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PlayStation and Xbox owners are on tenterhooks waiting a record-breaking amount of time for details on the launch of Grand Theft Auto VI, which has a vague 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.
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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."
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced development of a VR-specific version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas so long ago that it was targeting the Meta Quest 2, which has since been superseded
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.
Little is known about the plot of Grand Theft Auto VI, but the first trailer hints at a Bonnie and Clyde-like story that follows the first female protagonist in the GTA franchise since 2000, known as Lucia and her partner as they rampage across the fictional US state of Leonida
ROCKSTAR GAMES PRESS OFFICE | GBN
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.
GTA 6, stylised as Grand Theft Auto VI, returns the action to the fictional city of Vice City, which is Rockstar Games' satirical version of Miami that featured in the 2002 GTA release of the same name ROCKSTAR GAMES 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 first launched 11 years ago on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Since then, the popular title has appeared on another two console generations, with an upgraded version of the decade-old video game launching on the latest consoles from Xbox and Sony in early 2022
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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.”
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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.