GTA 6: Did Rockstar Games releasing trailer 2 and screenshots kill the hype?

A gaming expert has said Rockstar Games releasing so much information about GTA 6 has "done enough to stall too many more conversations about it for now".

Hype was at fever pitch through most of 2024 and into the first few months of 2025 with theories, rumours and speculation circulating like wildfire online.

That was until Rockstar Games announced at the start of May the game would be delayed from Autumn 2025 to 26 May 2026.

Seemingly to soften that blow and to keep fans happy, days later, the studio shared one of its biggest ever content drops with trailer 2, loads of new screenshots and lots of fresh information about the world its set in, its characters and more.

This all gave fans loads to get their teeth stuck into - but seemingly because of all this fresh content and information, the theories, speculation and rumours have considerably quietened since.

While an expert thinks the hype will pick up again eventually once the pre-order window draws closer, Rockstar was undeniably successful in 'fixing some leaks' - but this consequently seems to have "stalled" chatter about it.

  George Osborn is the creator and editor of Video Games Industry Memo 

George Osborn is the creator and editor of Video Games Industry Memo and the managing director of Half-Space Consulting with more than 15 years' experience in the industry, having also studied at the University of Cambridge.

Speaking to indy100, he said: "There was so much feverish speculation about GTA 6 because it was previously out towards the end of the year and there was no information in the market about it.

"By putting out a pretty extensive trailer that includes a lot of what's going to be in the game in terms of the key narrative details, how the world looks and feels, I think it's done enough to stall too many more conversations about it for now.

"As we get towards the end of the year, we're going to start hearing more because we'll start to get towards the pre-order window based on the May release date.

"You look at May and six months before that is The Game Awards and that wouldn't necessarily be a bad window for Rockstar to be thinking about doing it's own thing, I don't think it would do something there because it doesn't need to, it's Rockstar.

"Once we get to that phase, I think the speculation will start picking up as well because people will want to talk about it again.

"It's going to be an absolute enormous video game release when it comes out next year.

"I wouldn't be surprised to start seeing more speculation towards the end of the year and any other assets and releases starting to push things forward."

  Rockstar Games shared a lot of information about GTA 6 in May - but did it kill the feverish hype for the game? / Rockstar Games

A knock-on effect of the release date delay is that it has allowed Sony to put its focus on its next generation of hardware, expected to be the PS6, because of the revenue the game is likely to generate for the company.

"If we look at GTA 5, that launched late in the console generation [17 September 2013 on PS3 and Xbox 360] and still sparked a load of console purchases," he said.

"Sony is saying now that's there, it can look ahead to our next generation because it's on a downward turn with the PS5, not expecting to sell as many consoles as before, but it should get a nice big jump when GTA 6 releases which allows it to put firepower into the PS6 and making sure this handheld companion to it succeeds as they should."

Osborn'sVideo Games Industry Memo is sent out every Thursday and he's writing his debut non-fiction book called Power Play, a look at how video games are changing the world.

Elsewhere from indy100:

• GTA 6 v GTA 5: Five things that prove how different life was in 2013
• Microsoft and Xbox layoffs down to three key reasons and could get even worse, thinks gaming expert

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Sign up to our free indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.