As of yesterday, in a now since deleted tweet on X, a trailer for the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI was posted to the social media platform. Rumors seemed to indicate that the initial leaks originated from the son of a senior Rockstar developer, and while the gaming studio didn’t comment on the exact details, they did end up releasing the official trailer in response. Even though Rockstar Games may not have planned to launch the trailer ahead of December 5, fans were still more than excited to finally get a glimpse at the upcoming action-adventure entry.
As of writing this, the trailer for GTA VI is trending #1 on YouTube with over 82 million views and over 650,000 comments. After watching the trailer myself, I can say that certain tidbits of information that have been leaked throughout the years have coincidentally ended up being true. That said, I’m going to do a brief breakdown of the trailer down below so we can uncover a few references, Easter eggs, and any other highlights.
Trailer Analysis & Breakdown
During the first 10 seconds of the trailer, we get an overview of the general setting, followed by a glimpse at GTA VI’s protagonist, Lucia. Not only is Lucia the first female protagonist in GTA’s history, but it seems like our introduction to her will be during a period of incarceration, which she describes as “bad luck.”
From that point, we get various shots of where GTA VI will actually be taking place, which to my surprise, is Vice City. However, this entry in the series plans to explore Vice City to a greater extent. The setting of this game takes place in Leonida, which is a fictional state created for GTA VI and the location of Vice City.
Further into the trailer, we continue with more shots of the scenery and a glimpse of the nightlife. Now, something I can say about GTA VI just from looking at the trailer, is that Rockstar Games has truly outdone themselves when it comes to population density. Something that games tend to struggle with, especially in open world settings, is making their environments feel alive. Between the crowded streets and packed clubs, I’m sure there’ll be many interesting NPC interactions.
Personally, the shot of Vice City at night brought back a little nostalgia, as one of the cars lined along the street is the iconic Cheetah, but with Vice City’s original design. I thought that was a really nice callback.
Now, remember when I said that Vice City would be explored to a greater extent? Well, the state of Leonida is GTA’s take on Florida, and between seconds 0:41–0:57, Rockstar manages to capture that real “Florida Man/Woman” essence. That’s no offense to Floridians though, you guys are cool, but come on, sometimes things can get a little unhinged. In these scenes of the trailer we see alligators breaking into stores, women dancing on moving cars, street races, and police raids, among many other oddities.
What makes things even funnier, though, is that social media seems to play an active role in GTA VI, with each of these events appearing to show up on various news feeds.
As we get more shots of that stereotypical Florida chaos, and even a shot of the infamous “Joker of Florida,” we circle back to Lucia, who can be seen with an unnamed love interest. These events appear to reveal a premeditated burglary of some kind, which would explain why her introduction seems to take place from jail. Based on speculation and possibly leaks, Lucia and this unnamed man may have a Bonnie & Clyde dynamic to their relationship. If Lucia’s incarceration is anything to go by, we can only assume that something must’ve gone terribly wrong for the pair.
The trailer finally wraps up with the title card and a general release date of 2025. As you can imagine, most fans weren’t too thrilled upon learning that they had to wait beyond 2024. However, with the beast of an open-world game that GTA VI is shaping up to be, we can only hope that the long wait is indicative of how much effort is being put into it.
Overall, the trailer launch for GTA VI was absolutely perfect. The song “Love is a Long Road,” which was sung by Tom Petty, added a nice 80s touch to the now modernized Vice City. Considering that the original game took place in the neon-lit era of the 1980s, it’s nice to have that blend between two different periods of American culture. I look forward to seeing what other callbacks to the older game we can discover upon its eventual release.
Conclusion
Even though we won’t be able to get our hands on the game until sometime in 2025, there’s bound to be more details on the game as we get closer to a definitive date. Hopefully, Rockstar Games won’t have to suffer through anymore leaks, but either way, I’m sure fans will take any information they can get.
With the hype of this trailer still fresh on our minds, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. Are there any Easter eggs you think we might see in GTA VI from the older Vice City? Are you excited to play as a female protagonist for the first time in the series’ history? Is there a particular scene from the trailer you enjoyed? If you‘d like to keep the conversation going, comment on this article. Alternatively, you can subscribe to me at ‘Keith Price’ to get my takes on everything related to Gaming, Tech, and DCU comics!
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References
Aaron Trueman. (December 1, 2023). GTA 6 logo, artwork and wallpapers. Retrieved from https://rockstarintel.com/all-gta-6-artwork-and-wallpapers/
Linnea Ahlgren. (December 5, 2023). GTA VI trailer leak linked to Rockstar dev’s son. Retrieved from https://thenextweb.com/news/gta-6-trailer-leak-rockstar-developer-son
YouTube. (December 4, 2023). Grand Theft Auto VI Trailer 1. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdBZY2fkU-0
