What if GTA VI turns out to be a more beautiful more of the same?

So we are officially a mere month away from what is widely expected the most important modern entertainment release of the year and – barring any unpleasant surprises – the most successful videogame release of all time: Grand Theft Auto VI, the latest in a series that has topped $12.5 billion in revenue so far, will be made available on November 19th. Today, after more than 10 years in the making and two disappointingly long delays in previous years, the final countdown to a new GTA is about to begin.

We all know it will break sales records. We all know it will draw almost all media attention to itself for a bit. We all know it will be good, great, amazing even. But, weirdly enough, we don’t know how we know these things… because the same people we’ve put our faith – and dollars – in, have so far denied us a simple thing: a proper taste of raw, unedited gameplay, indicative of what people should expect they’ll be doing when actually playing GTA VI, instead of letting their imaginations fill in the blanks between cutscenes.

Which begs the obvious question: why? Why have Rockstar chosen not to show extensive gameplay footage or even talk in detail about the core gameplay of GTA VI, its underlying systems and its structure? The gaming community has a few theories, yours truly has some thoughts… and some of both a lot of people probably won’t like. As the countdown to the new GTA begins, let’s break everything down.

The case for: reasons why Rockstar is rightly not showing enough GTA VI gameplay

Fans of GTA – along with several journalists or analysts – feel there are good reasons why Rockstar would not want to reveal extensive footage of the title’s gameplay before launch. The most obvious one: the company wants gamers to find out as much as they possibly can about GTA VI by playing it. By showing or explaining the game’s new features and mechanics on promotional videos, fans claim, Rockstar would basically reduce those to little more than items in a checklist instead of things that players would discover and experience on their own. It’s been Rockstar’s approach for almost two decades, so it does make sense.

A different reason, many seem to think, why full GTA VI gameplay footage of e.g. a mission being carried out as indicative of its gameplay would not work in its favor, comes down to the title’s scale and complexity. Rockstar knows that a single video demonstration of something like that, taken out of context, could invite uninformed and unfair criticism given the fact that the footage would be clinically dissected and speculated upon. The “vertical slice problem” is something several AAA games have faced over the last few years, so such a scenario would not be unlikely – especially in the case of a new Grand Theft Auto.

Last but not least: some are of the opinion that Rockstar simply doesn’t have to show much of GTA VI before the game is out – no more than it absolutely needs to entice loyal fans during the launch window anyway. This line of thinking is based on the fact that tens of millions of gamers already know – more or less – what to expect of a new Grand Theft Auto, so Rockstar would rather “preserve the mystery” surrounding the title for their sake than release a lot of gameplay information for the sake of mainstream consumers. Loyal GTA fans would, in turn, essentially work as ambassadors for the game in the eyes of other gamers, something that – let’s be honest here – will likely happen if GTA VI proves to be all we expect it to be.

The case against: reasons why Rockstar may be afraid to show enough GTA VI gameplay

If those stated above fall under the “positive reasons” why we have not seen official unedited GTA VI gameplay yet, then more than a few players can offer several “negative reasons” why too – the noteworthy detail here being the fact that the latter do not invalidate the former. Many of these possible reasons can be true at the same time, even if Rockstar critics feel all of this is not necessarily happening for players’ sake.

The most common concern expressed as a reason why the company has not yet shown raw GTA VI gameplay is this: it does not want the game to be analyzed and dissected on a technical level before launch. It’s no secret that this is an extremely ambitious title for its lead platform – that would be the base PS5 – and there are bound to be some weaknesses, artifacts, glitches and other issues one would be able to find by looking closely (or even not that closely) at pre-release footage, despite more than 10 years of development work. Rockstar would not like to have such issues affecting initial GTA VI sales if it can help it, so…

The most pessimistic view of this is that, due to the very same ambition, the new GTA is still being polished, right up to the last minute, as all the underlying systems of this complex open-world game coming together near the end of development may be causing unforeseen gameplay problems. For a title that’s been worked on for so long – and delayed twice so that it can deliver on players’ expectations – this is unlikely, especially given Rockstar’s track record. Nothing can be ruled out when it comes to such a unique case, though… and if a huge day-one mandatory patch was announced just before the game’s release, it would speak volumes.

But the most extreme – in terms of negativity – reason why Rockstar has not shared a lot of gameplay details for or shown raw gameplay footage from its new game might be the most important one of all: it may be that the company simply does not want consumers to know that GTA VI doesn’t bring anything excitingly new to the table in terms of how the title actually plays. There are certain new features already confirmed, yes, but many gamers seem to feel that they do not change the game’s main loop, structure, mission objectives, general feel and the kind of entertainment experience it is as a whole.

Graphics aside, what’s been shown so far of GTA VI seems to be a typical Grand Theft Auto game crafted for the current console generation, critics claim – which is why Rockstar may prefer to keep as much as it can under wraps regardless of how GTA fans feel about it (if that is indeed the case). We’d need access to extensive reviews some time before the release of the game to establish whether this theory holds water or not, but Rockstar will reportedly follow a tightly controlled media coverage plan and allow for the embargo being lifted very close to launch, only strengthening its critics’ suspicions.

The most likely scenario: a mix of reasons both positive and negative for players

As it’s usually the case with polarizing situations such as this, Rockstar’s decision to not offer a lot of gameplay details or unedited gameplay footage when it comes to GTA VI, so close to launch, is not a simple one. What’s most likely happening here is that several reasons are behind this choice, both ones that paint the company in a positive light as well as a negative one for handling the game’s exposure like this.

The notion that the game is not ready, for instance, is most probably false: select reviewers will reportedly have access to the title several weeks before launch, something Rockstar would not do if it was not confident enough regarding the game’s state. The possibility of the title’s gameplay not being shown unedited because of major graphics or performance issues still present is also not high: if the company has not managed to have GTA VI running on the base PS5 as well as it reasonably can by now, it will have failed spectacularly to deliver on its promise. Its extensive co-promotion with Sony makes this even less likely.

Other theories carry more weight. The fact that Rockstar prefers, for instance, to create and preserve a sense of mystery around the gameplay of its titles is undeniable – it did so for both Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption II with great success – so there is actually nothing different happening with GTA VI in that regard. The “vertical slice problem” theory is also not baseless for this particular game: how different missions and characters and storylines are integrated into the main plot is an important part of all modern GTA titles but practically impossible to describe within the confines of a gameplay video.

Unfortunately for Rockstar, though, the “just another GTA, only prettier” theory is also not baseless. Others have already noted as much: even the highly edited gameplay parts included in the Netflix Extended Look video looked pretty much like how a big GTA V expansion pack would look on a capable modern PC, in the sense that what the players will seemingly be asked to do are basically the exact same things as before.

Yes, there will be more side activities to spend time on and yes, the dynamic between Jason and Lucia could mix things up (hopefully to a considerable degree). But the core gameplay of GTA VI does not currently seem to be taking advantage of the more powerful hardware of the PS5 and more than 10 years of development time (let alone the 24 years of open world experience Rockstar has been building since GTA Vice City) to deliver something genuinely fresh. It’s all the same, just more visually arresting. Unless Rockstar has indeed managed to keep all the exciting new stuff a secret for players to discover, of course.

A marketing approach that won’t make sense until it does… for better or worse

As one can clearly see in Web forums, threads and comment sections, it’s no coincidence that Rockstar keeping its cards so close to its chest regarding GTA VI has been a controversial choice. There’s an overly positive way to look at it, a rather negative way to look at it, neither is baseless… so everyone seems to be choosing what to believe based on their expectations and how they think about GTA VI in general.

The fact of the matter is that Rockstar may be the one development studio that can afford to be controversial with its choices precisely because it has earned that through the quality of its titles. It’s just weird, wild and frankly unnerving, though, to realize how much we still don’t know about the most important video game of the decade – merely 30 days before it’s publicly available – and how this was by design. If it was literally any other company doing this, people would call it arrogance. But it’s Rockstar, so they don’t.

It’s still a risky approach, though, as it ultimately pushes players’ expectations higher in terms of what GTA VI will deliver. Those expectations were insanely high to begin with: this is, after all, the successor to a game that sold over 230 million copies. By allowing gamers to imagine how GTA VI will be like when playing, Rockstar is seemingly implying that it could meet everyone’s expectations… which is absurd. If it does, it will just be the expected outcome. If it doesn’t – if GTA VI ends up being just a prettier GTA but not much else – it will be considered a technical showcase lacking innovation, a missed opportunity, a generational failure even. Funny how overhype works, no?