After over a decade of anticipation, the first official trailer for Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto VI has finally arrived, albeit earlier than intended. Originally scheduled for release on Tuesday, November 8th, the 90-second trailer surfaced a day early after an unauthorized Twitter account posted it first. Rockstar then rushed to get the official YouTube version out shortly thereafter.
While unfortunate, this mishap pales in comparison to the massive leak of early GTA VI footage that occurred in September 2022. That unprecedented breach saw almost an hour of raw gameplay footage from a development build of GTA VI circulating online, depicting the new Vice City setting and dual protagonists. A teenager in the UK has since been arrested in relation to the hack.
Sunny Skies Over Vice City
The newly released trailer provides fans their first true glimpse into GTA VI’s vibrant representation of Miami, Vice City. Palm tree-lined beaches packed with tourists, the iconic art deco resorts of Ocean Drive, airboats in the Everglades swamps – the trailer checks all the boxes for a satirical take on Florida. An alligator even wanders into a convenience store at one point.
Along with the scenery, the trailer also confirms Lucia as one of the game’s playable protagonists. Currently locked up in prison, Lucia’s arrest seems to set off a chaotic series of events also depicted in the footage. Her partner in crime appears to be Jason, with the two agreeing to “stick together” and “trust” each other by the trailer’s end.
Lucia marks a series’ first for GTA as a female protagonist. Combined with the return to Vice City, clearly Rockstar aims to recapture the magic of earlier titles like 2002’s acclaimed Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. However, the studio will produce GTA VI without key creative leads like Dan Hauser who historically shaped the tone and style of Rockstar’s games. Fans wait eagerly to see how this impacts the finished product.
For now, expect trailer breakdowns aplenty from the community to extract every morsel of detail in the meantime. One thing’s for sure though – after years of waiting, Grand Theft Auto VI finally feels oh so close.
