Grand Theft Auto VI is now available for pre-load for gamers who pre-ordered the game, allowing them to start the download. With the game launching on November 19, Rockstar has confirmed that it will run at 30 frames per second on consoles, utilizing their integrated graphics for maximum visual fidelity. This means that while the studio has invested significant resources to maximize the performance of these console graphics cards, the game will be capped at 30 FPS to ensure stability and optimal visual quality. Current generation consoles are limited to 30 FPS, although some will receive additional features.

For instance, Sony's PlayStation 5 Pro will offer gamers PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) and ray-traced shadows, exclusive to that console. Although the standard PlayStation 5 supports a similar technology called Quick Spectral Super Resolution (QSSR), a simplified version of PSSR, it will not be implemented at launch. Only the more powerful PS5 Pro will feature PSSR and ray tracing.

It's been known since before the actual release date was announced that GTA VI would generate enough hype that there would be ripple effects throughout the gaming industry, with some analysts estimating that the game would generate as much as $4.5 billion in sales in its first week on the market. However, according to Take-Two Interactive's CEO, Strauss Zelnick, in a recent interview with Variety, GTA VI is already exceeding expectations.

Strauss Zelnick via VarietyGrand Theft Auto VI" presales are "running far in excess of our expectations... That's a good thing. That said, we never claim success before it occurs. So we're just days away from beginning to see the fruits of our labor.

Dan Houser, the Rockstar co-founder who co-wrote much of Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, isn't happy with how Max Payne 3 turned out. Speaking to IGN for its IGN30 Icons series, Houser, who was the lead writer on the 2012 shooter, explained that the game's linear structure, lack of loading screens, and movie-like presentation felt like a cool take on digital noir to him at the time. Players, he admitted, largely didn't see it that way. Here's how he summed it up:

So I got that completely wrong. I know Sam Lake well, and he's a very good guy and really talented. I thought we'd done a good job of doing another Max Payne game. Some people liked it; lots didn't. So we got it wrong, or I got it wrong. I failed. My bit was not a success. The game is beautifully made, and it wasn't as successful as it should have been. So I would say a large amount of that failure was on me as one of the people making the decisions and also as the writer, when people really missed his writing.

Microsoft has reportedly signed a deal that makes Xbox Cloud Gaming the only cloud service allowed to stream Grand Theft Auto 6 at launch, according to The Verge's Tom Warren, citing sources familiar with Microsoft's plans. The claim follows an internal town hall this week where Xbox CEO Asha Sharma apparently told staff that the company has something planned around GTA 6 that "no other platform holder is doing." Sharma doesn't seem to have described the deal herself, and neither Microsoft nor Rockstar has confirmed it officially yet. It's also unclear how long the exclusivity lasts, or whether streaming will require buying the game.

If it pans out, the deal would matter most to PC players. GTA 6 is set to release on November 19 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, and Rockstar hasn't announced a PC version. Xbox Cloud Gaming works on PCs, so it could be the only official way to play there at launch without owning a console. Rival services such as NVIDIA GeForce NOW and Sony's PlayStation Plus cloud streaming would presumably have to wait, though the report doesn't name them directly. Meanwhile, Microsoft is introducing monthly caps on cloud play in November, with Game Pass Ultimate limited to 15 hours, Premium to 10, and Essential to just 5. Extra hours can be bought, and a pay-as-you-go option for non-subscribers is expected the same month. Anyone hoping to finish GTA 6 over the cloud would probably burn through those hours fairly quickly.

No one is exempt from the global DRAM shortage, and today Sony confirmed there might be a way for enthusiastic gamers to purchase the PlayStation 5 Pro console at MSRP. In Japan, Sony is running a lottery system that explicitly allows gamers with 60 hours of playtime to purchase the console. These playtime hours must have been earned in the two-year period between September 27, 2024, and September 27, 2026. The latter date marks a hard stop that Sony will track, preventing anyone from artificially increasing their playtime. Eligible gamers can apply to the lottery system by October 7, and those selected to buy the console at MSRP will be notified on October 26.

Once the notification email is received, the eligible owner must purchase the console by November 2, or these lottery spots will be returned for another drawing scheduled later this year. This is perhaps one of the strangest ways to purchase a console, but since DRAM shortages have been depleting Sony's stock for manufacturing new consoles, it at least allows gamers who are truly passionate about gaming and need to upgrade their hardware from any earlier PlayStation version to get better performance on the upcoming launch of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto VI game.

Modder gebdag has released GTA2 RTX Remix, a mod that brings full path tracing and dynamic time-of-day lighting to Grand Theft Auto 2, the 1999 top-down classic. NVIDIA's Jacob Freeman shared a clip of the mod on X, showing a day-night cycle that looks quite well-done. Apparently, the biggest hurdle in the process was technical, as GTA 2 ran on DirectDraw and an early version of Direct3D, neither of which RTX Remix supports natively. To get around this, the modder built a custom Direct3D 9 wrapper using two DLLs that translate the game's legacy rendering calls into something RTX Remix can actually read. The result reportedly adds real-time path-traced lighting, so explosions, car fires, and neon signs now cast their own glow, and the day-night cycle shifts lighting as it passes.

The mod also unlocks widescreen 16:9 support (the original was locked to 4:3) and adds frame generation for up to 60 FPS, well above what the original release could hit. GTA2 RTX Remix is open source on GitHub and was reportedly tested on version 9.6 of the game, the free release Rockstar distributed in 2004. It needs 64-bit Windows 10 or 11 alongside the RTX Remix runtime. It's certainly a niche release given how old the base game is, but it's another one in the chain of RTX Remix mods breathing new life into titles most people wrote off years ago. Similar projects already exist for Max Payne, Morrowind, and Need for Speed Carbon, and modders keep finding new ways to push the tool's limits.

Grand Theft Auto VI is stacking up to be one of, if not the biggest launch in the history of the games industry, if analyst predictions are true. Despite the massive hype around the game, it will still be a console exclusive at launch and likely for a considerable time after that. However, according to Jérémy Hartvick, a former Rockstar developer who worked on GTA VI until 2020, in a recent interview with Kiwi Talkz, a port to Nintendo's Switch 2 handheld isn't likely.

As the developer explains, "I don't believe it even makes sense, because I'm not sure the audience for GTA 6 is so much the audience for the Switch. If you're a GTA fan, you would probably buy a console on which GTA will come out," although the developer expects that it would be possible to get the game running on the Switch 2, albeit with compromises to things like in-game visuals.

Rockstar has opened pre-orders for the Grand Theft Auto 6: The Goodtime State - Vice City Collection, a collector's box priced at $399.99 in the US and £349.99 in the UK. Despite how it may sound, this is not a collector's edition of the game. Rockstar's store page says GTA 6 is sold separately, so the box neither has a disc nor a download code. The collection instead has 11 items themed around Macca the Gator, a fictional TV show from the game's Leonida setting.

These include a Macca the Gator figure with a twist-open base, Oakley Frogskins sunglasses, a Leonida Keys crossbody bag, and a New Era 9FORTY snapback hat. The smaller items are a magnetic mirror, a Chunkee the Manatee shot glass, a Vice City swizzle spoon, and a razor blade-style keychain. The set also includes nine enamel pins, nine vinyl stickers, and a double-sided poster with a map of Leonida. Rockstar lists it as an adult collectible for ages 18 and up, and shipping is not free.

It's long been known that Grand Theft Auto VI would initially launch as a single-player game when it arrives in November 2026, and there has been no indication of when an actual GTA VI Online would launch. However, recently, Dan Clancy, CEO of Twitch, revealed in an interview with Bloomberg that he expects a "big bump with GTA 6, but then an even bigger one next year when they launch multiplayer," suggesting that GTA VI Online will launch in 2027.

The executive explains that he had spent time "talking with Rockstar about their plans," which doesn't necessarily mean that the information is 100% accurate—and even if it were, we've seen GTA VI's launch date move several times, by now—but it is a reasonably credible source for the information. In a previous interview with IGN, Take-Two's Strauss Zelnick suggested that the original GTA Online would receive support long into the future, even if GTA Online 2, as it were, was already released.

Rockstar Games has announced Grand Theft Auto 6: The Album, a 34-track record made in collaboration with Atlantic Records and set to release alongside the game on November 19. Six songs are already streaming on Spotify and Apple Music, including tracks from Travis Scott, Yung Lean, Morgan Wallen, Rauw Alejandro, and Keith Richards, with the rest of the lineup still under wraps. The album will also get a physical release with three tiers. A CD version runs $19.98, a standard vinyl edition with magenta and blue splatter discs costs $49.98, and a limited-edition vinyl with liquid-filled discs tops out at $124.98.

That last option interestingly costs more than the game's own $100 Ultimate Edition, and it comes with exclusive artwork alongside colorway variants sold through retailers like Best Buy, Amazon, Target, and Urban Outfitters. Pre-orders for the album are open now, with physical copies shipping from November 20, a day after GTA 6 itself launches. Rockstar has leaned on music tie-ins before, but a full commercial album alongside a mainline GTA release is new territory. The pricing on the top-tier vinyl certainly suggests Rockstar is treating this as a genuine collector's item rather than just a marketing freebie.

An unofficial, native Android port of Grand Theft Auto 5 is reportedly in development, though it looks like only a small portion of phones will actually be able to run it at launch. The project comes from M0jso of Paralympics Productions, the same developer behind the unofficial GTA 5 port for the original Nintendo Switch that we recently covered. Unlike solutions that run the Windows version through compatibility layers like Winlator, this port is being built to run GTA 5 natively on Arm. It reportedly uses the same base as the Switch port, which itself was built on GTA 5 Legacy 1.0.2699 and the leaked 2023 source code.

Minimum requirements are said to be a Snapdragon 865, 8 GB of RAM, and 65 GB of storage, with support extending up through recent Snapdragon 7 and 8 series chips. The first public build is Snapdragon-only, so Exynos chips (including the 1480, 1580, 2200, 2400, and 2600), Pixel Tensor with PowerVR graphics, and MediaTek Helio chips are apparently left out for now, at least until Mali GPU support gets added later. There's no word on an actual release date yet, and it's still worth treating this as an early and unofficial project until we see it running. However, it is confirmation that GTA 5 will be coming to Android phones pretty soon, if the Nintendo Switch port timeline is anything to go by.

A modding group called Paralympics Productions has gotten Grand Theft Auto 5 running natively on the original Nintendo Switch, using a homebrew port built from the game's 2023 leaked source code. Rockstar never released GTA 5 on Switch hardware, despite the game shipping all the way back in 2013 on PS3 and Xbox 360, so this fills a gap the studio didn't choose to fill. Reverse-engineering the leaked "Legacy" source let the team recompile the game's logic for Arm and run it directly on the Switch's Tegra X1 chip, with no Android layer or emulation involved. You do need a jailbroken and overclocked Switch to get anything resembling a playable framerate, though.

At stock clocks, the game reportedly limps along at 10-25 FPS, and only settles into a steadier 30 FPS once the CPU, GPU, and memory are pushed past their limits through tools like sys-clk. Given the Tegra X1 is over a decade old and thermally constrained even in its own console, that's a fairly reasonable outcome for a 2013 game running its actual PC-tier logic on hardware never meant to touch it. The full install reportedly weighs in around 49GB, and Paralympics Productions has already shipped a few patches, with an Android port apparently in the works too. Of course, this doesn't automatically mean GTA 6 is coming to Switch 2 anytime soon, since this only works because of the leaked source code.

Grand Theft Auto 6 pre-orders jumped sharply after Rockstar's extended gameplay look aired on Netflix, according to new estimates from Sensor Tower. The analytics firm says pre-orders rose 436% on August 27, the day of the showcase, compared to the day before. That momentum carried into August 28, pushing the two-day increase to 572% against the prior 30-day average. PlayStation 5 accounted for the bulk of the surge, with PS5 pre-orders up 606% on the 27th alone, while Xbox Series X|S pre-orders rose a comparatively modest 127%. PS5 has led Xbox in GTA 6 pre-orders since Sensor Tower began tracking reservations in June, shortly after Rockstar officially opened pre-orders for the game.

Sensor Tower's cumulative estimate now stands at roughly 4.86 million pre-orders worldwide, worth close to $476 million, with PlayStation buyers accounting for about 77% of that total. Take-Two has not confirmed exact figures, though CEO Strauss Zelnick has previously said demand for the $100 Ultimate Edition has outpaced the standard $80 version. Rockstar has kept a tight grip on gameplay reveals since GTA 6's earlier trailers, so a 26-minute showcase was always going to move the needle. Sensor Tower's own analysts have also suggested the current Ultimate Edition divide is unlikely to hold once mass-market buyers start pre-ordering closer to release, which could shift these percentages again before launch.

After years of speculation and weeks of unwanted drama, Rockstar Games finally gave the world its first official look at the gameplay of Grand Theft Auto 6. In the 20-minute extended look that aired on Netflix, Rockstar showed off its latest creation in spectacular fashion, covering everything from shootouts and cutscenes to driving mechanics, and even a jaw-dropping sequence where Lucia jumps off a skyscraper, with the entire state of Leonida sprawling before her. That last part was particularly impressive, as it showed viewers the enormous expanse of GTA 6's map. In fact, we have indirect confirmation of just exactly how big the state of Leonida will be from creators who were given a behind-the-scenes look at Rockstar's game. YouTuber TGG was one of them, and he asked Rockstar developers about the map's size. Here is what he had to say:

TGG"The map is twice the size of GTA 5's map. Three times the size of Red Dead Redemption 2's map. Vice City itself is twice the size of Los Santos, and Vice City and its surrounding suburbs is 11 times bigger than Los Santos and its surroundings."

Grand Theft Auto VI is leading the charge in the $80 AAA race, which has understandably upset many gamers, but the $100 Ultimate Edition has been another point of contention in online discussions. However, despite the online discussions potentially suggesting otherwise, Take-Two CEO, Strauss Zelnick, recently explained in an interview with CNBC that pre-orders are stronger for the Ultimate Edition than the standard $80 version of the game, although he declined to provide exact pre-order figures, which are estimated to exceed $260 million in revenue already.

When asked about how the Ultimate Edition pricing was affecting pre-orders, Zelnick said that "it's skewing more to the premium edition," and he goes on to explain that "that might be a reflection again of the fact that the most avid consumers are the ones who are pre-ordering." Part of the discourse and criticism around the $100 Ultimate Edition of GTA VI revolve around the fact that many of the additional items in the special edition are cosmetics and customization options, and that GTA VI is a single-player game, where paid DLC is usually more substantial, like additional playable content or other characters.

Microsoft is significantly increasing the prices of its Xbox gaming consoles starting August 1st across the United States, Europe, and the United Kingdom. We were aware that the pricing strategy for the United States market involves an increase of up to $150, depending on the SKU. However, it turns out that the pricing in Europe and the UK is set to rise even more dramatically. A member of the Resetera forum has compiled a list of UK and European pricing updates, showing the Xbox Series S 512 GB version going from €349 to €499, while the Xbox Series X Digital Edition is now priced at €749, up from €549. For the base Xbox Series S model, this represents a 43% price hike compared to the old price. Raising the price by nearly half the MSRP is a decision made amid the memory crisis, where Microsoft's supply of GDDR6 memory for these consoles has been affected by significantly higher prices.

For the more powerful Xbox Series X, the price increase ranges from 33% to 36%, depending on whether the edition is digital or disc version. This means that for the 1 TB version of the Xbox Series X with disc capability, you can expect to pay €800. Of course, this is only the MSRP listing, and retailers might add additional charges if demand exceeds supply. As we approach the launch of the Grand Theft Auto VI game, expect console demand to continue rising. Console makers like Sony have been stockpiling memory to ensure there is ample supply. Below, you can check the pricing across Europe, the UK, and the US, compiled by VideoGamesChronicle.

In its latest earnings call, Sony discussed its PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Pro consoles, noting that the company has secured enough DRAM to manufacture its consoles without being affected by the current memory crisis in the semiconductor industry. Reportedly, the company has worked with the big three DRAM makers—Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron—to ensure an ample supply of DRAM for the PlayStation 5, as demand is expected to grow rapidly with the upcoming release of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto VI. Being one of the most anticipated major AAA titles this year, it usually triggers a whole ecosystem of purchases, with gamers flocking to retailers to buy the latest generation console.

Anticipating this surge in purchasing, Sony has secured sufficient DRAM supply just before the November 19 launch of GTA VI, meaning the company will likely benefit from profits driven by the game's release. "Regarding the impact of the storage component market on PlayStation 5 hardware, we have secured the storage quantities required to achieve our projected sales volume in fiscal year 2026 [ending in April 2027]." Interestingly, the company did not announce any immediate price hikes due to ongoing DRAM pricing volatility, but it is possible that one may occur if the supply chain situation does not improve. Since consoles are also significant drivers of consumer DRAM usage, companies like Sony need long-term supply agreements to maintain pricing and availability, especially before a major AAA release.

It was revealed in early 2026 that Rockstar workers had formed the Rockstar Game Workers Union (RSGWU) in collaboration with the IWGB (Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain) Game Workers. Now, the RSGWU has officially announced that it is seeking union recognition at Rockstar ahead of the launch of Grand Theft Auto VI, which is widely accepted as the most anticipated video game of all time. The unionization efforts follow allegations of union busting and alleged unfair dismissals in 2025, which saw the firing of 31 Rockstar workers. Take-Two, Rockstar's parent company, says the affected employees were fired as a result of breaching confidentiality by sharing information about GTA VI in a public forum.

According to the IWGB, all of the workers dismissed in 2025 were in talks to join the union, and that is the true reason behind the firing. Alex Marshall, president of the IWGB, argues that "GTA VI has reportedly already generated more than $3 billion in pre-order sales. Rockstar bosses can easily afford to sit around the table with the people whose hard work created these games, and give them a meaningful voice in their workplace." There has been no shortage of layoffs in the gaming space recently, with Sony's Bungie recently confirming that it would be laying off almost all the staff who worked on Destiny 2 and part of the Marathon team. Xbox Game Studios is allegedly planning a substantial round of layoffs in its in-house game studios, Ubisoft workers are striking in response to layoffs, and the fall of games like Highguard, and the ensuing layoffs, have been well documented as well. It may be the RSGWU's fears that Rockstar will conduct all-too-common post-launch layoffs after Grand Theft Auto VI launches, since the gaming industry is currently in a volatile state, and Rockstar is reported to have spent as much as $3 billion on salaries for GTA VI alone.

With the launch of Grand Theft Auto VI rapidly approaching, rumors surrounding the game's launch have been circulating, with some of those predicting that the game's launch will result in a console hardware shortage, more recently, however, Digital Foundry predicted that the new GTA game may not be able to run on current-gen console hardware—not even the PS5 Pro. Detail levels are slated to be even higher when the game eventually launches on PC, although gamers will be able to rely on more advanced upscaling tech to improve frame rates on PC.

According to the publication, who based its comments on the level of detail present in the GTA VI trailers and media released so far, it seems as though GTA VI won't feature the previously rumored 60 FPS mode, although the PS5 Pro may be able to push frame rates to 40 FPS. The publication predicts that complex simulations in GTA VI may be too CPU-intensive for current-gen consoles, especially since the PS5 Pro is only just slightly faster than the base PS5 in that department, and Microsoft's best offering, the Xbox Series X, offers more or less the same CPU design. This rumor comes after Rockstar claimed that the second GTA VI trailer was captured entirely on PS5 base hardware. Additionally, both GTA 4 and GTA 5 released on console locked to 30 FPS, with 60 FPS only coming at a later date with next-gen console launches—which, in this case would be the Xbox Helix and PlayStation 6, which are slated to arrive between 2027 and 2028.

As is the case with just about every Grand Theft Auto game since the series debuted, GTA VI is banned in a number of countries. Even ahead of the launch, this has been more or less confirmed by a FAQ section on the PlayStation Store product page for GTA VI, where Sony lists the eligibility requirements for the free month of GTA+. The listed countries are Bahrain, China, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, the Russian Federation, and Taiwan. That's not to say that players in those countries will be entirely unable to play GTA VI, but it will likely be impossible to buy a physical copy of the game in those regions.

Those interested in playing GTA VI in countries where it is banned will need to import a physical copy or purchase a digital copy from an account registered in another country, where GTA VI is not banned. As recently as 2019, the GTA Online Diamond Casino was banned in a long list of countries thanks to anti-gambling laws. The reason for the GTA VI bans are currently unknown, but GTA games normally have any manner of explicit or restricted content that could trigger a ban in countries with more restrictive laws against themes like violence, gambling, alcohol, or sexual content.

Rockstar Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), is excited to announce that pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto VI will begin on June 25, 2026, at midnight local time.

Launching November 19, 2026, for the PlayStation 5 computer entertainment systems and Xbox Series X|S games and entertainment systems for $79.99, Grand Theft Auto VI features a single-player experience set in the biggest, most immersive evolution of the series yet.

Despite the recent announcement of the Grand Theft Auto VI June 25 pre-order date, gamers have become concerned about the game being delayed yet again. Shortly after the pre-order announcement, all mentions of GTA VI's November 19 official launch date have been removed from the official Rockstar site for GTA VI, leading to theories that the game has been delayed, and that Rockstar will wait to announce the delay until just after pre-orders go live.

Others have pointed out that on sites like Bilibili, the official Rockstar account still reflects the November 19 launch date. A more likely explanation seems to be that Rockstar is focusing on a marketing push for the June 25 pre-orders, which will inevitably end up providing a surge of funds for the game studio. Only showing a single date across the site will also simplify things for those looking to place a pre-order. Take-Two CEO, Strauss Zelnick previously commented that GTA VI would definitely launch on November 19, despite having previously been delayed twice.

Grand Theft Auto fans, rejoice! The latest sequel in the GTA franchise—GTA VI—is opening up for pre-orders on June 25, allowing fans to gear up for one of the most anticipated AAA releases this year. Although the game officially launches on November 19, 2026, fans will be able to place pre-orders in about a week from now. This means that PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S players can add GTA VI to their pre-order list. Interestingly, the website doesn't mention any pricing for the game, so we might have to wait a few more days for that information. Additionally, no editions are listed, so it's still a mystery which GTA VI editions will be available on day one and how they will be priced compared to other AAA releases. We don't expect the game to be priced below the industry standard, and a slight premium compared to existing AAA titles is anticipated.

We previously reported about how some game studios were pushing back game launches over fears of being overshadowed by Grand Theft Auto VI in November 2026, with game developers and publishers explaining that gamers have limited time and money to invest into their hobby all at once, and launching too near such a large-scale launch could negatively impact a game's sales. It appears as though not even Xbox Gaming's highly anticipated Fable is immune to those same fears, as a recent announcement by Xbox on X has confirmed that Fable will now launch in February 2027 instead of its previous "autumn 2026" launch window. It has not been confirmed that GTA VI is the reason for the delay—which is not Fable's first delay, mind you—but Xbox's explanation that the game is being moved "so it can have the dedicated moment it deserves," seems to suggest that GTA VI may at least be one of the factors. The original release of Fable may also have been too close to the launch of Gears of War: E-Day, which is slated to launch in September 2026. The full statement by Xbox follows.

Xbox on XThis is year is packed with incredible games for XBOX players to enjoy, from Halo: Campaign Evolved, Gears of War: E-Day and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 to Control Resonant, Star Wars: Galactic Racer and Grand Theft Auto VI. In order to plan our game launches through the holidays, in a way that works best for players, we're moving Fable to February 2027 so it can have the dedicated moment it deserves. We're excited to be giving players a major new look at Fable, as well as our broader lineup, at XBOX Games Showcase on June 7.

Following the dismissal of 31 workers in 2025, which Rockstar and Take-Two argued were motivated by gross misconduct, which drew allegations of union busting and were even commented on by UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, Rockstar workers have officially announced the Rockstar Game Workers Union as part of the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB). The union is prioritizing pay transparency, flexible working, and an end to crunch. It is also taking Rockstar to court over the aforementioned firings, and it has confirmed that a court date for the final hearing in the legal battle has been set, although it has not shared when the hearing will take place. In the meantime, the union is collecting donations to fund the legal battle.

GTA fans have been on the edge of their seats at the rumours a new video is about to drop…
Well the wait is over.
We present: the public launch of the Rockstar IWGB Game Workers Union.
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