Grand Theft Auto fans who have been waiting a decade for the next installment in the mega-hit franchise finally got a taste of what to expect with GTA VI with the release of the upcoming game’s first trailer.
Rockstar Games posted the 90-second teaser on Monday night. By Tuesday morning the clip had received more than 60 million views. The trailer follows a decade of speculation on when the gaming studio would release a follow-up to its cult classic, GTA V, which debuted in 2013.
“People have been playing [Grand Theft Auto V] for the last 10 years,” Gene Park, a reporter at the Washington Post, told CBS News. “You can pretend to be a shopkeep or a hotel worker … Grand Theft Auto has expanded not just to be about the criminal element but American life in general.”
Here are 5 things we learned from the trailer for GTA VI.
You’ll have to wait until 2025 for the actual game
The trailer ends with some frustrating news for GTA fans: You’ve still got a long wait ahead for the game itself.
The release date will happen sometime in 2025, according to the trailer which only gave the year, rather than a specific day and month.
Shares of Take-Two, the owner of Rockstar, slipped 3% in premarket trading. The stock had jumped more than 50% this year, partly on anticipation of the new Grand Theft Auto release.
GTA’s first-ever female protagonist
The trailer also introduces the game’s first-ever female protagonist, Lucia, whom we first meet while she is incarcerated.
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Later in the trailer, she’s shown with a male partner as they engage in some apparently criminal behavior, with hints that they’re on a robbing spree. The pair give Bonnie and Clyde vibes as they stalk past a store’s liquor-lined shelves, bandannas pulled up to obscure the bottom halves of their faces.
Soundtrack features Tom Petty
Accompanying the trailer is Tom Petty’s “Love Is A Long Road,” a 1989 release from the deceased rocker. Guitarist Mike Campbell, who co-wrote the song, said it was inspired by his motorcycle.
“I was really into that frame of mind,” the guitarist told Rolling Stone. “This feels like a motorcycle shifting gears.”
Flashy vehicles
Also featured in the trailer are flashy cars, including custom-fitted automobiles and luxury vehicles such as Rolls Royces and Porsches.
But the trailer’s eye-candy isn’t limited to cars, as plenty of watercraft are shown, from an airboat cruising a swampy, Everglades-like area to yachts filled with partiers.
Social media plays a big role
Social media plays a big part in GTA VI, with the trailer showing clips of live streams, online posts and more.
A lot of the comments in the posts and videos are snarky, like a scene showing a menacing older woman in a housedress and slippers who is also holding hammers in both hands. “Neighborhood watch don’t play around,” the commenter posts.
Interactions with wildlife
The game is once again set in Florida’s fictional Vice City — inspired by Miami — and the trailer doesn’t spare in its depiction of wild Florida, including a few massive alligators.
In one scene, a wildlife control expert is shown pulling an alligator out of a pool, while another scene shows a giant alligator lumbering into a store. Another scene depicts a moment of zen, with flamingos taking flight. The human activity is less calm, with a dirt bike gang terrorizing a neighborhood and a man grabbing his crotch in an apparent road-rage incident.
Wild human behavior on display
There’s also plenty of wild human activity, including a dirt bike gang terrorizing a neighborhood and a man crotch-grabbing in an apparent road-rage incident.
In one scene, an old man wearing a speedo and a sun visor is watering his yard, while a TV news clip shows a man covered with facial tattoos who is apparently arrested for theft after being quickly identified by his unusual facial tattoos.
