Those living in New Zealand will be the first to access it, while Mexico and Central America will have to wait the longest. Of course, those living in the United States and Canada aren’t safe either, ranking second-to-last on the list. As a result, spoilers could emerge fairly quickly, even if it takes about 80 hours to reach the ending (depending on your playstyle).

Assuming Xbox Series X/S copies follow the same release timings, you can play Grand Theft Auto 6 early by setting your console’s region to New Zealand. For PS5, you’ll need a New Zealand account and a gift card to purchase the game. If this isn’t a way to push more people to play on Xbox, we don’t know what is.

Thankfully, at least you’ll be able to pre-load the title well in advance on November 12th. Grand Theft Auto 6 launches on November 19th for consoles, and by all accounts, it may very well be the biggest game of the year.

It’s a far cry from previous games where you could run around, armed to the teeth, with relative impunity. “We don’t feel that works any longer at this resolution with the behavioral sophistication we need from our population now,” said Rockstar North co-studio director Rob Nelson to TGG. “In GTA 5, you can pull out a shotgun from nowhere in front of people, and they don’t react. That doesn’t work here.”

Granted, the NPCs did react, often begging off and not wanting to be shot. But Grand Theft Auto 6 goes even deeper, including what you can carry. “You can always have two concealed handguns on you whenever you want. You can carry two long guns, and they will be visible on your back and in your hand. You can’t put both on your back. One goes in your off hand, one on your back if you want to carry two. People will react to you if you are rolling around like that.”

Given how open carry law works, especially in Leonida, NPCs won’t immediately start freaking out when they see a long gun on your back. It’s a different story when it’s in your hands. “NPCs are more nuanced than before, so if you just have a long gun on your back, you should be fine. If you’ve got one in your hand, people don’t like it, and they react and start moving away from you,” said Nelson. I wouldn’t be surprised if they even called the police, reporting a potential madman (or woman) before anything goes down.

Of course, these are only a few facets of the realistic experience that Grand Theft Auto 6 wants to offer. You’ll need to refuel your vehicles – one of the more controversial changes that Nelson says is “pretty fast” – and driving looks to be more realistic, with Rockstar combining the best aspects of GTA 4 and GTA 5.

Launching on November 19th, the open-world action-adventure will be available on Xbox Series X/S and PS5. The Extended Look showcased 30 FPS gameplay on PS5 Pro, which could be the only option available at launch. Head here for more details.

“So, this car is low on fuel,” explained Nelson while showing TGG a demo for the game. “So, there was a passenger in there, and she just threw me out. Alright, so this vehicle is wanted by Randy, who’s a car fence. So, that’s cool, he has a big list of cars he wants.” Further in this demonstration, TGG asked Nelson whether he refuelled the car, to which the co-studio head responded, “Yeah. I may not make it; that’ll be the closest gas station over here.”

On the subject of needing to refuel, Nelson said, “We’ll see what people say. Do you think people are going to like it?” On completing the refuelling animation, he said, “That’s pretty fast for a fill-up; you can’t complain about that!”

This conversation between Nelson and TGG indicates that Rockstar has an understanding of how some players might not enjoy the realism-oriented approach Grand Theft Auto 6 will be taking with its sandbox. However, the system was described by the YouTuber as not being too big of a problem unless the player doesn’t pay attention to things like that when, for instance, planning a robbery. The refuelling process was also noted as being quite quick.

The video also points out that, since Grand Theft Auto 6 takes place in the modern day, there will be plenty of electric vehicles for players to steal. How the recharging process differs from refuelling in terms of speed and availability of charging locations, however, wasn’t discussed in the video.

In the same interview, Nelson also spoke about how the driving mechanics in Grand Theft Auto 6 will be somewhere in between the weightiness of driving in GTA 4 and the high-speed arcade-style driving of GTA 5.

“The team has worked hard to maintain some of the best parts of the weightiness and feel of GTA 4, but have the accessibility of GTA 5. It has all been built up from scratch on this hardware, and they have much more control of tuning drivetrain, tires, suspension, steering; all of that is getting applied to the physics model.”

Nelson also confirmed that top speeds in the upcoming game will be higher than they were in GTA 5. “Driving is weightier, but still very accessible. The driving’s been completely rebuilt from the ground up. All the cars are very different, very different feel; you can reach much higher speeds in the fast ones.”

“Powerful Rear Wheel Drive cars feel great, muscle cars and things like that. You do have to be a bit more careful on the throttle with some of them.”

Grand Theft Auto 6 is making its way to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on November 19th.

For example, the driving. After the heavy yet floaty controls of Grand Theft Auto 4, and the more palatable Grand Theft Auto 5, how is Rockstar approaching the same in Grand Theft Auto 6? Apparently combining the two, according to Rockstar North co-studio head Rob Nelson.

When YouTuber TGG asked if they were “weighty,” he responded, “Only in the best way possible. The team has worked hard to maintain some of the best parts of the weightiness and feel of GTA 4, but has the accessibility of GTA 5. It has all been built up from scratch on this hardware, and they have much more control over tuning drivetrain, tyres, suspension, steering; all of that is getting applied to the physics model.”

Even without hands-on time, the revamped physics were pretty apparent in the Extended Look. When shooting out tyres, vehicles could end up toppling and rolling multiple times before stopping. In other circumstances, they would careen out of control. And even if that doesn’t say much about the actual driving, Rockstar has managed to capture a strong sense of speed – always essential for any game with driving.

With Grand Theft Auto 6 out on November 19th for Xbox Series X/S and PS5, there’s still plenty of time to learn more. Stay tuned for updates until then.

This has also led to retailers around the world running out of stock of consoles. In the UK, just one SKU of the PS5 Pro is available to buy directly from Sony, and just about every third-party retailer has seemingly run out of consoles to sell. While both Microsoft and Sony are likely celebrating this jump in hardware sales, especially in a year marked by severe downturns in console spending thanks to inflated prices, Ronan Patrick – an analyst at Newzoo – has warned that this spike in sales might not be as big as companies might have hoped.

This largely comes down to the fact that the higher pricing of current-gen consoles, especially compared to how much they used to cost just a year or two ago, still acts as a major barrier for consumers. The PS5, for instance, is around 67 percent more expensive than it was in 2020. Similarly, Xbox Series X/S consoles are twice as expensive as they were when they first came out.

“We expect, because of [GTA] and Call of Duty, to see an uptick in the install base, but nothing particularly massive. But perhaps some of the fears are overblown when it comes to software. It’s important to remember that the lion’s share of time is often spent on older titles, and the closest analogy we have to a hardware shock is during the 2020-2021 GPU shortage, and you didn’t see engagement or revenue being taken off course. You basically saw a reallocation of spend into software.”

In the meantime, Grand Theft Auto 6 has been available for pre-order since June, and while neither Rockstar Games nor parent company Take-Two Interactive has revealed any solid sales data, the PlayStation Store listings for the game across various regions have indicated that it has been quite a hit. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has spoken about not being too excited about pre-orders despite performance being “unprecedented and astonishing” since the game isn’t out yet.

“Nobody’s ever seen anything like this before, at Take-Two or in the industry. One of the reasons we’re not changing our guidance is, to be clear, we haven’t sold one unit yet. You can cancel a pre-order. We’re kind of allergic to victory laps round here, and we certainly don’t do the victory lap before the event.”

Zelnick also spoke about the future of gaming hardware, noting that the “rising cost of hardware is not a good thing”. He did, however, express the belief that gaming hardware getting more expensive might lead to the emergence of new platforms for gaming.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on November 19th.

Both the black and white versions of the controller feature a color-shifting, shimmering finish, calling black to the purples and blues that make up much of the atmospheric color scheme of Vice City. They also have custom palm tree details that have been molded directly into the controller, along with the Grand Theft Auto 6 etched into the central trackpad.

Both variants of the DualSense Wireless Controller – Grand Theft Auto 6 Edition will be available in limited quantities. While the white version is meant to embody Vice City during the day, the black one is meant to capture the energy of Vice City’s nightlife. They are priced at $84.99 each and will come out alongside Grand Theft Auto 6 on November 19th. Pre-orders for both variants will start on September 10th.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is slated to be one of the biggest releases of the year. The title recently got an Extended Look showcase as a timed exclusive on streaming service Netflix. The company announced earlier this week that this Extended Look had been quite successful, garnering more than 31 million views in just a single week. The showcase also gave us a look at how the title would run on a base PS5.

Along with PS5, Grand Theft Auto 6 is also coming to Xbox Series X/S on the same day.

As the Extended Look revealed, players will be able to move their Criminal Profiles towards the “good” or “evil” side depending on their actions; petting a dog counts as “good” while robbing a store counts as “evil”, for example. In their video, TGG has offered a more detailed breakdown of the system, confirming that players will be put into one of four possible states: Professional, Aggressive, Violent, and Psycho.

Interestingly, there is also a fifth state that players can fall into depending on how unnecessarily violent and chaotic they act in the game. This unnamed state is seemingly quite difficult to actually reach, and actually getting to it means that the game will stop measuring players’ actions as good or evil. The system was essentially designed for players who don’t really care about the Criminal Profile system and just want to do what they want.

For an added layer of potential chaos, the two protagonists – Jason and Luca – each have their own Criminal Profiles that can vary depending on their actions throughout the game. This could even lead to situations where one of them is in the “Psycho” state while the other is on the other end of the spectrum – Professional.

This likely ties into Rockstar’s larger attempts to ensure that, despite its intermingling of a variety of game systems throughout Grand Theft Auto 6, players that don’t want to engage in any particular system can simply choose to ignore it.

In an interview with the same YouTube channel, Rockstar North co-studio head and head of development Rob Nelson had spoken about how the game’s various systems will come together to make players forget that they’re simply playing a game, and will encourage them to roleplay their lives in Vice City and Leonida County.

“The way the whole thing works together, we’ve got a lot of very complicated systems working in an interconnected way; you can forget it’s a game that has been designed to try and work this way. I think it allows you to sort of role play as heavily or as lightly as you want to.”

However, Nelson has also spoken about how the team didn’t want to make Grand Theft Auto 6 too complicated in its chase for realism. Among the ideas that were ultimately cut out of the game was one that would involve players needing to restock Jason’s and Lucia’s refrigerator with groceries.

“At one point during development, we were experimenting with a system that would allow you to buy groceries to restock the fridge. We had specifications for stores with groceries that you could buy and take home, and the fridge could be replenished. However, because this would have complicated the mechanics, we had to simplify it.”

Grand Theft Auto 6 is coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on November 19th.

In an interview with TGG, Nelson spoke about how the various interconnected systems across Grand Theft Auto 6 will come together in a way that makes players forget that they’re simply playing a game, and will encourage them to instead roleplay living in Vice City and Leonida County.

“The way the whole thing works together, we’ve got a lot of very complicated systems working in an interconnected way; you can forget it’s a game that has been designed to try and work this way. I think it allows you to sort of role play as heavily or as lightly as you want to.”

Grand Theft Auto 6’s emphasis on player choice will also give players a variety of ways they can approach any situation. This even extends to the more violent aspects of the game, since players will be free to cause as much or as little mayhem as they want.

“The idea is that you have a fair amount of choice now in terms of the way you can approach situations. You can still cause as much carnage as you can imagine. How does that make you feel if it has an impact on certain things? Do you still want to do it? Do you want to do it more? Do you want to do it less? Do you care at all? It’s up to you and what matters to you.”

It is worth keeping in mind that, historically, Rockstar’s games have promoted quite a bit of freedom in their open-world titles since the 2001 release of Grand Theft Auto 3. When it comes to missions, however, the studio has typically stuck to offering on-rails, linear missions that might even punish players for thinking outside the box. This could be seen with Red Dead Redemption 2’s mission structure, which placed a larger emphasis on cinematic scenarios than it did on player freedom outside of its sandbox.

Things might be different with Grand Theft Auto 6; Nelson’s statement indicates that this level of freedom might even apply to how players approach the title’s missions. However, just how much agency the player has in the story remains to be seen.

As we get closer to the November 19th release of Grand Theft Auto 6 on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, Netflix recently confirmed that the title’s Extended Look showcase, which was a timed exclusive on the streaming platform, managed to get 31.1 million views, and in the process, topped Netflix’s English film charts across 87 of the 93 countries where these metrics are tracked.

Rumors have also indicated that the title will run at 30 FPS on the consoles, with a 60 FPS mode not yet having been confirmed.

For comparison, Netflix has also provided details on the rest of its top-10 videos for the week; second place was taken up by the movie The Whisper Man, garnering 23.2 million views. When it comes to the non-English film list, Mexican crime thriller Facing El Chapo took the number one spot with 20.7 million views.

The Grand Theft Auto 6 Extended Look showcase featured 27 minutes of in-engine gameplay and cutscenes, revealing plenty of details about the title ahead of its November 19th launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Interestingly, CEO of Rockstar’s parent company Take-Two Interactive, Strauss Zelnick, had previously alluded to the fact that the showcase would only serve as “one of the hors d’oevres” for the game’s marketing.

“There’s appetizers, main course and dessert to follow,” Zelnick said before going on to call Netflix “a great marketing partner for us, and distribution partner.” He also revealed that the partnership for the Extended Look came together thanks to “a groundbreaking partnership that Rockstar arranged.”

In the same interview, Zelnick also spoke about how pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto 6 have been “unprecedented and astonishing.” Rather than celebrating this fact, however, the CEO noted that the company is still waiting for the full release of the game since the pre-orders are “so unprecedented that we just don’t know how it’ll translate into sales.”

“Nobody’s ever seen anything like this before, at Take-Two or in the industry. One of the reasons we’re not changing our guidance is, to be clear, we haven’t sold one unit yet. You can cancel a pre-order. We’re kind of allergic to victory laps round here, and we certainly don’t do the victory lap before the event.”

Among the details about Grand Theft Auto 6 revealed during the showcase included the fact that the upcoming title will have a larger and more complex world than Rockstar’s previous game – Red Dead Redemption 2. Rockstar North’s co-studio head Rob Nelson also spoke about how a focus on realism means that driving, navigation, and even stealing vehicles is going to be more challenging.

“The streets in this game are narrower and more realistic in terms of scale. Which, in addition to all the density of the traffic on the roads, makes driving slightly more challenging and requires a bit of skill.” When it comes to car-jacking, Nelson said that the studio wanted to add more gameplay to the system rather than having the player simply hit a button to steal a car.

“We have put some layers of stratification into the vehicles. Previously, you could just press triangle to automatically hotwire and steal any vehicle that you wanted and take off. We felt like that left a lot of potential gameplay on the table in terms of progression and decision-making for players. So now, you start off the game, and there are certain parked cars that are not accessible to you until you get a bit further along with the story and you acquire certain tools to get into them, but you can always carjack any driver you see.”

For more on GTA 6, here are 25 hidden details from the Extended Look showcase that you may have missed.

Why? Well, since Jason and Lucia fall in with bank robber Raul Bautista, it’s a given they’ll engage in some big scores. And that will likely require some funds, not unlike GTA Online. But don’t worry – you won’t be forced to grind through races, deathmatches and whatnot to scrounge up the cash.

Instead, you can organize your own heists, whether it’s robbing banks blind or dropping into the nearest convenience store for some improvised thievery. Stealing and selling cars is also viable, though it will be far more challenging than in previous games. You can take a faster approach, like blowing open a safe, but obtain lower rewards, or go slower and search for a combination to open it safely instead.

Take your time, however, and the chances of the police showing up will increase. They may even wait outside for you, though you can use different escape routes and avoid them (at least, until they give chase). The next step is finding a fence to sell your ill-gotten gains. But what next? Rob a convenience store for quick cash, or a jewellery store, which requires more effort but pays out better? The decision is up to you.

Grand Theft Auto 6 launches on November 19th for Xbox Series X/S and PS5, and this only scratches the surface of what you’ll be able to do. Thankfully, restocking your fridge isn’t one of them.