GTA VI – The Autumn 2026 Concern
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This story is taken from the autumn 2026 concern of Dazed, which is on sale internationally from September 10. Pre-order a replica of the journal here.
On the sweltering Leonida Keys, sweat slicks the pores and skin of two lovers on the run as they toast new beginnings, watching the solar set over the water. A breeze blows by their hair, and you may nearly really feel the condensation dripping from the chilly beer bottles of their fingers; within the background, locals collect on the weatherbeaten dock, detached to the story unfolding between the outlaws. Elsewhere, a couple of miles north, tanned our bodies of all styles and sizes swarm the sand on Vice Seashore. Additional north nonetheless, locals are caked in mud, kicked up from the again of a dust bike or spattered on a stars-and-stripes bikini. And as evening falls again in Vice Metropolis, sweaty crowds surge to deafening hip-hop beats, spilling out from golf equipment on to the neon-lit streets.
It’s been 13 years since Rockstar Video games launched Grand Theft Auto V, probably the most acclaimed – and controversial – video video games of all time. And it’s been roughly the identical period of time since work started on its sequel, Grand Theft Auto VI, which transports the motion from San Andreas (intently impressed by real-life southern California) to Leonida (primarily based on Florida). That’s greater than a decade of anticipation, that means there’s “unprecedented strain” on the follow-up to satisfy expectations, as Rob Nelson, head of growth and co-studio head at Rockstar North, tells Dazed: “Nevertheless, I don’t know that any quantity of exterior strain may examine with the strain we placed on ourselves as a workforce.”
When you settle for that video video games are an artform, then Rockstar Video games has produced two of probably the most important works of the twenty first century up to now: GTAV and the western-themed journey Pink Useless Redemption 2. The numbers converse for themselves: in 2013, the previous broke the report for the fastest-selling leisure product of all time, incomes a billion {dollars} in simply three days – greater than any e book or Hollywood movie. 5 years later, RDR2 took the second spot. However the latter additionally got here with a gear shift. Whereas GTA satirised trendy life with wacky characters, high-octane automotive chases and explosive gunfights, RDR2 was hailed as probably the most real looking and immersive video games up to now, with a slower, extra emotional tone suited to its storyline.
GTAVI guarantees one thing in between the 2. The open-world recreation is ready in the identical fictionalised US that serves because the backdrop for the remainder of the sequence, with all of the weapons and supercars you’d anticipate, however the world is extra grounded and reactive than earlier than – gone are the times when you could possibly traverse the town like a god. Now, gamers’ actions have penalties. Stroll down the road with a rifle, and the town may have one thing to say about it. Increasingly more, the video games are converging on actual life, and non-player characters (NPCs) are appearing… nicely, much less like NPCs than ever. For some avid gamers, there’s a worry that what GTAVI beneficial properties in immersion, it loses within the chaos and anarchy which were a part of the sequence’ DNA because the outset, however for Rockstar, the objective is to create a world of complete immersion, which reacts extra realistically than ever to what you select to make of it.
“We glance again at our earlier video games with a essential eye and see the place we need to evolve primarily based on what we didn’t do in addition to we’d have favored to, both as a result of we didn’t have the time, assets or technological capabilities, or in some instances issues we simply didn’t do as nicely or think about as absolutely as we may have,” says Nelson. “Loads of what we do could be very iterative – we regulate a whole lot of issues by really feel primarily based on what’s working and what isn’t.”
The story has developed, too, with larger stakes and characters grounded in all facets of the world they inhabit. Gamers step into the footwear of Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos – an ex-military drug runner and a fighter recent out of jail, respectively – and may select to both play as a pair, or go off and trigger chaos independently. This marks the primary time {that a} GTA recreation has featured a playable couple within the lead position, which makes for some distinctive eventualities: on the best way to a job, for instance, gamers can cruise alongside the freeway as Jason, or swap to Lucia within the passenger seat to scroll on the in-game telephone. (Sure, there are working social media feeds – what satirical tackle 2020s America could be full with out them?) When the job inevitably goes improper and spirals right into a automotive chase, the fluid system allows gamers to take the wheel in a single second, then fireplace on pursuers out of the passenger window the following. And afterwards, when it’s all blown over, they will skim throughout the waves on a jetski, admiring the Leonida seascape and leaping dolphins with their arms wrapped round their companion’s waist.
True romance like Jason and Lucia’s often takes a again seat in GTA video games, which, in the case of issues of affection and intercourse, are extra generally related to strip golf equipment and underground intercourse work. However GTAVI could be very consciously staged as “a Bonnie and Clyde-type narrative”, says Rupert Humphries, senior vice chairman of narrative at Rockstar. The trailers alone characteristic a slew of intimate cutscenes from Jason and Lucia’s personal fugitive story, which showcase the particular consideration that Rockstar’s artwork and know-how groups have paid to how our bodies feel and appear – a hand on a ribcage, hips swinging on a packed dancefloor. For some avid gamers, the story would possibly even function one among their earliest encounters with a romantic (albeit crime-ridden) relationship, the place their decisions can have repercussions that reduce a lot deeper than Rockstar’s earlier titles or “honour” programs that reward conscientious recreation enjoying.
“The factor we love about this medium is the best way these characters aren’t empty avatars that you are able to do no matter you need with… Their story turns into a journey you share with them” – Rob Nelson, head of growth and co-studio head at Rockstar North
Lucia can also be the primary absolutely fleshed-out feminine lead in a mainline GTA recreation. Earlier than her, it’s male protagonists all the best way down, relationship again to 1999. (Grand Theft Auto’s 1997 debut featured a 50-50 break up of female and male protagonists.) Earlier instalments, together with GTAV, drew criticism for misogynistic themes and underdeveloped feminine characters, however the sequence has developed, and hopes to draw extra feminine avid gamers to its beforehand male-heavy participant base. In Lucia and Jason, they’ve created characters with wealthy, complicated identities, whereas nonetheless leaving ample room for gamers to make them their very own. “The factor we love about this medium is the best way these characters aren’t empty avatars that you are able to do no matter you need with,” says Nelson. “Their story turns into a journey you share with them.”
The enjoyment of GTA is as a lot about what gamers do with the moments in between story beats, although. And Rockstar affords what has been – up till now – as near true freedom as you’re going to get inside the confines of a digital world. “We need to allow as a lot self-expression as attainable,” says Nelson, “with out shedding the essence of the characters.” Take GTAV’s model of 2010s Los Angeles, for instance: you could possibly rampage by the streets with an assault rifle or a tank, cruise by the Pacific in an open-top automotive blasting Frank Ocean, and even chill out with a spherical of golf. RDR2 pushed issues additional: between shootouts, the player-controlled protagonist Arthur Morgan may retreat into the wild to fish, hunt massive recreation and make a campfire underneath the geographically correct stars, or lose time consuming and playing in distant frontier cities. Come down out of the mountains a couple of in-game weeks later, and he’d have grown a protracted beard and a mane of hair, and visibly misplaced some weight (or gained it, relying in your talent with a bow and arrow). Bar fights, in the meantime, would depart him bruised and scarred.
GTAVI marks the return, and enlargement, of those interactive programs that alter the protagonists’ our bodies. Meals impacts Jason and Lucia’s weight, whereas exercising visibly builds and tones their muscle groups. And, if you find yourself spending a very long time away out of your mattress, on the run from police or on a multi-day bender, their options are going to pay the value for that as nicely. The impact is a bit like The Image of Dorian Grey – solely, as an alternative of your soul being recorded on a spooky portray within the attic, your habits and sins are written on to the faces and our bodies of the sport’s avatars. This type of interactivity is exclusive to video video games, shaping the digital world and the participant’s responses to it in flip. Between visible suggestions mechanisms, deep relationship mechanics and the heightened realism of the world they inhabit, folks would possibly even suppose twice about occurring the arcade-style rampages of GTA video games passed by, as soon as they land in Leonida.
“We are going to meet with ex-criminals, regulation enforcement, membership promoters, gun sellers and anybody infamous or influential who’ll take our calls. We hang around, get a sense for the place, hearken to the tales…” – Jamie-Lee Lloyd, senior artwork director for characters
Vice Metropolis, the guts of GTAVI’s Leonida, is predicated on Miami. This implies gamers can anticipate encounters with digital iterations of Florida Man, the cultural archetype-turned-meme identified IRL for wrangling alligators, drunken antics and literal grand theft auto. However these outsized characters are only one weird side of a world constructed with “an open thoughts, a real appreciation and a deep curiosity” in direction of the tradition it’s primarily based on, says GTAVI recreation author Michael Wiafe. “It’s straightforward to go in with a cynical view and say, ‘Nicely that’s bizarre, put it within the recreation,’ however we couldn’t simply cease there. Now we have to deliver a way of discovery to the gamers too, not simply repeat cliches that exist already.” To try this requires years of on-the-ground exploration: numerous teams of Rockstar workers have visited Miami and its surrounding areas over the past decade, and there’s a devoted analysis workforce embedded within the metropolis. “That firsthand context helped us perceive the visible markers and nuances that outline the identities we wished to signify,” explains Jamie-Lee Lloyd, senior artwork director for characters, “whereas filtering them by the distinctive lens of GTA and the tales we wished to inform.”
Humphries agrees that these experiences are important, noting {that a} majority of the sport’s characters are born out of this analysis, which incorporates assembly actual individuals who name the state house. “We are going to meet with ex-criminals, regulation enforcement, membership promoters, gun sellers and anybody infamous or influential who’ll take our calls,” he provides. “We hang around, get a sense for the place, hearken to the tales, cross-reference that with books and journalism, and attempt to get to the guts of which characters will deliver the town we’re creating to life.”
In GTAVI, this solid contains numerous criminals, from old-school drug runner Brian Heder and his conspiracy-obsessed affiliate, Cal Hampton, to suave financial institution robber Raul Bautista. Elsewhere, the traces are blurrier. Vice Metropolis legend Boobie Ike oversees a non-public empire together with the Jack of Hearts strip membership (a GTA staple) and a music studio, overseen by the younger, opportunistic Dre’Quan Priest. “We love Miami music, significantly Miami bass, going by to more moderen Miami artists like Kodak Black and Sexyy Pink,” says Humphries. “We had been additionally actually interested by how the hip-hop scene in Miami exists in home events in Overtown, golf equipment like Booby Entice on the River, after which high-end locations on South Seashore the place bottles can value 1000’s of {dollars}. We would have liked characters who may take us by these worlds.” Within the years because the launch of the final recreation, the music business has witnessed a shift in focus in direction of feminine artists, as represented within the recreation’s rising stars Actual Dimez, whose journey may be traced through in-game viral social media posts.
“[GTA VI’s] manufacturers replicate the aspirations, aesthetics and life of the those that inhabit our world’s areas” – Stu Petri, vice chairman of 2D/UI design
With characters like these, anchored in a particular place and time, is there a danger of tipping again into reductive Miami parodies, particularly given the sport’s lengthy lifespan? If at this time we glance again on GTAV’s hipsters and geeky tech bros as a type of 2010s time capsule, what sorts of cultural archetypes will we glance again on after we revisit GTAVI in one other 13 years, and can they continue to be true to how we expertise them within the current day? The artists, writers and builders at Rockstar are acutely aware of the tightrope they’re strolling. Take Stu Petri, vice chairman of 2D/UI design, who has overseen a lot of the cautious world-building in GTAVI, together with the numerous in-game merchandise, manufacturers, retailers and campaigns that bear greater than a passing resemblance to their real-life counterparts. “Our imaginative and prescient is to construct a vibrant, plausible tradition,” he says, that means that each model, from style label to automotive firm, has to really feel like greater than only a one-off joke, as if it really exists and serves an actual objective in Leonida’s cultural ecosystem. “These manufacturers replicate the aspirations, aesthetics and life of the those that inhabit our world’s areas.” Drop into the sport as Jason or Lucia, and so they come to replicate your interior life as nicely, lending an additional layer of that means to every haircut or outfit alternative.
The potential to discover a range of cultures and life is partly why the sequence ended up circling again to Vice Metropolis and the state of Leonida within the first place, Nelson suggests: “Florida and Miami have maybe probably the most numerous and attention-grabbing populations on the earth.” Few know this higher than Miami-based stylist Jillian Carr, who has labored with Rockstar since 2023, designing an in-game “style ecosystem” that goals to replicate all of the nuances of “style, life-style, affluence and individuality” which are displayed within the metropolis, and in America as a complete. “Vice Metropolis is constructed round self-importance,” says Carr. “Between social media, celeb tradition and a relentless circulate of vacationers, appearances carry important weight, and development cycles flip over rapidly.” This brings us again to the background NPCs. Younger and outdated, tall or quick, tattooed, pierced or modified with cosmetic surgery, carrying throwback Hawaiian shirts, sharp fits, luxurious style or muddy fight gear, the our bodies and garments of the digital lots are additionally way more various than in earlier video games, and extra tailor-made to their native environments, from Vice Metropolis’s Little Cuba to the wilderness of Mount Kalaga nationwide park.
“To deliver that range to life in-game, we developed new instruments and pipelines that enabled us to construct probably the most detailed and various character inhabitants we’ve ever created,” says Lloyd. However in the end, he provides, making that inhabitants really feel genuine comes from greater than look alone. “It’s the mixture of how a personality appears to be like, strikes, interacts and expresses themselves, introduced collectively by collaboration throughout a number of groups.” Wiafe hopes that every one of those programs working collectively ship “a panorama that gamers really feel they’ve been dropped into and are made to endlessly roam round in.”
“Vice Metropolis is constructed round self-importance. Between social media, celeb tradition and a relentless circulate of vacationers, appearances carry important weight, and development cycles flip over rapidly” – Jillian Carr, stylist
To tug off the technical and cultural feats required to construct a world of the size, depth and interactivity of GTAVI, the Rockstar workforce has greater than doubled in measurement because the launch of Pink Useless Redemption 2. It has places of work world wide, with one department in LA devoted nearly solely to the world of in-game pedestrians (NPCs). Greater than 50 actual road artists had been introduced in to design murals in locations like Vice Metropolis’s Stockyard (primarily based on Wynwood, Miami). The workforce that offers with car dealing with is made up of literal race-car drivers.
Once more, all of it provides as much as a whole lot of strain, and never solely as a result of the funding of time, cash and energy is on a par with a number of wonders of the world – on the time of writing, there’s a web-based hearsay that the sport value extra to construct than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. But additionally as a result of, if all goes nicely, this can be a murals that individuals may spend the following decade with… at the least. “It’s a whole lot of strain internally and externally, however that strain is in the end a privilege we all know we’re lucky to have,” says Nelson. “All we need to do is ship for our viewers.”
This story is taken from the autumn 2026 concern of Dazed, which is on sale internationally from September 10. Pre-order a replica of the journal here. Grand Theft Auto VI is out on November 19 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Sequence X/S.