Rockstar Games recently announced a release window for its upcoming open-world adventure game sequel.
Grand Theft Auto V will begin the fifth era of the GTA franchise in quarter 2 of 2013. It will be the fifteenth game in the series, and we’ll get a new protagonist in a new city, just as with all the other main entries. This time the player will be dropped into modern Los Santos, a parody of Los Angeles.
Los Santos was featured previously in the GTA III era, but this version has been constructed from scratch, and will be more detailed and larger than the one in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The are will also include the surrounding beaches and countryside, making it the largest explorable area of any Rockstar game to date.
As in previous games, the need to make money will be a primary feature and theme, and the protagonist will be a professional criminal failing to go straight. No word yet if the protagonist will be a specific character, like Niko from GTA IV, or if it will be an open ended character more like San Andreas. From the press material’s complete lack of any mention of a character’s name it seems that it will be the later, though the GTA games with specific characters are always more compelling, so hopefully, they do have a real protagonist in mind.
The trailer for the game gives us a lot of in-game footage, and shows off the improved engine and animations.
We also have confirmation the title will ship with a multiplayer mode similar to GTA IV, which will be compatible with the community you’ve already set up playing the recent Max Payne 3; all of your contacts and ‘crews’ will be imported automatically into the new mutli-player interface.
Grand Theft Auto V will be out sometime in the late Spring or early Summer of 2013. Typical for Rockstar, we likely won’t have an exact date until about a month from release. No platform specifics have yet been announced, but I would expect to see it for all major systems within a few weeks of one another, if not simultaneously.
