Rumors have been circulating for years about the next installment of Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto video game series. The most prevalent theory, of course, has been that GTA 6 will take gamers back to Vice City for a good old hit of classic gaming nostalgia. However, the latest rumors concerning the highly-anticipated follow-up to the wildly successful GTA V is that it might be more ambitious than any game ever has been before.
According to Micheal Pachter, an industry analyst and insider, Grand Theft Auto 6 will be set in Vice City, a fictional city based in Miami, but it will also see players traveling to other iconic GTA locations. Pachter mentioned Liberty City, San Andreas, and Europe, which presumably takes the franchise back to the 1999 London expansion of the original game.
Pachter hasn’t indicated Los Santos, a city-based on Los Angeles and the main location for much of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas and GTA V, but as the location is so iconic within the franchise, we can theorize it will be included in the game’s extensive location list.
Pachter also noted that the new game would be anywhere between 400 to 500 hours long. By comparison, GTA San Andreas took around 80 hours to finish, and Grand Theft Auto V can be completed in around 79. If the 400-500 hour duration is correct, it will make GTA 6 the longest game in existence. It would also suggest that each location will have the content and gameplay equivalent to a standalone game, deepening the experience even further.
Pachter hints that we could see Grand Theft Auto 6, or VI, sometime in 2024. He goes further to say that Rockstar may not have been busy with hard coding or plotlines in 2014, but they have been working on the game since at least that year. Many players have had doubts about Rockstar working on the next installment, given that GTA V still sees so much new content, but it would be naive to think that Rockstar would be cramming all their golden eggs into one basket.
If you’d like to read more about the current version of the game, we have a comprehensive guide on how to play Grand Theft Auto V.
