Looking back to February 2022: Rockstar confirms development of the next Grand Theft Auto

On February 4, 2022, Rockstar Games officially confirmed that a new Grand Theft Auto was in development. The news came at the end of a community update on the Rockstar Newswire that was otherwise mostly about GTA V and GTA Online. The studio gave no title, setting or release date at the time.

What Rockstar said then

Under the heading “What’s Next”, Rockstar acknowledged that many players had been asking about a new Grand Theft Auto. With every new project, the studio wrote, its goal was to move well beyond what it had delivered before. It then confirmed that active development of the next game was making good progress.

the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series is well underway (Rockstar Games, Rockstar Newswire, February 4, 2022)

Rockstar promised to share more as soon as it was ready and pointed players to the Newswire for official details.

The rest of the update

Most of the post covered other games. Rockstar announced GTA V and GTA Online for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S for March 15, 2022, with graphics modes up to 4K resolution, up to 60 frames per second and ray tracing among the upgrades. PS4 and Xbox One players were promised a one-time transfer of their Story Mode progress and GTA Online characters.

A standalone version of GTA Online was also announced, free for PlayStation 5 players for the first three months. For The Contract, Rockstar said the Short Trips missions would soon be available directly from the Jobs menu.

Context

That short paragraph from February 2022 is where Rockstar publicly confirmed work on the successor. The game has since been announced as Grand Theft Auto VI. According to the official website, it launches on November 19, 2026 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Official Rockstar announcements are collected under Official, and the Release Tracker keeps the current launch status in one place.

Sources

• Rockstar Newswire: Grand Theft Auto Community Update (February 4, 2022) (opens in a new tab)

• Rockstar Games: Grand Theft Auto VI (official website) (opens in a new tab)

Event: 4 February 2022 · Checked on 27 October 2026.