Rockstar Games appears to have released new footage from GTA 6, which also recreates the studio’s real-life viral marketing in-game.
A new Instagram post from the account “Only in Dade” began to raise eyebrows earlier today, as it appeared to contain legitimate footage of GTA 6. The footage shows someone driving down Ocean Drive, recording a bunch of flashy cars lined up while people wander past. A second person on the sidewalk recorded the exact same video from a different perspective. Some fans think that the two people recording are Jason and Lucia, respectively, though the footage isn’t clear enough to be able to confidently make that determination.
Many were wondering if this was AI footage or a render until Rockstar Games reposted it on its Instagram story and liked the video, indicating this is likely real in-game footage. The studio is very careful and calculated with what it chooses to post and interact with, so it isn’t going around liking random AI-generated clips of its upcoming game.
However, what’s even more interesting is that this footage directly recreates a real-life video from last month. Rockstar teamed up with West Coast Customs to bring cars from GTA 6 to real life and spent October parading them around the city of Miami. As a result, there were tons of videos and social media posts about these vehicles, and one has now seemingly been recreated in GTA 6. You can see the same people, including a person on a motorized scooter and a man taking pictures in front of one of the cars, all replicated in the GTA 6 footage above.
It’s clear that Rockstar’s marketing strategy has gotten extremely creative, and it’s a bit of a flex to produce something that has many wondering if the visuals are too good to be true. Rockstar also pulled off a similar stunt a couple of weeks ago when it debuted a tiny bit of new gameplay during an episode of South Park. The footage wasn’t advertised ahead of time, so people also thought that it might be AI-generated gameplay until Rockstar’s name was discovered in the credits.
The hype for GTA 6 is currently at its peak, releasing in just one week. The launch represents the end of a 13-year journey for many fans, as Rockstar hasn’t made a new GTA game since 2013. There was, of course, Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018, which certainly helped tide some fans over… but that was still nearly a decade ago at this point.
Pre-loading has officially begun so fans can prepare for their trip to Vice City next week. Rockstar has also released new trailers, screenshots, and other marketing beats, which have created a flury of speculation over what may or may not be in the game. Thankfully, we won’t have to wait much longer to find out.