As anticipation continues to build for more news on Grand Theft Auto 6 following the release of Trailer 1 in 2023, a former Rockstar developer has stirred the pot by suggesting that no further trailers should be released until the game's launch date.
Rockstar released GTA 6 Trailer 1 to record-breaking viewership in December 2023, but since then, fans have been left without any new assets. The prolonged wait has sparked increasingly elaborate conspiracy theories about the release of GTA 6 Trailer 2. Fans have scrutinized details such as counting the holes in Lucia’s cell door net, bullet holes in the car from Trailer 1, and even vehicle registration plates. Perhaps the most intriguing theory is the ongoing "moon watch," which successfully predicted the announcement date of Trailer 1 but was debunked as a hint at the release date for Trailer 2.
The burning question remains: when will GTA 6 Trailer 2 be released? Take-Two's CEO, Strauss Zelnick, has hinted that fans might need to wait until closer to GTA 6's scheduled release in the fall of 2025 for their next glimpse of the game.However, former Rockstar Games technical director Obbe Vermeij, who contributed to the series until 2008's Grand Theft Auto 4, expressed a different view on X (formerly Twitter). He stated, “If it was my call I wouldn’t release any additional trailers. There is more than enough hype around VI and the element of surprise is going to make the release only bigger as an event.” Responding to a user's suggestion that Rockstar might just announce the GTA 6 release date without further trailers, Vermeij called it a "boss move."
While the first trailer was labeled GTA 6 Trailer 1, suggesting a series of trailers, plans can change. Rockstar might opt to focus on finalizing the game rather than releasing another trailer that would be dissected by fans. Vermeij also shared insights from his experience, noting that Rockstar delayed GTA 4 just three months before its initial release date in 2007, hinting that a similar "decision day" for GTA 6 might occur around Take-Two’s August earnings report.
99 Details in the GTA 6 Trailer - Slideshow
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In a March interview with Bloomberg, Zelnick explained the secrecy around GTA 6's release date, saying, “The anticipation for that title may be the greatest anticipation I’ve ever seen for an entertainment property. And I’ve been around the block a few times and I’ve been in every entertainment business there is. We want to maintain the anticipation and the excitement. And we do have competitors who will describe their release schedule for years in advance. And we found that the better thing to do is to provide marketing materials relatively close to the release window in order to create that excitement on the one hand and balance the excitement with unmet anticipation. We don’t always get it exactly right, but that’s what we are trying to do.”
Mike York, a former animator at Rockstar New England who worked on Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, shared on his YouTube channel that Rockstar is intentionally fueling the conspiracy theories by maintaining silence on the game and the release date of Trailer 2. He noted, “They're reaching and pulling and trying to come up with these really cool theories to decipher when the next trailer will be. Specifically Rockstar, they're very secretive about what they do, and this is a really cool tactic because it creates allure and it creates mystery and it creates people talking about it without them having to do anything. The more they're silent the better it is, because the more people will be antsy and want to talk about it and have this feeling of not knowing what's going to happen.”
AnswerSee ResultsYork further explained that Rockstar's silence is a deliberate marketing strategy to keep the hype alive, saying, “They could easily release the trailer date and be like, ‘Hey this is when the trailer's coming out,’ but they don't do it. And they don't do it on purpose because it's a really, really good marketing tactic. If you think about it, it creates these really cool theories. This brings the fans together. This is a really cool way to get fans to talk about your game when you’re not releasing anything yet, in-between the times. All these theories are great. They only create hype, they create talk, they create mystery behind the games.”Zelnick's comments suggest that if GTA 6 Trailer 2 is indeed planned, it may not be released until the game's release date approaches in the fall of 2025, provided there are no delays. As fans eagerly await more news, they can explore IGN's coverage of other related topics, including an ex-Rockstar developer's prediction that the studio might not decide on a delay for GTA 6 until May 2025, Zelnick’s comments on the future of GTA Online post-GTA 6, and expert opinions on whether the PS5 Pro will run GTA 6 at 60 frames per second.
