On Wednesday, Rockstar Video games formally confirmed that—after a few years of ready—the subsequent Grand Theft Auto sport will lastly be revealed by way of a trailer in early December. Folks on-line are understandably going wild over the information and it marks the top of a weird period of countless hypothesis and hijinks.
Rockstar’s open-world crime simulator, Grand Theft Auto V, launched on Xbox 360 and PS3 again in 2013 (see on Amazon). Within the 10 years since its launch, it has develop into one of many best-selling video video games in historical past. And never lengthy after it hit consoles, individuals started questioning: “When will the subsequent GTA sport be introduced?” Prior to now, the time between GTA essential installments was typically round three to 5 years. However this time round, it’s been a a lot longer watch for simply the affirmation of the subsequent entry within the collection. In that decade of what felt like countless ready, issues obtained bizarre, followers grew determined, and rumors endlessly flooded the online.
The early days of GTA VI rumors
Barely 4 years after the discharge of GTA V and its multiplayer element, GTA On-line, gamers have been already trolling the group in regards to the lacking GTA VI. In 2018, hackers stuffed GTA On-line with pretend bulletins, purportedly from Rockstar, claiming that GTA VI pre-orders have been reside and that the sport can be launched in 2019. That, uh…didn’t occur.
By 2020, determined followers have been trying into the smallest particulars to try to puzzle out the discharge date of Grand Theft Auto VI’s trailer and even simply when Rockstar would formally verify the sport’s existence. At one level, a random piece of robotic paintings on Rockstar Video games’ official web site turned fodder for fan theories. (It turned out to be nothing. That’s the case with 99% of these things.)
Followers even tracked down a dust highway in Virginia utilizing coordinates from a GTA On-line replace trailer and linked it again to GTA VI. In accordance with some the highway was formed equally to “VI”. I’m unsure this was intentional on Rockstar’s half, but it surely obtained the group riled up once more as they tried to attach the highway to their theories. Maybe the subsequent GTA sport can be set in that a part of the nation? Or possibly it will likely be a rural-themed GTA installment? (Based mostly on what we find out about GTA VI, none of those theories panned out.)
The web trade constructed on GTA VI hypothesis
As time went on, followers turned increasingly more determined as Rockstar supplied little or no to quench their need for GTA VI information. At this level, a cottage trade centered on “GTA VI rumors” had absolutely shaped throughout social media, YouTube, Reddit, and fewer respected information retailers. It led to GTA VI trending on-line again and again as trolls unfold pretend rumors that have been picked up by fan accounts after which reported on by smaller retailers whose tales obtained shared on Reddit and YouTube resulting in extra fan hypothesis and tales earlier than all of it collapsed right into a pile of lies and disappointment. And this saved taking place for years.
In 2021, one fan—probably influenced by this neverending cycle of rumors—interrupted an episode of a reside TV present and demanded details about Grand Theft Auto VI. The present, host, and community had zero connection to Rockstar Video games or Take-Two, however that didn’t cease this fan from begging for solutions.
“What I wish to know is the place the hell is GTA VI,” shouted the person on reside TV, “I’ve been ready eight years for GTA VI!“
Determined followers even dug by way of the remastered and not-so-great GTA Trilogy assortment for clues. And so they discovered one thing: An out-of-place picture of a home that gave the impression to be positioned in Florida and confirmed a UFO above it. Now that we all know in 2023—primarily based on leaks and stories—that the subsequent essential GTA sport is prone to be set in Vice Metropolis, Florida, it’s attainable that this clue was pointing followers in the suitable course in any case. Even when that’s the case, the observe document for group rumors and theories is fairly poor.
The top of a wierd, exhausting period
Lastly, final yr Rockstar Video games confirmed that it was making one other Grand Theft Auto. Did this cease fan hypothesis? Under no circumstances! As talked about already, an trade had shaped round GTA hypothesis and people content material creators weren’t going to cease. They nonetheless had the prospect to squeeze out extra rumors about pretend trailers and false launch dates. And so they did simply that, pointing to GTA On-line shirts as clues and working on stage on the Recreation Awards to say…Invoice Clinton desires to play GTA VI…?
Then, in September 2022, the primary huge blow to the GTA VI rumor ecosystem of content material creators occurred. An enormous, unprecedented leak of early Grand Theft Auto VI gameplay hit the web.
Inside hours followers cataloged every clip and commenced poring over it with microscopes. Some started utilizing the clips to construct GTA VI’s map. Others combed by way of every leaked video for any particulars in regards to the sport’s plot or characters. For the primary time in practically a decade, GTA followers had one thing actual to take a look at and Take-Two Interactive’s attorneys have been unable to cease them. Now that people knew who the primary protagonists have been, the place the sport was set, and a plethora of different particulars, the trade round GTA IV rumors began to expire of steam.
Earlier than Rockstar’s affirmation of a December trailer launch, the final components of the hypothesis machine spent the ultimate months of this period predicting and re-predicting when the sport can be introduced, teased, or formally unveiled. All of those random on-line predictions have been mistaken, even a much-hyped October reveal.
Lastly, on November 7, Bloomberg reported {that a} GTA VI trailer was coming in December and the subsequent day, Rockstar confirmed it.
And so now, we wait, one thing the GTA group has gotten good at within the final decade. Come December followers will lastly get to see the primary official reveal of the subsequent Grand Theft Auto sport after a wild decade of hypothesis, rumors, hoaxes, trolls, and leaks.
As soon as GTA VI is formally a factor that Rockstar can speak about, loads of this period will probably be misplaced to the ether as individuals transfer on and give attention to actual trailers and screenshots. However I’ll always remember simply how bizarre and determined tens of millions of GTA followers obtained after they have been pressured to attend 10 years for Grand Theft Auto VI.
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