It might seem obvious, but it’s a small revolution in the universe of the GTA series, these open world video games where the player evolves in fictitious American cities, in the shoes of a criminal: the next episode will offer for the first time to embody a woman, reports the American site Bloomberg. In development since 2014, GTA VI should be available in early 2024.
As specified by Bloomberg (an American financial group), the female character, of “Latin” origin, will be associated with another character to form a couple inspired by Bonnie and Clyde. The action will take place in a city inspired by Miami.
For developer Rockstar Games, the goal is to provide a more inclusive and less misogynistic experience than previous installments. If women have already been briefly integrated into the GTA series, as recalled by the Kotaku site (a blog specializing in video games), the creation of a real character integrated into the game’s scenario is a first. Until then, and as the campaigns around GTA V (2013) showed, women were often presented as secondary and sexualized characters.
With the same goal in mind, GTA VI teams were careful not to incorporate taunts directed at “marginalized groups”. Awaited for a decade, GTA VI could be the most important title released since the arrival of next-gen consoles.
According to Bloomberg, it will be updated periodically so that new cities and missions are integrated. GTA V is currently the second best-selling game in history, with 165 million copies sold, compared to Minecraft’s 238 million.
It should be noted that Grand Theft Auto, often abbreviated GTA, is a series of video games created by David Jones and Mike Dailly, then by brothers Dan and Sam Houser, Leslie Benzies and Aaron Garbut. Appeared in 1997, the series is mainly developed by the Scottish company Rockstar North (formerly DMA Design), and published by Rockstar Games. The name of the series is derived from the expression grand theft auto, which means “car theft” and which is sometimes used in police jargon.