Rockstar has finally confirmed what we all knew in our hearts: a new Grand Theft Auto is on the way. “We are pleased to confirm that active development for the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series is well underway,” teased Rockstar in a new community update. That was it: no other details or dates. We know it’s happening, then, but otherwise we’re free to speculate on what GTA 6 could—perhaps should—be.
Where will GTA 6 be set? What era will it take place in? Will its online mode be good enough to support the millions of players it’s sure to attract? We don’t know, but we can sure tell you what we want.
As much as I’ve enjoyed GTA Online over the years, I can’t help but wonder what it could be if it wasn’t a hot mess. The multiplayer branch of GTA 5 clearly outperformed Rockstar’s initial ambitions, and it shows every time you log in.
It’s in the way various actions are tied to entirely different menus depending on whether they were envisioned back when the game was first made or bolted on later. It’s in the way there’s no consistency to the reward structures of various releases, leaving older content feeling unrewarding and unwanted. It’s in the way groups are forced into weird ad-hoc corporations, which have to be swapped out over the course of the session if your friends also want to be rewarded for their business investments. It’s in the way every session is guaranteed to start with at least 30 minutes of trying to join up with friends on the same map.
GTA 6 offers a real chance for Rockstar to build an online mode that is deserving of GTA Online’s immense popularity; to build systems and structures that can support an evolving and expanding world. GTA Online could have been incredible, but instead it was a thing that allowed for genuinely great moments around mountains of bullshit. If Rockstar can get the underlying infrastructure right, GTA 6’s multiplayer could be unstoppable.
I’ve seen people claim that a female protagonist wouldn’t feel right or fit in with the universe that Rockstar’s built, but I think that’s just plain bullshit. Women aren’t excluded from being criminals or gang leaders, and I think it’s time Rockstar reflected that. Previous rumours seem fairly aligned with what I want, too—an ensemble cast with a female protagonist taking on the role of a hacker. Sounds pretty damn rad to me. Now gimme.
Lauren Morton, Associate Editor: There’s going to be a woman in the lead cast. I’m not asking—I’m telling. Having a prominent woman is pretty baseline at this point, even for big developers moving at Rockstar’s pace. Tim has reminded me that I’ve yet to catch up on Ozark, which I know we aren’t all watching for Jason Bateman playing the same uptight stick in the mud he gets typecast as. I’m there for the kickass, flawed-but-awesome women of crime, and I’ll turn up for GTA doing it too.
Source: The Verge
