Rockstar Games on Thursday, August 27, aired a 26-minute 'Extended Look' at Grand Theft Auto 6, exclusively on Netflix for six hours before it went up on YouTube and other platforms. The footage, confirmed by Rockstar to be running on a base PlayStation 5, showed off protagonists Jason and Lucia navigating the fictional state of Leonida and Vice City. According to Kotaku and PC Gamer, the reveal opens with the pair making a drug pickup that turns into a shootout with police, and later includes a montage of side activities like scuba diving, jet skiing, basketball, strip clubs, and street racing, before closing on an extended mission in which Jason and Lucia serve as security for a media executive, Andrés de León, at a party that turns violent.
Multiple outlets described the game's visuals as strikingly detailed for base PS5 hardware, with Kotaku noting the lighting and draw distance made the footage 'hard to believe.' GamesRadar+ and PC Gamer highlighted new systems including a 'Criminal Profile' that tracks the morality of player choices similar to Red Dead Redemption 2's honor system, more varied NPC reactions, layered carjacking mechanics requiring tools, and denser world interactions such as doomscrolling on a phone. Rockstar co-studio head Rob Nelson told IGN that safehouses function more like RDR2's camps, and that while players can nurture or neglect Jason and Lucia's romantic relationship, the two will never break up and will always remain criminal partners.
Scale details emerged as well: a YouTuber invited to Rockstar North, cited by PC Gamer, said the GTA 6 map is twice the size of GTA 5's and three times that of Red Dead Redemption 2's, with Vice City alone twice the size of Los Santos. GamesRadar+ reported a Rockstar developer's playthrough clocked in around 80 hours. PC Gamer noted that Rockstar made no mention of GTA Online during the reveal, despite the studio's acquisition of the team behind the popular FiveM roleplaying mod, leaving the multiplayer mode's future unaddressed. GTA 6 remains set for a November 19 release on consoles, with no PC release date announced.
Reaction across social media, compiled by Kotaku, was largely enthusiastic, with many users saying the game looked far better than footage from recent leaks by a source known as 'Cyberleek,' quieting earlier concerns about a graphical 'downgrade.' Some reactions were more mixed, with a few users comparing the footage to Red Dead Redemption 2 or GTA 5 and criticizing the in-game HUD, and some fans noting they still plan to boycott the game over Rockstar's decision not to release it on disc. PC Gamer's live coverage was more critical of mission design, noting that both missions shown — the opening drug deal and the closing party sequence — followed a similar pattern of dialogue leading into a shootout, calling the structure 'a bit familiar.'
Ahead of the reveal, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told Bloomberg there was 'reasoning' behind debuting the footage on Netflix and that audiences would 'understand more' after watching, but PC Gamer's live blog said the montage gave no clear indication of why Netflix was chosen, leaving the comment's meaning unresolved after the broadcast.