We Got This Episode Before GTA 6 (Premium E288) Sample
There is no bigger franchise in the video game business than Grand Theft Auto by Rockstar Games. So naturally, fans of open-world criminal mayhem descend into wild dot-connecting in the years before each hotly-anticipated release.
The next installment, GTA 6, has been delayed and is now slated for release on May 26th of 2026. This is despite many assurances from Rockstar that everything was on track for the game to come out in 2025. Alas, this will be another Christmas without an ultra-violent crime simulator wrapped beneath the pine tree. Sad! But at least Rockstar’s long silence gave us some great theories.
Rockstar’s trademark hush-hush routine has turned GTA fandom into a sweaty detective bureau: Reddit sleuths pore over patent filings, numerologists map release dates to moon phases, and anonymous “insiders” drop breadcrumbs. In this episode we sift the signal from the speculation and ponder whether weaponized silence is part of the new marketing playbook.
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Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)
https://qaapodcast.com
QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.
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SOURCES:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5584612/
https://www.pcgamer.com/grand-theft-auto-6-fans-have-become-so-desperate-for-information-theyve-convinced-themselves-that-the-moon-is-teasing-an-upcoming-reveal/
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/gta-6-fans-are-convinced-that-a-new-trailer-is-going-to-release-on-december-27-because-the-moon-and-a-license-plate-told-them-so/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
We got this episode before GTA 6. As always, we are your hosts, Jake Rakitansky, Julian Field, and Travis View.
Has an empire in decline ever been this entertained?
This stimulated?
As the calendar of things falling apart extends before us, so too does the calendar of video game releases.
And there is no bigger franchise in the business than Grand Theft Auto by Rockstar Games.
GTA V, the last game in the series, was released in September of 2013.
In the nearly 12 years since then, it has generated over $8.6 billion in revenue and sold more than 200 million copies aided in large part by GTA Online, its wildly successful multiplayer mode that let Rockstar get in on the microtransaction racket.
Have you ever bought a shark card or whatever, like the bucks?
Oh, I've spent hundreds.
I've spent, yeah.
The trick that they really, I think, accomplished is, like, I feel like everybody with any platform has bought this game at some point, maybe even on multiple platforms, because they've released, like, remasters, and I don't know, like, I myself, like, replayed this video game from beginning to end, which I had not done the original time, I think, like, two years ago or a year and a half ago or so, and it's so fucking good.
Yeah, it's a blast.
The only game that competes with GTA 5 in terms of popularity is Minecraft.
And you cannot wantonly beat an old lady to death with a baseball bat in Minecraft, so it's for babies.
Recently, I wrote for Jacobit and argued that the QAnonization of American culture would continue as long as the ongoing social and economic crises provide fertile ground for it.
QAnon is in the groundwater, and video game marketing schedules are not exempt from the endless conspiracy theorizing and baking that have become a choice national pastime.
And hands down, the most anticipated game of all time is the sequel to GTA V, which, you guessed it, is going to be called GTA VI.
So this week, we'll be diving into the feverish, covetous madness of a fanbase on the precipice of getting what they want.
And if you're wondering why we're covering this particular topic, I'll just mention that Jake Rokitansky in the QAA 2025 yearbook was voted most likely to pitch an episode about video games.
You know, oddly enough, Travis actually pitched this episode idea.
Yeah, you know, I'm excited because I used to play a lot more video games when I was a kid, and then, you know, I get a job in the family, and then my priorities shift, I suddenly, you know...
Learn the value of an hour of my day.
And so I wasn't able to do as much, but I still play the big ones.
Like, I've played, like, Red Dead Redemption 2. My pandemic game was Witcher 3, and I played that and both the expansions, Heart of Stone and Blood and Wine.
All very good.
Yes, it was a lot of fun.
I had a pretty solid Gwent deck.
I got the Feline Grandmaster armor set.
Oh my god, same.
I'm like...
Yeah, same.
I maxed out Gwent and also went for the feline.
Yeah, I mean, what I love about that game is that there are lots of open-world games, but I feel like this is the one that really felt like you were really rewarded for meandering around the map.
It was just a delight.
But so, yeah, I also played just about all the GTAs, so this is probably going to be the game I play.
During the year, my one yearly game was released next year.
Hell, I played GTA before it turned 3D.
I played the top-down one.
It was really fun.
I remember playing that at my neighbor's house.
He had a computer and he had GTA and it was so taboo that you could run over people and see little bloodstains where they had been and the tire marks were red.
It felt like we were doing something real naughty.
But already they had that amazing format of like you go get a mission from a guy or a phone and then you kind of drive around.
You got to get to this place in this time.
You know, it's a format that's now super, super common.
But, you know, they were the pioneers.
It's so funny that Travis is.
That makes sense.
He's a smart gamer.
I've wasted so much time on crap.
Oh, man, and I have made you waste so much time on crap.
I mean, I like the more broken and clunky a game is, the more I will try to find...
It's true.
You bounce off any good game in the genres you like.
You know what I realized?
It's actually how I was brought up.
If we can go on a little tangent here before we get to your section, Jules.
When I was a kid, the way that I experienced video games was that my dad would rent one or two games at a time.
From Blockbuster, and we would play it over the weekend, and then it would go back to the store.
It was very rare that my brother and I would rent the same game again to the point that we completed it.
So, you know, my introduction to playing video games was playing something for a couple of hours, and then it just, like, went away, and I would find something new to play the next weekend or, you know, a couple weekends afterwards.
So it kind of makes sense, you know, as I've thought about it more, my sort of, my bounce around, sort of hapless gaming style.
Travis, as an appreciator of just great games that are fully completed, you should play Cyberpunk.
You should play Cyberpunk.
That'll hold you over, actually, probably until GTA 6. In its current state, it is a mind-blowingly good game.
In its release state, it was not good, but now with the expansion and all the work they did on it, it is...
Insanely good.
Yeah, you know, I'll give that a try.
So one thing I always appreciate about these, like, really expansive, like, you know, billion-dollar games was the fact that, you know, you're able to, like, drop in and, like, if I had, like, 20 minutes to spare, I could play something, I could do a mission, and it's satisfying.
And if, like, on the rare instance where I had, I don't know, an hour and a half to kill, I could do something more, you know, more expansive in the game.
So, yeah, I'll give that a try.
Okay, now that we got rid of every single listener who's a fan of musical theater...
Hold on, I can bring them back.
Hold on, wait.
Yeah, you can do it, man.
I'm trying to think.
Try not to be worried.
Try not to turn on to problems that upset you.
Jesus Christ Superstar.
One small girl in a tree.
Once on this island.
That's quite enough.
I think we can...
We're moving on.
The first and so far only trailer for GTA 6 was released all the way back in December of 2023, and there was no word on a release date for a second trailer, or the game for that matter, until very recently, on May 2nd, 2025.
And folks, it's bittersweet.
No word on a second trailer, but we now have a release date.
And, unsurprisingly, the game has been delayed and is now slated for release on May 26th of 2026.
This despite many assurances from Rockstar that everything was on track for the game to come out in 2025.
Alas, this will be another Christmas without an ultra-violent crime simulator wrapped beneath the pine tree.
Sad.
But at least Rockstar's long silence gave us some great theories.
In December of 2024, PC Gamer published an article entitled, GTA 6 fans are convinced that a new trailer is going to release on December 27 because the moon and a license plate told them so.
This theory even has its own cue.
An anonymous Twitter account called GTA 6 Plus that specializes in leaks and deranged hopium.
And of course, that very clever trick that people do on Twitter of resembling an official account, but not being one.
Which leads to a lot of community notes going like, do not fall for this.
This is not a real...
Yeah, I love it.
You've been listening to a sample of a premium episode of the QAA podcast.
For access to the full episode, as well as all past premium episodes and all of our podcast miniseries, go to patreon.com slash QAA.
Travis, why is that such a good deal?
Well, Jake, you get hundreds of additional episodes of the QAA podcast for just $5 per month.
For that very low price, you get access to over 200 premium episodes, plus all of our miniseries.
That includes 10 episodes of Man Clan with Julian and Annie, 10 episodes of Perverts with Julian and Liv, 10 episodes of The Spectral Voyager with Jake and Brad, plus 20 episodes of Trickle Down with me.
Travis, for once, I agree with you.
And I also agree that people could subscribe by going to patreon.com slash QAA.
