After what seems like an eternity, Rockstar Games has finally announced that they are working on the next entry for the Grand Theft Auto franchise. The studio made the announcement in a blog post, where they confirm that development has already begun, and while they aren’t necessarily calling the next entry Grand Theft Auto VI, it’s already been partially adopted as the name by the fan base and some outlets. Rockstar stated in the post that “We are pleased to confirm that active development for the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series is well underway. We look forward to sharing more as soon as we are ready, so please stay tuned to the Rockstar Newswire for official details.”
Despite the briefness of the reveal, and the lack of any major information, the announcement in and of itself was more than enough to make the fanbases wish come true. With that being said we also hope that those same fans have an additional stretch of patience because the likelihood of seeing any actual gameplay, release dates, images, or teasers in the near future is extremely low. Rockstar is more than likely in the very early stages of development here, and if their track record on releases is any indication, it’s going to be a very long time before we hear anything more on this one.
The blog post also briefly goes into the immediate future of Grand Theft Auto V and the online mode Grand Theft Auto Online, which has essentially become larger than life. Both will soon be released for the current generation of home consoles, the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X/Series S. The update was originally going to take place in November 2021 but ended up being delayed until March 2022. The studio says that the upgrades will offer a major visual overhaul that includes 60 frames per second, 4k resolution, draw distances, faster loading times, and of course the obligatory ray tracing.
Rockstar also revealed that the Dr. Dre songs that were created for GTA Online’s latest update, The Contract, which starred Dre himself, are now available on streaming services.
On top of this, the Grand Theft Auto Online aspect will become available as a stand-alone entity, and will be completely free for the first three months on the PlayStation 5. Those who are planning on playing the titles on the newer systems can bring their progression over for both the Story mode and the Online mode with a one-time migration feature at launch. The implementation of Grand Theft Auto V for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/Series S will make the inevitable wait for the next entry a little bit easier to go through.