Grand Theft Autofans are hungry for information onGrand Theft Auto 6, but it doesn’t seem like any news on the highly-anticipated game will be coming anytime soon. The lack of information onGrand Theft Auto 6, or Rockstar’s plans beyond theGrand Theft Auto 5andGTA Onlinenext-gen releases, has left the door wide open for people to spread fake leaks and rumors all over the internet.
One of the biggest supposedGrand Theft Auto 6leaks started making the rounds online about a week ago. The extensive leak claimed to reveal a ton of information about the game - way too much for it to even be taken seriously. But while the sheer amount of information in thatsupposedGrand Theft Auto 6leakwas a big tip-off that the leak was fake, there were some other signs as well. HardcoreGrand Theft Autofans were able to write-off the leak due to a claim it made about the game’s supposed characters.
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According to the leak,Grand Theft Auto 6will feature Ken Rosenberg fromGrand Theft Auto: Vice City, who will make references to that game’s protagonist, Tommy Vercetti. With rumors pointing toGrand Theft Auto 6being set in Vice City, that seems plausible when taken at face value. However, hardcoreGTAfans will know that theGrand Theft Autogames exist in three distinct universes, and so unless Rockstar decides to go back to its older universe,Tommy Vercettidoesn’t even exist in the current universe.
Granted, it’s always possible that Rockstar Games decides to shake things up by merging the universes it has established or by recycling a character from one universe to the next. However, this would be unprecedented for major characters (radio station characters have appeared in multipleGTAuniverses), and so the claim about Ken Rosenberg and Tommy Vercetti was a major red flag.
For those who are unaware of theGrand Theft Autouniverses, here are the three distinctGTAuniverses established so far. These universes share things like car names, locations, and sometimes radio stations and characters, but otherwise they exist completely independent of one another.
2D Universe
The firstGrand Theft Autouniverse is the 2D universe, encompassing the first games in the series. The 2DGrand Theft Autogames use a top-down perspective and feature old-school arcade gameplay as opposed to the 3D open world roaming seen in later games in the series. In total, there are four games in theGrand Theft Auto2D universe, though these games aren’t as clever about about connecting to each other in terms of story.
Those interested in experiencing theGrand Theft Auto2D universe will need to check out the originalGrand Theft Autogame,Grand Theft Auto: London 1969,Grand Theft Auto: London 1961, andGrand Theft Auto 2. While its gameplay is not nearly as comprehensive or groundbreaking as theGrand Theft Autouniverses to follow, the 2DGrand Theft Autouniverse did establish some mainstays, including locations like Liberty City,San Andreas, and Vice City.
3D Universe
The 2D universeGrand Theft Autogames have their fans, but the franchise didn’t really become a massive cultural phenomenon until thedebut ofGrand Theft Auto 3in 2001. The 3D univesre gets its name because the franchise made the jump to 3D open world environments with the camera positioned behind the player character, as opposed to the top-down view used in the 2DGrand Theft Autogames. The exception to this isGrand Theft Auto Advance, which is a 2D game set in theGrand Theft Auto3D universe.
The main games in theGrand Theft Auto3D universe areGrand Theft Auto 3,Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, andGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The aforementionedGrand Theft Auto Advanceis set prior to the events ofGTA 3, whereasGrand Theft Auto: Liberty City StoriesandVice City Storieshelp to flesh out some of the other characters seen inGTA 3andVice City, respectively.
Timeline-wise,Grand Theft Auto 3is the latest game in the universe, with the events ofVice CityandSan Andreastaking place earlier in the timeline. There are some characters that crossover between the games. For instance,muteGrand Theft Auto 3protagonist Claudeis featured in one of the missions inGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas. There are other ways that the games connect, with theGrand Theft Auto3D universe making a bigger effort to connect the games together and establish that they all exist within the same universe.
HD Universe
The latestGrand Theft Autouniverse is the HD universe, as it saw the release of the firstGrand Theft Autogames in high-definition. TheGrand Theft AutoHD universe started withGrand Theft Auto 4in 2008, introducing gamers to a brand new version of Liberty City. TheGrand Theft Auto 4expansions further established the HD universe, as did2013’sGrand Theft Auto 5, which is essentially the HD universe version of San Andreas. The Nintendo DS gameGrand Theft Auto: Chinatown Warsis technically part of the HD universe as well.
Since the HD universe has so far recreated Liberty City and San Andreas, many assume thatGrand Theft Auto 6will introduce theHD universe’s version of Vice City. However, it’s always possible that Rockstar Games will go in a different direction withGrand Theft Auto 6and use it to launch a new universe instead of continuing the HD universe.
