PlayStation and Xbox owners are on tenterhooks waiting for
the launch of Grand Theft Auto VI, which has a release date
confirmed for late next year, but it wasn't the only entry into the
best-selling franchise in the works.
Yes, Facebook parent company Meta confirmed that development
of the first-ever Virtual Reality (VR) entry into the satirical crime franchise
was underway back in 2021. The £1.3 trillion company revealed that it was
working with Rockstar Games, the team behind Grand Theft Auto, on a
project "many years in the making". The VR title would be an
immersive reimagining of GTA: San Andreas, first launched in 2004
on PlayStation 2 and Xbox.
While only 50% of PlayStation owners will be able to
play Grand Theft Auto VI, the now-paused reworking of San
Andreas would be available to an even smaller pool of players. It was
originally developed for the Meta Quest 2, but development on this
all-new GTA title has dragged on for so long that Meta has
since launched an upgraded version of its VR headset, the Meta Quest 3
to compete head-to-head with the Apple Vision Pro.
PlayStation and Xbox owners are on tenterhooks waiting for
the launch of Grand Theft Auto VI, which has a release date
confirmed for late next year, but it wasn't the only entry into the
best-selling franchise in the works.
Yes, Facebook parent company Meta confirmed that development
of the first-ever Virtual Reality (VR) entry into the satirical crime franchise
was underway back in 2021. The £1.3 trillion company revealed that it was working
with Rockstar Games, the team behind Grand Theft Auto, on a project
"many years in the making". The VR title would be an immersive
reimagining of GTA: San Andreas, first launched in 2004 on
PlayStation 2 and Xbox.
While only 50% of PlayStation owners will be able to
play Grand Theft Auto VI, the now-paused reworking of San
Andreas would be available to an even smaller pool of players. It was
originally developed for the Meta Quest 2, but development on this
all-new GTA title has dragged on for so long that Meta has
since launched an upgraded version of its VR headset, the Meta Quest 3
to compete head-to-head with the Apple Vision Pro.
"GTA: San Andreas is on hold indefinitely
while we both focus on other projects," a spokesperson for Meta Quest VR
confirmed in a comment under an unrelated YouTube video.
"We look forward to working with our friends at Rockstar in the
future."
Despite work seemingly taking place on the upgraded new
iteration of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas — the seventh
mainline entry into the blockbuster game series — for at least three years,
Meta and Rockstar Games never released an official trailer, in-game footage, or
poster for the title.
However, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who very likely tested an
early beta version of the game during development, once shared that "this
new version" of Grand Theft Auto will "offer players
an entirely new way to experience this iconic open world in virtual
reality." It's unclear whether we'll ever get the chance to revisit the
fictional city of San Andreas in an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) gameplay.
It's interesting that Meta and Rockstar Games have gone out
of their way not to label the project as "cancelled," although the
fact that it's on hold "indefinitely" doesn't inspire much confidence
that it'll launch for VR headset wearers anytime soon.
The silver lining about this latest GTA delay?
Without a reboot of a 20-year-old game to worry about, the team at Rockstar
Games will be entirely focused on the next mainline entry into the video game
franchise, dubbed Grand Theft Auto VI.
Currently pencilled in for an autumn 2025 launch, GTA
6 is expected to be one of the biggest launches of all-time. Its
predecessor, Grand Theft Auto V, has gone on to become the
biggest-selling entertainment product in history, with $6 billion in revenue to
its name since its launch over a decade ago.
The long wait between instalments in the Grand Theft
Auto franchise is an outlier in the industry, with other chart-topping
series, like Call of Duty, EA Sports FC, and Pokémon,
typically launching new games every year.
As a result, there is now feverish anticipation for the next
instalment in the Grand Theft Auto franchise — resulting
in widespread panic that a fresh round of Hollywood strikes could cause
delays to the title, which will only be playable for roughly 50% of
all PlayStation fans.
With so much excitement mounting around GTA 6, a
veteran game developer with 20 years experience working at Rockstar Games
issued a warning to fans, desperately trying to temper expectations about the
incoming release of GTA VI, suggesting "people
might be a little disappointed."
Former Rockstar Games Technical Director Obbe Vermeij
believes the 12-year wait between instalments means Grand Theft Auto
VI will struggle to live up to lofty expectations after all of that
time. In a new interview, the veteran developer says that fans should
expect a pretty similar experience to Grand Theft Auto V and
that hoping for too much of a change could lead to disappointment.
"I don’t think it’s going to be wildly different
from GTA 5," he explained. "I think maybe people might be
a little disappointed on the first day but it’s still going to be the best game
out there."
Mr Vermeij no longer works at Rockstar Games, but was
involved in the making of some of its biggest hits— he served as Technical
Director on Grand Theft Auto 3, as well as GTA: Vice City,
GTA: San Andreas, and Grand Theft Auto IV. The sixth entry in
the series promises to return fans to Vice City.
Mr Vermeij was still employed at Rockstar Games, which has
offices in New York City, Dundee, and Toronto, when it launched GTA:
The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition, but he doesn't appear in the credits
for GTA V.
The ex-Rockstar Games employee claims to have no
"inside information" on the development of Grand Theft Auto
VI and has issued his warning about longtime fans being disappointed
after watching the trailer and his experience working at the company over two
decades. He explained: "It’s going to be a good game for sure."
It's unclear when exactly the sixth
mainline entry in the Grand Theft Auto series will launch.
Take-Two Interactive has narrowed the previous release window of next year to a
more specific — but still frustratingly vague — timeframe of "fall
2025". Provided nothing changes between now and then, it means Grand
Theft Auto fans will have waited 12 years between instalments.
"As we enter Fiscal 2025 with positive momentum, we
expect to deliver Net Bookings of $5.55 to $5.65 billion," the earnings
report states. "Our outlook reflects a narrowing of Rockstar Games’
previously established window of Calendar 2025 to Fall of Calendar 2025
for Grand Theft Auto VI.
"We are highly confident that Rockstar Games will
deliver an unparalleled entertainment experience, and our expectations for the
commercial impact of the title continue to increase."
Grand Theft Auto V has now appeared on three
console generations, starting with the Xbox 360 and Sony PS3 back in September
2013.
An upgraded version of the game launched on the latest crop
of video game consoles, Xbox Series X|S and Sony PS5, in March 2022 with
support for 4K Ultra HD visuals, ray-tracing, 60 frames-per-second, and 3D
audio. The continued popularity of the game is partly attributed to GTA
Online.
Experts believe the next instalment in the Grand
Theft Auto franchise could break its own record sales numbers. Its
predecessor, Grand Theft Auto V, still holds the crown for the best
opening week of sales in video game history — raking in $1.15bn (£1.2bn) in
five days. It has gone on to become the second biggest game of all-time,
although it's still 100 million copies behind the Gold Medalist, Minecraft.
But many like Dmitri Williams, a video game business expert
and professor at University of Southern California, expect the long-awaited
follow-up to perform even better. He said: "The brand is as strong or
stronger than it was before, but additionally the game industry is larger. If
it maintains the same slice of the pie, it's going to be big, because it will
come from a bigger pie.
"The games industry is simply massive globally, and is
no single genre or platform. It's so large and so varied that even fractions of
it are larger than whole parallel industries like movies.”
Sony is tipped to capitalise on the excitement around the
next Rockstar Games title by launching an improved PlayStation 5 console
with upgraded graphics and a tweaked case design.
The next instalment of the popular Grand Theft Auto series
will take gamers back to Vice City, which last appeared in 2006's Vice
City Stories. Rockstar Games has already confirmed the franchise will use a
female protagonist for the first time since 2000, known as Lucia.
Little is known about the plot of the satirical
action-adventure game, but it's widely expected to mirror the misadventures
of Bonnie and Clyde across a fictional US State that spoofs on
Florida, dubbed Leonida.
