LeonidaInteractive Map

Reported

What the people who have already seen GTA VI say: 69 gameplay details

IGN travelled to Rockstar North, watched the co-studio head play, and published 69 gameplay details. El Rubius, TGG and other creators were shown the game there too. Here is what matters from those sessions, with the sources.

A dark screening room with a frame of GTA VI on the screen
Room created with AI; on the screen, a frame from “An Extended Look” by Rockstar Games

Almost everything known today about how GTA VI plays does not come from a trailer. It comes from a handful of closed-door sessions Rockstar ran this summer. Neither press nor creators touched a controller. They watched.

Who has seen it, and under what terms

IGN travelled to Rockstar North, the Edinburgh studio building the game, spoke to co-studio head Rob Nelson and watched him play a long section. That is where their list of 69 details comes from, written by Matt Purslow and Simon Cardy.

Four creators visited the same studio in July: Australia’s TGG, Spain’s El Rubius, Brazil’s Davy Jones and Italy’s Mike ShowSha. All described the same terms: a private invitation, no controller, no phones, and an embargo until An Extended Look aired on 27 August.

Worth keeping in mind while reading what follows: these were demonstrations chosen and driven by Rockstar, not hours of free play.

Jason and Lucia

  • You can switch character at any point in the open world, except during certain stretches of the story.
  • You can call or text the other one to come to you, for an activity or just to hang around. In a car they swap seats: one drives, the other shoots.
  • The romance is optional and grants no gameplay advantage — it is a roleplaying decision. It grows through time spent together outside missions: shops, barbers, the gym, robberies. Spend whole days on your own and the other will let you know by message.
  • Lucia’s ankle monitor carries weight in the story.

The police know your face and what you are wearing

This is by some distance the biggest change IGN describes.

  • The six-star wanted level is back (GTA V topped out at five).
  • The level does not trigger by itself: a witness has to see the crime, or an alarm has to go off. The crime scene stays marked on the map for a while after you have left it.
  • Icons under the stars show what the police know: your face, your clothes, your car. Changing your hairstyle clears the face icon; clearing the clothes one takes a full change of outfit — glasses or a hat will not do — which is why a spare set in the boot pays off. Wearing a mask during the job and taking it off as you leave keeps your description out of their hands altogether.
  • If you are wanted as a pair, Jason and Lucia can split up to divide police attention. You can tell the other to run and take the fall yourself; they text you later, once they are clear.
  • Not everything ends in a shootout: you can put someone down by shooting an arm or a leg, or disarm them by hitting the weapon itself.

Stealing a car is no longer open-and-drive

  • Cars have security tiers. A phone app called WAINK scans the one in front of you and reports what it is worth, what registering it costs, whether it is locked, whether it has an alarm and whether it carries a tracker.
  • Each tier wants its own tool, from a slim jim for older cars to a key cloner for modern ones. Some models stay out of reach until late in the story.
  • What you steal goes to a fence — there are fences for jewellery and fences for cars — and a dented car is worth less. Watch the trackers: drive too slowly and they tip off the police.

The world around it

  • A system called Focus highlights what is worth noticing nearby.
  • The phone is no longer a box in the HUD: the camera moves in on the character’s hand when they pull it out. Snapmatic returns, but you cannot post — they are a couple on the run and leave no digital trail — only browse.
  • Fast travel runs through a taxi app, Ryde Me, and you can hold a full conversation with your fellow passenger on the way.
  • The pause map uses satellite imagery instead of the schematic street plan of previous games.
  • You can study animals and tick them off a list, Red Dead Redemption 2 style. And yes, you can pet the dogs.
  • The criminal profile replaces RDR2’s honour system, but without a clean right-and-wrong: it shapes how the world treats you. Unnecessary violence counts, and so does putting your own litter in the bin.
  • The humour deliberately avoids memes, politics and current slang, so it does not age badly across the game’s lifetime.

Where to read all of it

The above is our own summary of what is most useful. The full list of 69 points is on IGN, and it is worth the time:

Why this is tagged “Reported”

Rockstar has published none of it in writing on the Newswire: it is an account of a demonstration, told by the people who were in the room. That is why it carries Reported and not Confirmed. The moment any of it appears in an official statement, we raise the badge here and on the map, with its source.