogboyx1Gaming, who said on X (via Rockstar Intel) that an email sent to his Best Buy affiliate account revealed that preorders will go live on May 18. Things got serious when others chimed in to say they'd received the same email.

Another person has received the BestBuy GTA6 Preorder Email with video proof from r/GTA6

Affiliate links, simply put, are personalized links provided to websites, streamers, and content creators that enable them to earn a commission if one of their viewers orders a product using that link. We use them here at PC Gamer, too—here's our affiliate disclosure, breaking down exactly how it works.

Emails like this give affiliate partners a heads-up on what's coming, so they can prepare for what's coming and maximize their output appropriately. I think it's a safe bet, though, that this particular email was not supposed to go out today—either that, or Best Buy has remarkable (and remarkably misplaced) faith in the gaming community to not leak things.

As with all leaks, this one should be taken with a grain of salt: It's possibly a mistake or a placeholder date, and for those who enjoy conspiracy theorizing, it could even be a bunch of influencers coordinating on a little bit of fun with the tightly-wound GTA community.

That said, it looks legit enough to be worthy of attention: Rockstar parent Take-Two Interactive said earlier this year that "launch marketing" for Grand Theft Auto 6 will begin this summer, and that's getting awfully close. The May 18 date is also just a few days ahead of Take-Two's next quarterly report, which is set for May 21, and having GTA 6 fully firmed-up leading into that—as much as possible in an uncertain world, at least—could eliminate a lot of investor and analyst uncertainty.

Of course, all of this is of limited relevance to us here in the world of mouse and keyboard, because Grand Theft Auto 6 hasn't been announced for PC yet. Even so, May 18 will be a day worth watching for at least two reasons. One, if preorders do go live that day, the long-awaited third trailer will surely drop, hopefully with an actual look at the game, rather than just cinematic hype; and two, it will finally reveal the game's price, which has been the subject of speculation and hand-wringing for months now. Is the era of the $100 videogame finally upon us? (I don't think so, for the record, but $80 for the base edition won't surprise me in the least.)

Grand Theft Auto 6, for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, is set to launch on November 19. See you next week.

There's something fitting about a bygone zombie mod that simply refuses to die. That's exactly what Cheyron's Nazi Zombies is—a hybrid throwback to Call of Duty's earliest undead horde mode that's 10 years in the making and set within Grand Theft Auto 4.

I hardly need an excuse to return to GTA 4's faux slant on New York City, so at face value Cheyron's work is great fun. Re-filling the shoes of Niko Bellic with an assault rifle in-hand, fending off wave after wave of faceless bad guys feels as good now as it ever did decades ago; as does revisiting some of the game's iconic map locations, such as the Times Square-aping 'Star Junction' of Liberty City.

Beneath the familiar veneer of this fan-made project, though, sits something a wee bit more powerful: my warped perception of time. The first time a zombie horde mode made its way to the Call of Duty franchise was in World at War, which was released in 2008 just a few months after the fourth main series entry of Rockstar's enduring crime sim.

There have been 13 variations of COD's undead horde 'em up offshoot since, and so with this in mind, plus the fact Grand Theft Auto 4 just celebrated its 18th birthday, I suddenly feel very old. I had just turned 22 when GTA 4 arrived on consoles, and while we joke about how long Grand Theft Auto 6 has taken on its way to hitting store shelves, I'm now 40 and wondering where the hell the time has gone.

Anyway, lest I bore you further with my personal existential dread, know that the perfect tonic for all of the above lies within Cheyron's Nazi Zombies. Its rhythmic waves of virtual murder are simple yet effective, and I'm having loads of fun simply hanging out in a world that time hasn't quite forgotten. Cheyron says Nazi Zombies is 10 years in the making, having just released the project onto Nexus Mods.

Here's Cheryon themselves on their work: "A faithful recreation of Call of Duty Nazi Zombies in GTA 4. Relive the old magic. Try to beat your top score! Includes sounds and mechanics of Nazi zombies.

"Buy colas, buy new weapons at the box, play co-op with NPCs and go for headshots! Every level gets harder."

In-game as in life, am I right?

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick spoke about the immense pressure for the game to succeed, given the publisher's massive investment into Rockstar's long-awaited crime caper. He described the risk the company's taking in a way that, unfortunately, I can only describe as going kinda hard.

"Development costs have gone up and up. And we really do aim to deliver the highest quality entertainment on Earth," Zelnick told Bloomberg. "And that is costly. And AI influence is not withstanding. We haven't seen those costs decline yet. Maybe we will. Maybe we won't."

The cost of triple-A development has been a hot button issue this console generation, with increasing technological and graphical complexity demanding correspondingly larger team sizes and bigger budgets. High-profile, expensive sales failures beg the question whether smaller team sizes, shorter development cycles, and cheaper games should be embraced as an alternative.

But Zelnick still wants the publisher to focus on blockbusters, and he seems to accept that you have to spend money to make money. “That's a high-stakes game for big boys only," said Zelnick, "And I'm cool with it.”

It's a turn of phrase that, quite frankly, tickled my fancy. It almost made up for the part of the interview where Zelnick said he sees Xbox and PlayStation as Rockstar's "core" audience, hence GTA 6's customary delayed launch on PC.

"We never claim success before it occurs," Zelnick said, before describing the company's strategy as, "We try to give them unlimited financial, creative human resources and then they aim to deliver perfection." And "unlimited" really seems to mean "unlimited," as evidenced by GTA 6's long gestation, several delays, and eye-watering estimated budget.

Business Insider provided a $1-$1.5 billion figure from anonymous industry analysts in its own feature on Zelnick, but this seems to be the low end of the GTA 6 budget ballpark. In a LinkedIn post from last August, before GTA 6 was delayed from May to November 2026, Josh Chapman of venture capital firm Konvoy cited a $2 billion estimated investment from Take-Two.

GTA 6 O'Clock newsletter writer Dan Dawkins argued that $3.4 billion is a more likely figure, factoring in preproduction and Rockstar's payroll over the last 6 years of development. If that's not a high-stakes game for big boys only, I don't know what is.

Back to Chapman and Konvoy, they predicted that Take-Two would break even within a month, assuming a $2 billion budget, and that the game would rake in $7.6 billion in total revenue within 60 days of launch⁠—and that's before you get to the long tail of sales GTA 6 will presumably have, if the previous game in the series is anything to go by.

Instructure, the company behind cloud-based learning management system Canvas, has suffered a massive data breach. Ransomware group ShinyHunters has since claimed responsibility for the attack, alleging that it has exfiltrated data tied to 280 million teachers, school staff, and students.

The data breach totals hundreds of gigabytes, potentially exposing Canvas users' names, email addresses, and their private messages.

Instructure first disclosed on May 1 that it "experienced a cybersecurity incident perpetrated by a criminal threat actor." The Canvas instances of 8,809 universities, schools, and other educational platforms were affected by the cyberattack. ShinyHunters shared alleged record counts with Bleeping Computer, which said they "range from tens of thousands to several million per institution."

Bleeping Computer chose not to name the institutions within this list, as it was unable to independently verify which were affected. Still, what is perhaps most troubling about the attack is that it has likely exposed the data of a number of K-12 students. If you have been told that your child was affected by the Instructure breach, Malware Bytes has a helpful guide on what to do next and how best to protect them.

A number of students who attempted to use Canvas following the cyberattack were met with a message purporting to be from ShinyHunters, threatening to leak the data if Instructure did not contact them before May 12. Canvas was taken offline for a number of days afterwards, though the learning platform is now available again for most users.

'ShinyHunters' may ring a bell, as the hacker group has been on a bit of a tear with high-profile attacks lately. For instance, the group demanded a ransom from GTA 6 studio Rockstar last month (though it turns out they didn't have all that much to leak in the end). Earlier this week, the hacker group also claimed it had successfully breached Nvidia's GeForce Now, alleging to have "pulled their entire database straight from the backend."

In the case of Canvas, ShinyHunters claim it stole the user records via the export features within the platform itself. That includes user APIs, DAP queries, and provisioning reports, according to Bleeping Computer.

According to Instructure, "the unauthorized actor carried out this activity by exploiting an issue related to our Free-For-Teacher accounts." This same issue apparently caused a similar breach earlier in April, and Instructure has chosen to temporarily shut down Free-For-Teacher accounts as a result.

Instructure also says, in response to this cybersecurity incident, that it "revoked privileged credentials and access tokens, deployed platform-wide protections, rotated certain internal keys, restricted token creation pathways, and added monitoring across our platforms."

Canvas got hacked? from r/UTSA

The company also "engaged a third-party forensic firm and notified law enforcement." The company adds, "Beyond the immediate response, we're hardening administrative access, token management, permissions, monitoring, and related workflows. The investigation may inform further improvements."

But it may be too little, too late—potentially exposing the data of minors is not a mistake parents will easily forget at the very least. As malware archivist vx-underground said on X, "The much larger issue however is the catastrophic damage ShinyHunters has done to Canvas both operational and reputational."

There are two big questions preoccupying Grand Theft Auto fans these days: Will Grand Theft Auto 6 be delayed, and how much is it going to cost? (If you're a GTA fan on PC, you get a bonus question: What the hell?)

Obviously we'll have to wait for Take-Two Interactive to make the call on those, but a Seeking Alpha report (via IGN) says Bank of America securities analyst Omar Dessouky is calling for GTA 6 to launch at a higher-than-usual price point—for the good of everyone.

Dessouky was speaking in the wake of the Interactive Innovation Conference—stylized as iicon, because cool—a game industry conference for "visionaries, thought leaders, and innovators" (ie., CEOs and money types) organized by the Entertainment Software Association to fill the void in its heart left by the collapse of E3.

"We also heard from attendees that the industry, which is perceived as struggling, would have difficulty selling games for $80 if GTA 6 came out at $70," Dessouky said. "We think it’s in Take-Two's self-interest, as a publisher and partner to many developers, to raise the price point for the entire industry."

Nobody likes the idea of paying more for stuff, especially at a time when stuff in general is growing unmanageably more expensive because of all the other stuff happening in the world. But looking at it strictly from the perspective of someone whose only interest is creating a lot of value for shareholders, Dessouky's point is spot-on: If any game can get away with asking $80 for a basic edition, it's GTA 6—and if Take-Two breaks that seal, it won't be long before others follow. Rising tides, and all that.

Conversely, if Take-Two sticks with the $70 price point, it's going to be very difficult for other publishers to justify charging more for their games, even heavy hitters like Call of Duty and EA Sports FC. I'm not sure that's necessarily bad for the industry—I think there are far more pressing concerns right now than whether multi-billion-dollar corporations can charge an extra tenner for their wares—but Dessouky is absolutely correct that Take-Two, whichever way it goes, will set the path for the rest of the industry.

As for which way it will go, Take-Two is playing coy about the whole thing. Speaking at the same iicon conference, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said he wants to ensure that "what people pay for it feels very reasonable." But he also pointed out that big-budget games could (and, by implication, should) cost more than they do right now, because game prices have held steady over the years while everything else has gone up—which sounds like the sort of thing you say when you're getting to slap your customer base with a little of the ol' sticker shock.

My money, metaphorically speaking, is on GTA 6 coming in at a higher-than-standard price: Not the $100 earthquake that some are dreading, but $80? I'll be very surprised if it's not at least that much. We may finally get some insight on that topic later this month: Take-Two's next quarterly financial report is set for May 21.

Grand Theft Auto 6 will be out on November 19, unless it gets delayed again (never say never), but only on console. There's no doubt that GTA 6 will come to PC eventually, but officially, it still hasn't been announced for our platform and therefore does not exist. Why? In an interview with Bloomberg, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said the company's priority is "serving the core," and that, apparently, is console.

It's a bit of a strange thing, because leading up to that explanation, Zelnick said that when he started with GTA 6 publisher Take-Two Interactive way back in 2007, PC releases accounted for a tiny portion of the company's overall sales: In the case of the NBA 2K series, for instance, it might make up 5% of total sales. But that's not the case anymore: "Now with regard to a big title, PC can be 45, 50% of the sales," Zelnick said.

So that's half your total sales, and there's no game bigger than GTA 6—so, why is PC (half your total sales!) excluded from the initial launch?

"Rockstar always starts on console because I think with regard to a release like that you're judged by serving the core," Zelnick said. "Like really serving the core consumer. If your core consumer isn't there, if they're not served first and best, you kind of don't hit your other consumers."

I just don't understand that. Serving PC alongside your supposed "core consumer" doesn't exclude or diminish them: They absolutely are there, and the idea that they need to be "served first" or there'll be hell to pay conjures up thoughts of people who get angry because Sony exclusives sometimes come to other platforms: It's just console war silliness dressed up in an expensive suit. And if PC really does represent half your total sales (!), how is that not your core to start with?

There is another possible explanation for Rockstar's console-first-PC-later strategy: As PC Gamer's Ted Litchfield pointed out back in 2024, "Rockstar banks on a second revenue bump from its games' PC releases, a little afterburner of profit that includes no shortage of PC-favoring players who buy the game twice." Ted knows the score, folks.

This is nothing new for us PC gamers: Historically, Rockstar games have taken anywhere from seven months to 14.5 years (yes, years) to make the move from consoles to PC, so it's not like this is some unprecedented slap in the face. It is kind of annoying, though.

Take-Two's next quarterly financial results will be announced on May 21. We'll be listening in, and we'll let you know if anything interesting happens.

New Day RP has just celebrated its fifth birthday, and now the GTA roleplay server has outlined its plans heading into 2026.

Before digging into the specifics of what's to come, it's worth saying up front that New Day RP might just be my favourite Grand Theft Auto roleplay server at the moment. For me, it's certainly the most accessible and rewarding, and, as someone now approaching their 10th year of farting around in GTA RP, I've been around the block a wee bit.

Yes, New Day offers law enforcement and emergency services—the same sought-after jobs that are commonplace in just about every RP server the world over—but you’re just as likely to find yourself simply drifting between regular community events such as open mic nights, themed gatherings, and the now-established Taco Tequila Tuesday.

On its forums, the New Day team points to ongoing work around governance systems—tweaks to elections, public services, and how departments interact—as well as continued backend improvements aimed at smoothing the day-to-day experience for players. There’s also a clear focus on supporting the server’s existing ecosystem, and expanding opportunities within departments such as Parks and Recreation.

To the latter end, here's an update from Viv Chopper, head of the server's San Andreas Parks Department: "As we move further into the year, I just wanted to share a few updates from the San Andreas Parks Department.

"We’re now coming to the end of our last Apprentice Ranger hiring round, and you’ve probably already started spotting some of our new Rangers out in the field! We’re really excited to have them join SAPD and are looking forward to seeing them settle into their new roles over the coming weeks.

"With that round nearly wrapped up, we’ll soon be turning our attention to Parks Employee recruitment. From Monday 23rd March, Parks applications will open and will work in a similar way to how we’ve just handled Ranger hiring. Applications will stay open until we’ve got enough in to begin reviewing, and then they’ll be paused while we work through that round.

"Once successful Parks Employee applicants have been brought onboard, they’ll have 30 days to complete their required training. After that, we’ll return to reviewing Ranger applications again."

Chopper adds that seasonal hunting, should this tickle your fancy, is now open—with those interested encouraged to find out more in this direction.

And so with so many GTA RP servers these days becoming increasingly complicated—sometimes with the best of intentions and with good results—there's something refreshing about the simplicity with which New Age handles itself. Whether you're after bite-sized sessions or marathon meet-ups, I recommend giving it a whirl. Here's to the next five years.

As the question of Grand Theft Auto 6's release date dies down (hopefully there won't be another delay), the question of how much it will go for is starting to pop up. Everyone seems to have their own theories, and while I think we'll be seeing a $100 price tag, Take-Two Interactive's CEO Strauss Zelnick has recently qualified that it'll be reasonable.

"Consumers pay for the value that you bring to them, and our job is to charge way way way less of the value delivery," Zelnick said at the Interactive Innovation conference (via IGN). “How you feel about something you buy is the intersection of the thing itself and what you pay for. Consumers need to feel like the thing itself is amazing and the price they were charged was fair for what they got.

"If you look at it through that lens, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. But that isn’t the lens through which we look. Instead, we look at how do we deliver something amazing, and how do we make sure that what people pay for it feels very reasonable."

The only problem with this is that I don't think the CEO of Take-Two and someone whose net worth amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars would share my sentiment on what a 'reasonable' game price is.

Zelnick also broaches the idea that games have actually stayed quite cheap, mostly thanks to the fact that prices haven't risen with inflation over the last decade or so. Major releases have stayed at $60/$70 for quite some time now, which is impressive when compared to prices outside the industry.

While technically true, all that seems to me is Zelnick laying the groundwork for why GTA 6's standard edition will be priced higher than any other AAA game, I dread to think what its premium editions will cost. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, for now, at least, Zelnick seems slightly more concerned with GTA 6's reception rather than its price.

During the conference Zelnick confessed that he's "terrified" of the prospect of how on earth they'll be able to measure the success of GTA 6. Instead the team is just focusing on doing the best it can do to ensure it performs well and looks good.

"What we think about is making the most spectacular piece of entertainment on Earth, in history—and it’s a pretty daunting challenge," Zelnick adds. "If we do that, and if we’re of service to our customers, then the upside will take care of itself."

There's a lot I could rattle on about when it comes to Red Dead Redemption 2, but one of the features that really stuck out to me when I first played was Arthur's journal. It's pretty easy to ignore for the vast majority of the game, but when you stop to flick through the pages, it's astounding how much time and effort has gone into creating this record of his life which just ticks away in the background while you focus on the real gunslinging cowboy adventure.

I think a lot of players who have poured hours of their time into an adventure with the Van der Linde gang would agree, too. This journal isn't just an in-game concept art book, it makes Arthur feel more real, more relatable, and the experience more personal. How often do you catch yourself doodling on the corner of a page, or thinking to yourself that you'd like to capture a memory without having to take a photo of it? More often than you realise, I imagine.

No two journals are the same either. Arthur will sketch things as you encounter them in your playthrough, so while the actual artwork will remain the same, the situation which triggered the drawing won't. Meaning if you and one hundred other players sat down and compared the pages of your journal with one another, the odds of them being identical are next to none. In a way, this really does make it feel like you've created it yourself, vicariously through Arthur Morgan.

I've played a lot of games where art is a driving force, like Été, Chicory: A Colourful Tale, and Passpartout to name a few. They're all very sweet and help you produce Bob Ross-style paintings, but what I love most about Arthur's journal is that it does feel like the sort of thing you could produce yourself. And trust me, I've thought about it. I'd love to sit down and attempt to sketch my way through Blackwater and Valentine, to varying levels of success. I am by no means an artist, but some of Arthur's less-detailed sketches I'm sure I could somewhat recreate.

Obviously I'm not the only person who has thought this either. A quick search pulls up an uncountable amount of people sharing sketches of their favourite horse, or mission they've completed, all inspired by Arthur's doodles. User KyleKringle even uploaded a Short to YouTube showing their own pocket-sized sketchbook filled with wildlife drawings and landscape sketches before sharing "Red Dead 2 is ripe with inspiration, not the least of which is Arthur himself."

This initial short eventually developed into a series as well, spanning 28 parts and recreating almost the entire journal by hand, including sketches of all the critters you stumble across on horseback and the portraits of characters like Hosea and Sadie. Although it's been a few months since the last Short was uploaded to the channel, the series alone is enough inspiration for me to pick up a pencil and try some sketches out for myself.

I don't doubt there are players out there who have sat and created their entire journal by hand too, and I frankly wish I had the patience or attention span to do that. I'd love to sit and flick through the pages in real life rather than via my screen, which isn't an impossible ask given Reddit user u/sheilastmaria shared a 460 page PDF of every page in Arthur's journal seven years ago so you can create your own. So I guess if you're not looking to get into sketching, bookbinding might be the next best step.

It may have taken 13 years, but you can finally explore a brand new slice of Grand Theft Auto. No, Grand Theft Auto 6 hasn't launched early. I'm referring to GTA: Carcer City, a new total conversion mod for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

GTA: Carcer City replaces San Andreas' massive map with a single metropolis, one that is inspired by (and shares the same name as) the city seen in 2003's Manhunt. Rockstar's grisly slaughter-fest is set in the same universe as Grand Theft Auto, which is one of those facts that I distantly recall learning at some point, but had for all intents and purposes forgotten in the years since.

In the context of Rockstar's alt-USA, Carcer City is located in its northeastern Rust Belt, taking visual cues from urban centres like Detroit, Cleveland and Pittsburgh—the metropolitan flavour of the month courtesy of a certain wildly popular medical drama. Its various districts include a skyscraper-strewn downtown area, a shipping port, an airport, and a more historic old town. According to its ModDB page, Carcer City also includes "all of the locations from the levels featured in Manhunt", which is a neat touch.

As for what kind of GTA experience Carcer City aims to deliver, the mod is set in 2001 and introduces a "brand new storyline" that aims for a "dark, immersive tone". That suggests that it'll be a little different from the caustic satire Rockstar has become known for, perhaps bridging the gap between GTA and Manhunt.

The video above shows some of Carcer City in action. It seems to play much as you'd expect a PS2 GTA to, a mixture of arcade-style open-world driving and getting into somewhat ropey gunfights. That's entirely on Rockstar though, and not a dig at the mod, which is clearly an impressive piece of work.

The version of Carcer City currently available to download is a demo, offering the full city to explore as well as "a taste of the storyline". There's no mention of when the mod might be finished, but given how long ambitious mod projects like this tend to take, I certainly wouldn't expect to see it before Grand Theft Auto 6 releases on November 19.

Welcome to the jungle. Guns N' Roses' 1987 hit may have been written following a chance exchange with a territorial New York City native some 40 years ago, but its hedonistic tone, themes and lyrics fit well within the Grand Theft Auto universe. The song itself even featured in GTA: San Andreas' in-game radio station, Radio X, and provided the soundtrack for one of SA's real-world promotional trailers on its road to release in the early 2000s.

Fast forward two decades and PauloJz has applied welcome to the jungle very literally to GTA 6. Because as we approach the console release of Rockstar's next criminal empire simulator—and continue to wistfully await concrete PC details—PauloJz and a dedicated crew of hobbyist digital nature observers have meticulously dissected every trailer, screenshot and piece of official artwork in their bid to catalogue all confirmed animal species in the game.

Posted on GTAForums, the GTA VI - Animals / Fauna Analysis thread is a veritable hivemind of research, educated guesses and speculation about the wildlife set for the upcoming iteration of Vice City and beyond.

"When I created the topic, based on the first trailer released, I had already identified some prominent animals, such as the sea turtles seen in the first frame of the 'Rockstar Presents' scene," explains PauloJz. "The main point of speculation was which group that species and genus belonged to, although I had already done some preliminary research."

As seen on screen

All of the above manifests in a delightfully intriguing, visually-led chronicle of all the bugs, bears and beasts set for the sunkissed shores of Leonida state. From the opening seconds of that first GTA 6 trailer, PauloJz and the wealth of thread contributors have highlighted each animal or creature's presence in any given scene, and have then posted their real-world likeness, time stamp where necessary and reasoning for inclusion.

You should obviously check out the thread in its entirety itself, but here's how some of that looks in practice:

Herring Gull (Larus Argentatus)

"Seen at the opening of the trailer, this species is quite prominent in the northern hemisphere. As it is a very common bird, we can find it on coasts, ports, islands, seas and landfills, looking for food, such as fish, garbage and carrion."

Loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta)

"In the extreme bottom corner at 0:11, we can see her heading towards the beach. Very common in Palm Beach, it is the largest turtle in the region, reaching an incredible 2.13m in length. Their diet is limited to invertebrates, such as jellyfish, for example."

Miniature Pincher (cross between Schnauzer, Molossoids, Mountain Dogs and Swiss Cattle Dogs)

"Seen on the beach running with its owner, at 0:22, the miniature pincher comes from Germany. There's not much to say, it's just common in North and South America."

One thing I love about this precise level of comparing and contrasting is that each of PauloJz and the contributors' musings involves research and reasoning, despite the fact the thing they're analysing can appear on-screen for seconds, sometimes milliseconds, at a time. Naturally, these margins can create scope for error, but the openness of the community means that consensus is never far from their grasp.

PauloJz adds: "In my case, it's simpler to identify an animal in the scene. Unlike other topics, such as 'Mapping Vice City', where the community uses coordinate systems to identify and trace buildings, I only use visual information from the scene and, of course, a little research.

"But we don't always get it right the first time. There was a time when it was believed that there was a bear in the upper right corner of the Mount Kalaga screenshot, generating some minor debate about the image. Looking at the image today, it's noticeable that it's just a rock, and this becomes evident upon closer inspection.

"So far there haven't been any discoveries that have surprised the community, although I believe many interesting things may still emerge, it's just a matter of time."

After a string of high-profile delays, GTA 6's console variation is on course to arrive on November 19 of this year. At the time of writing that gives Rockstar just under eight months to drop some more footage and/or screens that may satisfy PauloJz's "many interesting things" prediction. Through the grapevine, he's heard that Rockstar developers have visited his GTAForums thread and is of the view those in charge of piecing the trailers together do so with one eye on delivering a state-of-the-art showcase, and another on sprinkling breadcrumbs with speculating communities like his in mind.

In any event, whether PauloJz and his crew of intrepid nature watchers get another pre-release trailer or not, once GTA 6 officially lands, their database is bound to blow up with every beauty and beast wandering the Leonida landscape photographed, filmed and filed.

"That's why I created the topic about wildlife and so many others, precisely so that, in the future, they can be revisited and visited by new people," says PauloJz. "Maybe by then I won't be here anymore to follow and update my topics, but I'm sure they will continue to exist, as part of this long journey.

"Perhaps by then I won't be here anymore to follow and update my topics, but I'm sure they will continue to exist as part of this long journey."

Rockstar Games was hacked earlier this month, and given an ultimatum: Pay up a significant amount of cash—$200,000, apparently—or all the stolen data gets released into the wild. $200 large is couch change for Rockstar, but there's also the principle of the thing to consider. Rockstar refused, and the hackers made it rain with their ill-gotten data—which turned out to be something of a wet fart.

It was interesting, for sure: Rockstar earns half a billion (yes, with a b) per year on GTA Online, and PC players account for a very small portion of that, less even than players on the old Xbox One console.

But the anticipated GTA 6 treasure trove simply wasn't there: Rockstar said when the hack occurred that "a limited amount of non-material company information was accessed," and it sure wasn't kidding.

Take-Two's share price took a nice little bump over the next couple days, jumping from a close of just over $201 on April 13 to open at nearly $208 on April 14, and then after settling at $205 at close on April 14, bouncing again to more than $210 to open April 15, and climbing through the day to close at $214.38. Not bad!

But, I think it bears noting, also maybe not as spectacular as it might appear at first blush. It's been a pretty good week for Take-Two, but year-to-date the company is still way down from where it was trading in January, when Take-Two's share price surpassed $257—a drop of more than 16% from January 1. Not good!

At least one analyst attributed the short-term boost in Take-Two's share price to the data leak reminding us just how much money the company makes on GTA Online—it really is a monster. And it's undoubtedly good news, for Take-Two's marketing plans at least, that no GTA 6 data was revealed.

But how much of a material impact that absence had on the big picture is very hard to say, because there are so many factors at play. At the end of January, for instance, Take-Two and other game-related stocks took a notable dip when Google rolled out its world-building AI thing called Project Genie; like most other sound-and-fury AI sales pitches, Genie doesn't actually do anything useful at this point, and Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick did his best to shrug it off, but the company's share price took a knee to the bits anyway.

Take-Two's next quarterly financial report will happen in early May, and that's where things will get interesting. Another GTA 6 delay is always possible, and maybe we'll finally get an official PC announcement, although given what we saw in that leaked data I'm not holding my breath.

But as Zacks Equity Research (via Yahoo Finance) notes, the money people who actually drive these graphs up and down will be looking at other things:

"Investors will be eagerly watching for the performance of Take-Two Interactive in its upcoming earnings disclosure. On that day, Take-Two Interactive is projected to report earnings of $0.58 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 46.79%. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $1.55 billion, indicating a 1.94% decline compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year. TTWO's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $3.91 per share and revenue of $6.67 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +90.73% and +18.16%, respectively."

What does that mean? Very broadly and basically, if Take-Two surpasses various financial forecasts, people are happy and the number goes up; and if it does not, people are sad and the number goes down. Unless a guy who calls himself deepfuckingvalue kicks in the door and screams "Stonks!" at the top of his lungs, I suppose, in which case all bets are off and nobody will be able to explain why even as multi-billion-dollar hedge funds are incinerated in full public view. (This is why I generally stick to game delay announcements.)

Speaking of which, we'll be tuned in when Take-Two makes its next financial report in May, and we'll let you know if anything interesting happens.

A day ahead of its self-imposed April 14 ransom deadline, ShinyHunters, the group that breached Rockstar Games last week and made off with an undisclosed trove of data, has released that data to the public. Members of the GTA Forums (via Kotaku) are now tearing through it, and it looks like anyone hoping for significant insights into Grand Theft Auto 6—or any relevant information at all, really—are going to be disappointed.

Rockstar said in the wake of the hack that "a limited amount of non-material company information was accessed," and that does appear to be the case. Which isn't to say there's nothing to see here, but it's primarily sales and financials, revealing that Rockstar makes a lot of money through its online offerings.

One of the most immediately notable data points reflects a massive imbalance between Red Dead Online and GTA Online: Based on a GTA Forums post by Lexiture and verified by Rockstar Games reporter Ben on X, RDO pulled in average weekly revenues of more than $500,000 per week between June 2024 and April 2026, resulting in an annualized estimate of roughly $26.4 million per year. Not bad!

GTA Online, though, earned $9.6 million per week from September 2025 to April 2026, delivering an annualized estimate of just under $500 million per year. Given that, is it any wonder that Rockstar put all its eggs in the GTAO basket, and left RDO to flounder? (It is not.)

Also notable, and I think surprising, is how GTA Online breaks down by platform. PC comes in a distant, dead last, pulling in a small fraction of both weekly active users and weekly bookings that come in via console. The PlayStation 5 dominates the scene, with a little under 3.5 million monthly active users and $4.5 million in weekly bookings; PC weekly active users is a relatively paltry 894,621, and weekly bookings of $264,273.

Even the Xbox One is beating us! Maybe this is why we're still waiting for an official GTA 6 PC announcement.

Another interesting metric: Three-quarters of that whopping GTA Online income is earned through the sale of Shark Cards, which are essentially bundles of in-game cash.

The data also seems to confirm what we already knew about successful free-to-play games: That flood of cash GTA Online is earning comes from just 4% of its users.

It's interesting stuff, like I said, although it's also largely just a confirmation of what we already knew: Rockstar makes huge bank on GTAO, Red Dead is probably just dead dead, and the free-to-play business lives and dies on the whims of its whales. But it is, ultimately, just a look back—for looking ahead to what's next, it doesn't seem that there's much to see here.

That's good news for Rockstar, but not so much for the hackers: Full credit for the effort in trying to get $200,000 for this, I suppose, but they're coming away from it with potentially serious consequences hanging over them, no money, and not even anything juicy about GTA 6. If I was in charge I think I'd just stop talking about it completely and wait for it all to blow over.

Rockstar declined to comment on the data reveal.

The Grand Theft Auto series has taken us to many corners of the United States, giving us somewhat satirical glimpses into a ridiculously violent, weird, and exaggerated world. But it's been 13 years since GTA 5 was released, and a lot has changed since then.

So much has changed, in fact, that Lester's voice actor from GTA 5, Jay Klaitz, seems to think that "the impact is taken out of GTA 6's initial landing" thanks to just how weird the world has become (via GamesRadar).

"Don't get me wrong," Klaitz says in an interview with El Dorado. "It's still fucking GTA. It's going to be massive. People will lose their shit. It's going to be huge, obviously. But it's a different world to the one 13 years ago when the last one came out. I mean, it's a very different world than it was even a year ago."

GTA 6 is set in the modern made-up state of Leonida which is based on Florida, including locations like Vice City and areas based on the Everglades, the Florida Keys, and more rural places like national parks. There's only been a couple of glimpses into what this will manifest into, but pretty much everything we've seen in these shows GTA 6 taking on the spiritual manifestation of 'The Florida Man', and the curse energy that exudes.

The first GTA 6 trailer depicts Leonida in all of its chaotic wonder. Complete with flashy concerts, pool top parties, alligator infested gardens, and a bunch of clips you'd probably watch on World Star. It seems as if there's plenty of ammo in Rockstar's arsenal as-is, but Klaitz points out yet again that what was ridiculous a decade ago doesn't really hit the same level nowadays.

"What seemed so far-fetched and insane just a short while ago now feels like just another day," Klaitz adds. "So maybe GTA 6 can't make that same splash as previous games, what we see happening in the real world is definitely going to make it harder for a GTA game to work those angles.

"That said, I don't know. Maybe that's bullshit. I know there will be plenty of commentary and satire woven into it. There's a lot of the Florida Man stuff and lots of territory like that still to cover."

The world may be an ever-increasingly strange and depressing place to live in, and that may make what we'll encounter in GTA 6 less wacky, but I'm still not worried. I have a feeling that GTA 6 will still come out with some S-tier lines and characters, it's just a matter of how the devs manage to do it.

I've changed my routine. Before now, my universal approach to combat in a no-guns GTA 5 Story Mode run was pretty straightforward. With the odds invariably weighed in my opponent's favour – simply because, you know, they have firearms and I don't – putting obstacles between myself and their line of fire was a given.

Vehicles, walls, trees, lampposts, in essence whatever piece of set dressing I could leverage to close the gap unscathed, before pouncing with a volley of fists and legs and headbutts.

Now, thanks to thalilmythos' Melee Executions mod, I am Ric Flair.

"Wooooo", I scream aloud as I contemplate a more contemporary wrestling reference having last watched during the Attitude era. Still, like a man possessed, I'm no longer lurking in the shadows as I face off against Madrazo's goons but instead charging down their sights, grabbing them by the waist and power slamming them into the Downtown Los Santos sidewalk.

I've long been obsessed with ragdoll physics in video games – from Garry's Mod to Baby Steps and everything in between – and there's something properly sumptuous about successfully landing the moves that define this compelling player-made monster, before sprawling out my foes on the concrete like vomit outside Clucking Bell.

With flavours of OG San Andreas' myriad fighting style set list, Melee Executions offers something fresh to the bounds of Grand Theft Auto 5 – which, as has been illustrated for the last 11 years, is testament to the unshakable creativity that drives, and has always driven, the hobbyist modding scene.

And it's not just wrestling moves on offer here. Kerbside Sonny Corleone-style beatdowns let you sweep enemies to the ground before stamping on them upside the head in one fluid motion. If you approach head-on, a sharp knee to the stomach lets you apply the same assault to an opponent's head, knocking them unconscious/dead before they've even hit the floor.

No-guns runs in GTA 5 are exceptionally difficult, but my latest has become impossible. Not through the lens of challenge, but through distraction and an obsession with power bombing hapless baddies for sport. That and screaming "wooooo" at the top of my lungs like an idiot.

As reported by The Cybersec Guru, Rockstar Games has suffered a security breach of indeterminate scope by the group ShinyHunters. ShinyHunters has threatened to release the data if Rockstar does not pay a ransom, while the company has confirmed the validity of the claim in a statement to Cybersec Guru and Kotaku:

“We can confirm that a limited amount of non-material company information was accessed in connection with a third-party data breach," a Rockstar spokesperson wrote. "This incident has no impact on our organization or our players.”

ShinyHunters claim to have breached Rockstar's outsourced Snowflake cloud storage system by way of a third-party analytics tool, Anodot, which reportedly suffered its own breach recently. With authentication tokens from Anodot, ShinyHunters would not have needed to crack Snowflake's security directly⁠.

They would have just been recognized as an authorized party and let in through the front door, like Agent 47 in a security guard outfit. ShinyHunters claims to have had access to Rockstar's database for a significant amount of time before it was realized anything was amiss.

"Your Snowflake instances were compromised thanks to Anodot.com. Pay or leak," ShinyHunters wrote in a post on their site. "This is a final warning to reach out by 14 Apr 2026 before we leak along with several annoying (digital) problems that'll come your way. Make the right decision, don't be the next headline."

Feeling déjà vu here? You're not alone: We learned about GTA6 in the first place from the disastrous 2022 hack of Rockstar by a 17-year-old in Oxfordshire. To be Rockstar once again on the precipice of such a catastrophe a scant four years later? I can only quote Brass Eye: "This is the one thing we didn't want to happen."

If that hack was for love of the game, ShinyHunters look to be strictly business: According to Cybersec Guru, they've targeted the likes of Microsoft, Wattpad, Cisco, AT&T, and Ticketmaster in the past few years.

If I have one takeaway from this early stage of the story, it's the oblique path the hackers allegedly took to access Rockstar's data. It's almost trite to say at this point, but it's never some super-advanced ICE breaker, elite hacker console jockey business behind these headline security breaches.

It's your third-party software-as-a-service vendor having worse security than you do, the dumbest guy at your company plugging in a USB stick he found in the parking lot, or some bush league people finder outfit in Florida losing literally everybody's Social Security number. Isn't that comforting? No matter how secure you are, someone less careful than you is probably leaving you compromised.

Rockstar Games' cancelled open world game Agent is one of the more mysterious elements of the Grand Theft Auto 6 developer's history. Originally revealed back in 2007, Agent was a relatively high-profile project for years, but never showed much beyond the odd bit of concept art, eventually vanishing from Rockstar's website in 2021.

More information about Agent has appeared in recent years, however. Dan Houser recently explained the game went through "about five different iterations" and that it never came together because open world games and tightly crafted spy thrillers don't mix. Now, a data miner believes they've uncovered a little more information on Agent via Grand Theft Auto 5's source code, specifically the identity of its main character.

As spotted by Rockstar reporter BenTech on X (via Kotaku) the story actually starts in May 2025, when a member of GTAForums named Krierra posted a series of character models they'd unearthed from Grand Theft Auto 5's source code, which leaked back in 2023. Krierra claimed that these were all characters from Agent. Yet apart from some sporadic debate about this point from other posters, nobody seems to have taken much notice.

Until last week, that is, when another user going by XanaBax did some proper digging into the identities of the characters. XanaBax immediately dismissed three of the four characters as being from Agent, pointing out that two are Grand Theft Auto 5 NPCs, while another originates in Grand Theft Auto 4's expansion The Ballad of Gay Tony. But XanaBax says the remaining model "could actually be Agent's protagonist."

XanaBax's reasoning is based upon the fact that the main node in the folder hierarchy in which the model was found is called "player", alongside the fact that the folder itself is called 'Jimmy', the codename of Agent. In addition to this, the model is seen in some images from the portfolio of a former Rockstar environment artist who worked on Agent.

Digging a little deeper, Xanabax also discovered the XMD filename for the character model includes the phrase "NorthRig", implying that it was developed at Rockstar North, and is dated to June 2009, which puts it in the window between GTA 4 and Grand Theft Auto 5 when Agent was in active development. The model itself is also partly based upon the model for Grand Theft Auto 4's protagonist Niko Bellic, using "more or less" the same UV map for Niko's head, according to XanaBax.

Agent isn't the only unrealised Rockstar project we've discovered more about lately. Last September, Dan Houser also revealed that the studio's planned sequel to Bully didn't happen due to "bandwidth issues" within management, telling IGN that "if you've got a small lead creative team and a small senior leadership crew, you just can't do all the projects you want."

Launched in mid-March and set to run until April 1 (tomorrow), the latest GTA Online update is one of its most structured Community Series events to date—turning player-created content into a multi-week showcase with escalating rewards and rotating features.

Community Series jobs and weekly bonuses are nothing new in GTA Online, of course, but this iteration is being billed as the first of its kind by way of formalising the series into a clear, time-limited progression loop where each week has introduced refreshed playlists, repeatable objectives and cumulative cash incentives.

As opposed to a typical one-week bonus cycle, Rockstar's aim here has been to keep players engaged over multiple weeks while spotlighting some of the invariably cool stuff the game's community has produced for more than a decade.

And while an initial login reward of GTA$1,000,000 and triple GTA$ and RP on Community Series jobs has been nice—as has following the loop in pursuit of GTA$1,500,000 in additional payouts—I can't help but think this particular event offers a glimpse of Grand Theft Auto's future to some degree.

Back and forth

I first felt this through the lens of GTA 6 and the prospect of GTA Online 2.0, or whichever descriptor Rockstar gives the next multiplayer offshoot. Ever since the green and purple alien wars of mid-pandemic 2020—an inadvertent, player-led upstart phenomenon that swept servers worldwid—Rockstar has appeared determined to push community-facing initiatives as a means of replicating that appeal in official terms. Sprunk vs eCola is the standout to this end, but a number of group-led heist series have called for players to hit time-limited collective goals over the last few years.

With FiveM creators Cfx.re officially part of the Rockstar family as of 2023, user-generated content is likely to play a distinguished role in GTA 6 and its online counterpart, and I also remain convinced the next crime sim series outing will flirt with Fortnite-style live events in some shape or form given its stake in Circo Loco Records. Tapping into community spirit, then, is likely to be huge for Grand Theft Auto in the coming months and years.

It was only after sitting with GTA Online's latest Community Series event, however, that I started to consider its influence through the lens of GTA 5. Huge question marks hang over the future of GTA Online once GTA 6 arrives, simply because it's inevitable at least something will need to give way when Rockstar turns Leonida and Vice City into its latest chaos playground.

GTA Online in its current state makes the company so much money that, for me, an Overwatch / Overwatch 2 situation seems unlikely—where the successor essentially killed off its forerunner. Sure, a sizable chunk of players will migrate to Grand Theft Auto 6 when the time comes, taking their cash with them, but you'd have to assume that process will be gradual, so how does Rockstar maintain the appeal of a world now pushing 13 years old, 11 on PC?

I don't know the answer, but the promise of in-game cash into the millions simply for playing along definitely appeals to players. And being able to showcase pre-existing player-made content without lifting a finger, you'd have to assume, definitely appeals to Rockstar. So perhaps this is what the future looks like for GTA Online 1.0.

That or Project Americas actually does exist and will tie Los Santos and Vice City together seamlessly. One can dream.

'Community-based relay game' isn't something I'd immediately associate with Grand Theft Auto. It's just not very gangster, is it? It hardly evokes Trevor Phillips forcibly removing a hostage's teeth with pliers, nor does it reflect Niko Belic delivering harvested organs to the Black Market. When I think of the wider GTA timeline, I picture Tommy Vercetti storming Ricardo Diaz's Vice City mansion, leaving him in a bullet-strewn pool of his blood; and Carl Johnson murdering his way to the top of San Andreas' gangland underworld.

I don't immediately think of a non-real-time version of multiplayer where players take it in turns to progress a single save file, back and forth, round after round, until each game hits 100% completion. That is exactly what the GTA Chain Game is all about, therefore this community-based relay game, in actual fact, brushes up against all of the above—something it's now been doing for several years, now across several Grand Theft Auto classics.

"It’s crazy to us," says GTAKid, the Chain Game's long-serving commander-in-chief, "to think that we're still going in 2026.

"We are very aware of the increasing age of the games we play and know that while many of us regard these games as some of the greatest of all time, finding and maintaining an active player base can be difficult. We couldn’t be more appreciative that in 2026 we are continuing to welcome new players to our community."

Assisted living

When I first spoke to GTAKid about the Chain Game for PC Gamer's sister site GamesRadar+ back in 2021, the community was in the throes of 100%-ing Grand Theft Auto 3. At the time, the GTA Trilogy—Definitive Edition was just around the corner, as was the Dr Dre-starring The Contract update for GTA Online. GTA 6 was but an enduring spec on the horizon, and we were years away from the leaks, the show-stopping Tom Petty trailer, and the string of delays that have since marked the incoming crime sim series entry's long, long road.

In the meantime, mastering everything that's come before is the Chain Game's natural focus—but how important keeping things simple in the midst of this process needs to be, graduating to games with more moving parts poses its own challenges. Most recently, for example, GTAKid and co. have taken to the graffitied streets of GTA 4.

"It’s been great fun being back in Liberty City," says GTAKid. "GTA 4 has always been a favourite of mine and it has really grown in popularity with our community over the years. The beauty of playing through the more modern games is that they are feature-packed and add a lot of choice—it means that no two rounds we play are the same. Since we last spoke, we now also play through Episodes From Liberty City, and it has been great to replay those stories too.

"Looking at the bigger picture, what started as a simple save passing exercise is now an international community playing multiple games, hosting online events, and sharing conversations. Behind the scenes myself and fellow team members TubewayArmy and Stahli run a more structured operation to ensure the rounds keep running, but at the core of the Chain Game remains the same community spirit. Ultimately we couldn’t do what we do if it wasn’t for our incredible community and they remain the heart and focus of everything we plan."

My own involvement in the Chain Game has always been as an at-a-distance observer, viewing it from the outside looking in and admiring the commitment and dedication required to push games that are years, sometimes decades, old to their limits.

But what is it that keeps players coming back again and again and again—is it nostalgia, is it the challenge, is it the relay format itself?

"I think it’s a mix of all three," GTAKid adds. "Those of us a certain age have fond memories of these games from when we were younger and experiences we shared with our family and friends. What better way to spend your free time than playing a game you love? At the same time, we have welcomed more casual players and those who have barely played the games at all, giving them the opportunity to navigate the challenges of playing these games for the first time with the support and guidance of experienced community veterans.

"Where our relay format works best is that there is no commitment—you can jump in, play a mission, and see how it goes without having to worry about playing the whole game yourself. Every game brings its own energy too, from Vice to San Andreas to GTA 4, it’s been really interesting to me seeing how our rounds for the modern games differ from the classics.

"When you think of a game like Vice City, you think of a simple, more arcade-like experience; I’ve been able to fit in a quick turn before leaving for work or during a lunch break. A game like GTA 4 can require a bit more time and concentration but then can be a perfect choice for a chill weekend where you want to sit back, relax, and take a longer turn. Each game brings something different but that’s part of the fun."

Of course, with GTA 6 now set to finally land on consoles later this year, GTAKid and his Chain Game community wait with baited breath. It surely goes without saying that the next Grand Theft Auto marks an opportunity to extend not just the Chain Game itself into new-age Vice City, but the reach of the community itself.

How that might unfold remains to be seen, but GTAKid reckons he and his peers will enjoy the game on a more casual basis first before then mapping out what a GTA 6 Chain Game may look like in size and scope.

He adds: "The team and I are really excited about GTA 6 and there may have already been a conversation or two about what a Chain Game might look like. This time around we definitely hope to put something together sooner rather than later, so I’m sure once we’ve had the chance to play through and complete the game ourselves, we’ll be coming together to discuss how we make that happen.

"We have always really focused on keeping the format of the Chain Game as simple as possible so that it is adaptable to any game. While games have undoubtedly become more complex, all we need to make it happen is a way of getting a save file from person to person. As simple as that may sound, we have encountered challenges with updates changing save file formats and creating incompatibility between versions.

"We thankfully have so far always been able to come up with a solution and I have to give credit to Samutz and his site for providing us and the wider GTA community with a way of being able to easily convert save files between update versions on PC."

Which I guess is what does, what has and what always will anchor the Chain Game for as long as it continues to exist: teamwork. It's now a genuinely international operation with hundreds of players feeding into it with varying degrees of commitment. Faces come and go, sure, some for longer than others, but for GTAKid on a personal level, the Chain Game has forged a throughline into the last decade or so of his life.

With that, comes an unbridled sense of gratitude and understanding—for the GTA Chain Game itself, and for other hobbyist communities in the Grand Theft Auto space and beyond.

"Now more than ever, I have a deep appreciation for communities like ours," says GTAKid. "Through the games I spent so many of my younger years playing, I have been able to create countless new memories and more importantly lifelong friends.

"I often think about how the Chain Game has been the one constant in more than a decade of my life and how it and the people who are a part of it have supported me through both good and difficult times. I couldn’t be more thankful to be a part of something so special.

"We’re in a really good place at the moment and our plan for the next five years is to keep growing and making the Chain Game better than ever. It’s set to be an exciting year for us, celebrating 100 rounds of Vice City, introducing a new type of special round, and perhaps something new over on the west coast."

Everything you need to know about the GTA Chain Game, including how to get involved, lives on the Chain Game Lounge on GTAForums.