Grand Theft Auto 6 is indeed in development, but the game is still in the earliest stages. Exactly how much work has been done isn’t clear, but according to sources speaking to TechRadar, a location hasn’t been chosen yet, so artists can’t exactly start working on assets yet.
Rockstar hasn’t given any indication of where the game might possibly be set, but chances are fairly good that it won’t be outside of the U.S. That wasn’t always the case however.
The publisher once had plans to make GTA: Tokyo, and even went so far as to carry out a trip to the city to explore the idea further, TechRadar’s sources say. This was around 2003, in the same era as Grand Auto Auto 3 and Vice City, and Tokyo wasn’t the only city Rockstar considered. Trademarks from the time also exist for GTA: Bogota and Grand Theft Auto: Sin City.
The Tokyo idea fell flat when the road system proved to be an issue, and as time went on, Rockstar began to realize that moving its flagship series out of its heavily fictionalized version of the U.S. would require changes to series mainstays from cars to fast food franchises, and cooled on the idea. With this in mind, it at least becomes easier to guess where the next game in the series won’t be set.
Whether or not Grand Theft Auto 6 will use a new engine is a trickier question. Rockstar posted a job listing in 2012 that some point to as proof of a new engine, but this could also be the engine that was used for Grand Theft Auto 5 on current-gen consoles and the PC.
