GTA 6 Rumors Hint at Female Protagonist and ‘Evolving’ Vice City Map

A fascinating series of GTA 6 rumors suggest that the long-awaited sequel is going to feature a blend of old and new concepts in terms of its location, protagonists, and size.

Before we get into all of that, though, I cannot emphasize enough that these are only rumors. There is no guarantee that any of this information is true. In fact, there’s a chance that this information is true at the moment but could be changed by the time that GTA 6 is finished and released (more on that in a bit).

Actually, we probably wouldn’t even be sharing these rumors with you if they didn’t come from a consistently reliable source (GTA reporter and video game news leaker, Tom Henderson) and weren’t being supported by notable industry reporters such as Jason Schreier and the staff at VGC. As that is the case, though, then we’re compelled to share these exciting new details with you, even if they come with a warning to keep your expectations in check.

First off, this report suggests that GTA 6 will indeed take place in a more “modern” version of Vice City. While that’s been something of an open secret for quite some time now (and several previous reports indicated that Rockstar really wants to set the next GTA in a more modern time period) new information suggests that Vice City is more of a “starting point” for your GTA 6 adventure. Actually, it sounds like GTA 6‘s Vice City map may initially be noticeably smaller than the retail version of GTA 5‘s map.

However, it seems that Rockstar intends to grow that initial area through Fortnite-style map updates that will greatly expand the size of (or significantly alter) GTA 6‘s world over time as well as give you more to do in it. What’s not clear at this time is whether or not those updates will come in the form of single-player DLC releases, GTA Online updates, or a combination of both. It seems like the current plan is to release a combination of content and updates, but it’s also possible that GTA 6 will integrate online play into the single-player campaign more than we’ve seen in previous GTA games. That could mean that we’re looking at a potential “always online” single-player scenario, but again, that is just speculation.

Furthermore, this report suggests that GTA 6 will revive one of GTA 5‘s best ideas by allowing you to play as multiple protagonists throughout the course of the campaign. This time around, though, it sounds like the plan is to make one of those lead characters GTA‘s first playable female protagonist. That’s not the first time we’ve heard that GTA 6 will likely star at least one playable female character, but this report mentions that she is currently being described internally as the most intelligent of the game’s multiple playable characters and that her skillset will likely revolve around hacking and other tech-related abilities. That could also be taken to mean that GTA 6‘s playable characters will once again function as a “crew” who each bring unique skills to the table.

There’s also a rumor that GTA 6 will feature cryptocurrency in some way, but since it’s not clear whether cryptocurrency will simply be used as a kind of in-game monetary system or whether GTA 6 will somehow feature some kind of “real world” crypto tie-ins, we wouldn’t draw too many conclusions from that part of the report at this time.

Finally, it sounds like Rockstar doesn’t expect GTA 6 to be released until sometime closer to 2024 or 2025. That’s honestly the part of this report you can probably consider to be the safest bet, as GTA Online is still going strong, GTA 5 is still set to be released on next-gen consoles, and everything we’ve heard so far suggests that Rockstar is generally not in a hurry to finish this game, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic slowed production to a crawl across much of the video game industry. Interestingly, that release window means that GTA 6 and The Elder Scrolls 6 could be released in the same year.

Ultimately, there’s nothing in this report that doesn’t sound entirely reasonable and doesn’t support GTA 6 rumors we’ve been hearing for years now. If that release window is to be believed, though, then it could still be a couple more years before we learn any concrete information about the next GTA.