It is, quite simply, the most anticipated piece of entertainment since the Star Wars prequels and now, at last, you can reserve a copy. At midnight last night, Rockstar opened preorders on Grand Theft Auto VI, the latest title in the epic open-world gangster adventure series, five months before its 19 November release date on PS5 and Xbox Series S/X.
Prices have also been confirmed, with the standard edition costing $80 in the US, £70 in the UK, and €80 in Europe. An Ultimate Edition (£90/€100/$100) will include exclusive in-game cars, clothes and weapons – the developer has confirmed that there will also be in-game stores that are only open to Ultimate owners. Anyone who pre-orders the game will get a Vintage Vice City pack filled with 80s apparel and other nostalgic items, which look to be straight out of Don Johnson’s Miami Vice wardrobe.
Notably, there will be no physical disc available for the game – at least at launch. Anyone who buys a copy in a shop will find a download code in the box. It’s likely that this is partly to prevent players getting hold of boxed copies before the release date and streaming content online. Video game news site VGC also suggests that the lack of manufacturing costs will allow parent company Take-Two Interactive to maximise revenue on development costs that some have estimated to be as high as $1.5bn.
Another element missing from the game at launch will be a modern update of GTA Online, the hugely successful multiplayer online version of Grand Theft Auto which premiered a month after Grand Theft Auto V in October 2013. Rockstar recently confirmed that at launch GTA VI would be a single-player experience.
Despite these omissions, GTA VI is expected to be a blockbuster launch, dwarfing the box office takings of the year’s biggest movies. Analysts are predicting sales of 40m units in its first year, in comparison to Grand Theft Auto V’s 32.5m. That game has now sold over 230m worldwide.
The game returns the series to the fictional US state of Leonida, based on Florida, and features a new version of fan-favourite location, Vice City, a hive of colourful drug dealers and corrupt politicians. Billed as a romantic crime drama, lead characters Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos are career criminals looking to escape their dangerous lives and go legit. It’s doubtful that will go as planned.
The route to release has not been entirely smooth for the game. Multiple launch delays and several apparent gameplay leaks have beset production and marketing plans. Rockstar is also facing legal action for firing 30 employees who claim they were targeted for attempting to unionise.
But with other major game publishers clearing the weeks around the title’s release, and with pre-orders alone predicted by industry analyst Tom Henderson to earn $1bn within an hour, the hype is very much on an upward trajectory.
