Grand Theft Auto VI First Trailer Returns To Vice City And Looks Insane
After a full decade of waiting for any news or updates, the first official trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI has finally arrived. The trailer doesn’t give away much of the game’s story, though several small pieces of information can be gleaned from a few blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shots.
Grand Theft Auto VI confirms that the game will take place in Vice City
The trailer, uploaded to Rockstar Games’ official YouTube channel, comes just two months after the illustrious game studio’s celebration of 10 years of supporting 2013’s Grand Theft Auto V.
As suspected, the trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI confirms that the game will take place primarily in the fictional location of Vice City.
This neon-coated pastel beach community has been covered in previous Grand Theft Auto installments, including the appropriately titled 2002 outing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, which served as the fourth full-length outing in the series.
While Vice City is not a real American locale, it serves as something of a stand-in for popular Florida communities such as Miami and Orlando, just as other GTA cities like Los Santos and Liberty City take the place of Los Angeles and New York, respectively.
Given that Grand Theft Auto VI is set to center on a Florida community, this leaves the Rockstar team plenty of opportunity to riff on modern pop culture and entertainment set-pieces.
Just from watching the trailer, viewers can attain a keen understanding that the game’s setting will be overrun with all manner of so-called “Florida man” tales, with sights like crowded Spring break beaches, fan boats gliding through swamp-land, and alligators infiltrating gas stations and convenience stores taking front and center.
The Grand Theft Auto VI trailer also shows several shots riffing on modern social media trends
The trailer also shows several shots riffing on modern social media trends, with some live-feed videos containing thought-provoking captions such as “Only in Leonida is a crotch grab an apology for bad driving” and “Usually gotta hit the strip club to see jiggle like that fr.”
The Grand Theft Auto series has always utilized its platform to call attention to consumerist media trends, celebrity worship, and the degradation of society brought on by lowest-common-denominator pulp entertainment, and Grand Theft Auto VI looks to be no exception.
A brief overview of the trailer seems to suggest that the over-saturation of the pervasive media environment will be a massive motif within the game, with a host of critiques of TikTok and Instagram culture sure to follow.
Furthermore, the GTA series tends to use thinly veiled metaphors and stand-ins to represent real issues when illustrating modern political turmoil in previous games, meaning the upcoming outing has 10 full years of tumultuous Americana to skewer.
GTA series tends to use thinly veiled metaphors and stand-ins to represent real issues
One major topical focus of Grand Theft Auto VI could be the prolonged saga of Florida governor Ron DeSantis raging against Disney amid the recent “Don’t Say Gay” laws, which has resulted in droves of headlines and billions of dollars in collateral damage in the last year or so.
The last Grand Theft Auto game arrived on the scene shortly after Barack Obama cemented his tenure as president by winning the 2012 election, meaning Grand Theft Auto VI will be the first time Rockstar games will have an opportunity to riff on the Donald Trump or Joe Biden eras.
While it’s still far too early to tell what the game will bring when it finally arrives in 2025, the first trailer certainly serves as a perfect tone-setter for fans who have been clamoring for any news regarding the project for years now.
Hardcore gamers and analysts have already begun a deep dive into the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer, with plenty of hidden messages, Easter eggs, and in-universe references sure to surface online in the near future.
