Rumors in the past few years have suggested a lot of interesting and varied theories for Grand Theft Auto 6. While fans eagerly await official details on the next Grand Theft Auto game, discussion has been circling about where the franchise will go next.
With the insane success of the last game mostly in the rearview, Rockstar has kept its lips tightly sealed on Grand Theft Auto 6, not mentioning anything concrete about its development or existence entirely. With wildly different rumors being mentioned about the next game, there's several possibilities as to which real-life city Grand Theft Auto 6 will emulate.
Vice City
Vice City is perhaps the most likely choice for places Grand Theft Auto 6 could go next. Since Grand Theft Auto 3, the franchise has rotated between three fictional cities, each based on major United States metropolitan areas: New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami. Should Rockstar continue to follow the sequential order it has previously established with the franchise, Vice City is the most probable choice for Grand Theft Auto 6's setting. Vice City as Grand Theft Auto 6's setting has been rumored since 2018, but there's clear evidence that makes it the most credible guess for the next game's settings
Even if there's no logical correlation between the locations in past games, it's still been 14 years since the series has returned to the Miami-lookalike. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories was the last game based in the pseudo-Sunshine State, and even then, it was a prequel to the original Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, not a completely new take on the city. If supposed leaked screenshots from Grand Theft Auto 6 are to be believed, then the return to Vice City may be a long time coming.
Another important theme to note as that all of the most recent Grand Theft Auto games have taken place in modern times. Every game from the supposed "3D universe" (Grand Theft Auto 3, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas) takes place within a fictional decade of United States history; 70s, 80s, and 90s respectively.
From Grand Theft Auto 4 to most recently Grand Theft Auto 5, each game took place in the 21st century and was based on the current cultural climate of the United States during development time. Some fans have even taken to modding Vice City into Grand Theft Auto 5 as a concept for a modern Miami depiction. Should Grand Theft Auto return to Vice City for Grand Theft Auto 6, it would be the first time the franchise depicts a modern Miami representation.
Past evidence aside, conceptually Grand Theft Auto 6 returning to Vice City would make sense considering how United States culture has shifted interests to retro-future concepts. The advent of retro-inspired pop culture media, fashion, music, etc. has brought back a lot of 80s inspired styles and concepts in pop culture. Examples would be shows like Stranger Things or Riverdale, the popularity of retro-wave inspired music, an interest in retro 80s games being remade, popular 80s movies being remade in modern settings, 80s-inspired fashion trends like retro shoes, etc.
Since Vice City has always been associated with an 80s setting and aesthetic, it almost makes sense that Grand Theft Auto 6 would make a triumphant return to Vice City. Only time will tell, but for now if there's any concrete evidence fans can point to for Grand Theft Auto 6's next setting, Vice City would be the prime choice.
San Fiero
A less likely choice for Grand Theft Auto's setting, assuming it had to be a city/area that already exists in the franchise's universe, would be San Fiero. Originally introduced in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as the game's second city, San Fiero is an underrated and brief aspect of San Andreas where players didn't spend too much time before going to Las Venturas and back to Los Santos. Even though Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is often still considered the best entry in the franchise and praised for its massive scope, the San Fiero portion of the game was lackluster and brief. Grand Theft Auto's symbolization of San Francisco could easily be re-vitalized for a more fleshed out, modern depiction.
San Francisco is not usually depicted in video games, receiving its only prominent recreation in Watch Dogs 2. That being said, Grand Theft Auto 6 focusing entirely on San Fiero would be an interesting choice for the series, as it was a city that received little attention in its sole depiction in the franchise. In a way it could potentially bridge the gap between those who loved Grand Theft Auto 5, but also wanted a more condensed and detailed city like Grand Theft Auto 4's Liberty City.
Even though San Francisco is vastly different from Los Angeles in our society, in a lot of ways it would make sense for Grand Theft Auto to leave San Fiero behind for now. With the massively successful Grand Theft Auto 5 wrapping up its own condensed version of the original San Andreas, it's unlikely the series would return to another California-themed location right after. In Grand Theft Auto, at least conceptually, Los Santos and San Fiero are similar stereotypes of American society. San Fiero may return later on in the franchise, but right now the parodied San Francisco will probably lay dormant in the franchise.
London
If Grand Theft Auto 6 does return to a previous setting from the franchise, another possible (but perhaps most unlikely) choice would be London. Many younger fans may not realize that the first Grand Theft Auto game had several free mission packs released (Grand Theft Auto: London 1969, Grand Theft Auto: London 1961) that focused on the titular British metro area. Even though these brief mission packs for the first game are often left forgotten by most players, they could easily serve as a potential starting point for the next game in the series.
Obviously, there's not much reason or evidence pointing to a potential London setting for Grand Theft Auto 6, so it's hard to assume the franchise may ever return to London at all, much less for a main title in the franchise. With Watch Dogs: Legion solidifying a London setting and already revealed, Rockstar has even less reason to visit London. That being said, if Grand Theft Auto 6 wanted to make the dark-horse pick for its setting, bringing back a fictional version of modern-day London would be the perfect twist.
A New City or Region
What's most interesting is that Grand Theft Auto 6 could potentially take place in a unique setting, something never-before-seen in the series yet. Many of the rumors that have been circling in the last few years seem to suggest several new cities are being considered for Grand Theft Auto 6. According to a prominent leaker for the series, there are several settings being considered for the next game: Las Vegas, Chicago, Detroit, Mexico City, and even smaller scale United States towns/cities.
There was even a rumor that Grand Theft Auto could visit several time periods in US/world history, but Grand Theft Auto 6 will likely stick to a modern setting. Since the past few "universes" have each featured three prominent games, and Grand Theft Auto 4 and 5 all take place in the "HD universe," there's still one more entry to be included in the current universe. Pair that with the fact that the last universe prominently featured different US time periods as its main theme, there's no reason why Grand Theft Auto would deviate from its current formula.
Something important to consider is that the next-gen consoles, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, will be releasing holiday this year. If another Grand Theft Auto game comes out anytime soon, it's definitely going to be slated for these new consoles, since outside of the remaster Grand Theft Auto completely skipped this past console generation. It's possible Rockstar's development team may utilize the more powerful hardware to create a larger world in the next Grand Theft Auto game.
As San Andreas has shown previously, Grand Theft Auto is not necessarily constrained to one city at a time. While it's not necessarily a technological gap, since Grand Theft Auto: Vice City came out on the PlayStation 2 with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, it's possible that with new hardware players could see an even larger area to explore in Grand Theft Auto 6. Whether that's somewhere completely new, or familiar territory for the franchise, remains to be seen.
While fans don't know exactly when Grand Theft Auto 6 is releasing, fans will have to continue waiting patiently until Rockstar graces them with official details on Grand Theft Auto 6. For now, there's several likely (and not-so-likely) locations where the series could explore next, players will just have to wait and see what's in store for the next game.
Grand Theft Auto 6 is rumored to be in development.