The two billion dollar cat is finally out of the bag. On August 27th, Rockstar premiered 27 minutes of gameplay of the eternity-long awaited, Grand Theft Auto VI. It’s been reported that in just 4 days the trailer has amassed over 31 million views on Netflix. That’s a lot of shared passwords. Fans such as myself have been waiting 13 years for the sequel to Grand Theft Auto V, so it’s no wonder any breath Rockstar takes currently is being consumed in the millions. Based on what was shown from the story to the open world, it looks like another trip to Vice City is going to be worth the wait.
The gameplay that was shown was a studio clearly continuing to evolve from the predecessor along with the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 in between. From using disguises to hide from the law, to holding R2 to interact with NPCs, and cinematic head shots, this has Red Dead’s DNA all over it. But to see a fairly serious GTA trailer took me by surprise. The story is in the style of Bonnie & Clyde, a crime-loving couple on the run. My hope is that the world, radio, and story elements ooze that anti-corporation satire that this series is known for at the same time.
For me, GTA was always the game I could never have. We already have GTA at home Evan, but on its best day, it was just Driver 3. My parents were not fans of the M rating, everything that came with it, and of course San Andreas making the news. Thanks Hillary. This was understandable because during the PS2 era, I was in elementary school, but that didn’t stop the series from being the only games I ever wanted to own. Because I never had access to these games on my own consoles, my memories revolved around playing at friend’s houses. How many cheat codes can we enter at one time to cause the most destruction, and get the highest wanted rating. Once you died, you passed the controller. It wasn’t until I turned 17, just 6 days before the release of GTA V, where I could drive myself to the midnight release and buy into the series for the first time.
While I loved GTA V and played through the story as quickly as I could every day after school, the memories I cherish most with that game were when the online mode was released. My friends and I instantly flocked to a game mode called Top Fun, where one team was hunting in fighter jets and the other was on dirt bikes trying to make it across the city. This led to nothing but chaos and laughter. It wasn’t until I played through Red Dead Redemption 2 where I noticed just how good Rockstar was at story telling. That story is up there with some of my favorite movies of all time. If you haven’t played it, close this tab and I’ll see you in 60 hours.
With their track record and global popularity, the zeitgeist for one videogame is one that we may never see again. GTA V is the second best selling game of all time with a whopping 230 million units sold. The coverage for the new release has now grown beyond traditional gaming news outlets with the debut gameplay trailer making its way to Netflix, just because the developers felt it was best experienced in living rooms. The cultural expectation around GTA VI certainly seems like an impossible peak to conquer, however if they can somehow marry the toy-chest of GTA with the Oscar-worthy story and world of Red Dead Redemption, the two billion dollar budget should be worth the price of admission.
-Evan Kuhn
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