GTA 6 NEWS
Every GTA 6 drop and deal. In 5 minutes.
Hey,
Seventeen days out, and GTA 6 is on network TV, on the touchline at two derbies and on a building in Rockstar North's home city. Fans have also put a number on how long Leonida takes to cross, and a new PS5 firmware landed this morning with the jailbreak crowd watching closely. This brief covers the drive time, the ad blitz, what the jailbreak talk really shows and what you need for the 12 November preload.
IN TODAY'S BRIEF
Map / How long it takes to cross Leonida
Promos / The ad blitz from the Knicks to Princes Street
PS5 / Jailbreak talk and the new 14.22 firmware
Storage / Preload on 12 November and a reported 210GB
01 / MAP
Leonida takes about 35 minutes to drive across, fans estimate.
A set of travel times doing the rounds puts a corner to corner drive across Leonida at about 35 minutes. Running the same line takes roughly 180 minutes, and a plane does it in around 7 minutes. The figures surfaced on 27 October and come from fan map measurements, not from Rockstar.
What Rockstar has given is the size. Edge's cover feature on 29 October puts the map at roughly twice GTA V's, and Rockstar told Edge the landmass is nearly as large as the playable maps of GTA IV, GTA V and RDR2 combined. It has never given a square mile figure or a travel time. GTA6Intel, one of the sites behind the 35 minute number, works from a fan map of about 20 by 22 km, roughly 30 km corner to corner.
Size is only half of it. Aaron Garbut told Edge there are "an order of magnitude more interiors", and he told Jason Schreier the roads are significantly narrower than GTA V's, with denser traffic planned from the start. Narrow, busy roads make a drive slower, so the real crossing could feel longer than the raw distance suggests.
Rumour check Treat the travel times as a fan yardstick until launch. They are built from trailer frames and a fan reconstruction, and the real map stays hidden until 19 November.
02 / PROMOS
From the Knicks to Princes Street, GTA 6 ads are everywhere.
A cut of the Launch Trailer ran on NBC during the 76ers at Knicks opener on 20 October, at least twice, viewers say. On 1 November it played on ESPN Premium at half time of Boca Juniors against River Plate, with Spanish subtitles and a Spanish end card. Pitchside, GTA VI boards reading Coming November 19 rotated through El Clásico on 25 October and the Milan derby at San Siro on 31 October.
Outdoors, the Mercuriales towers at Porte de Bagnolet are finished, with the cover art on one tower and Jason and Lucia on others, six faces in all, Le Parisien reports. The Stade de France posted its own GTA VI banner on 30 October. A Hong Kong tram, fleet number 6, turned up wrapped in GTA VI branding on 31 October, and the same day fans photographed a giant banner near Cologne's main station. More in our pitchside story and the outdoor ads tracker.
This morning two banners went up at Princes Street and South St Andrew Street in Edinburgh, a short walk from Rockstar North, with a full height wrap on a Warsaw tower block later in the day. Each one writes the date the local way, which points to artwork made country by country. Rockstar has not announced a campaign or commented on any of the placements.
03 / PS5
The GTA 6 PS5 jailbreak still rests on a private 15 second video.
On 19 October homebrew developer Gezine posted a 15 second clip showing debug settings on PS5 firmware 14.10. The exploit is private, and Notebookcheck reports the hypervisor bypass needed to copy and boot game backups does not work. Nothing published shows GTA 6 running on a jailbroken console.
This morning the datamining account PlayStation Game Size updated its GTA 6 firmware claim from 14.10 to 14.22. Sony released 14.22 the same day, with one note about unspecified security fixes. If the datamine holds, a PS5 kept on older firmware will not start the game, which would make every older exploit useless for it.
Rumour check The 14.22 requirement is a datamine only. Sony and Rockstar have not confirmed it, and IGN says Sony may push more security updates before 19 November. The practical advice is simple. Let your PS5 update the normal way, and treat any cracked or early GTA 6 download as bait, because the preload is the only genuine early copy.
04 / STORAGE
Preload opens 12 November, and the PS5 download is reported at 210GB.
Digital preorders can start downloading on 12 November, per Take-Two's preorder announcement, and boxed copies reach shops the same day. The box holds a download code rather than a disc, so boxed buyers need the same space. PlayStation Store data posted by a tracker lists the PS5 download at 210GB.
That is a tracker figure, not a Rockstar or Sony number, and a launch patch could add to it. The game unlocks at midnight GMT on 19 November in the UK. On the US East Coast it opens at midnight ET, which is 5am UK time, and on the West Coast at 9pm PT on 18 November. Japan and Korea go first, at 3pm UK time on 18 November.
If you want to play the second it opens, start the preload on 12 November and leave the console in rest mode with automatic updates on. That also covers the 14.22 firmware above. Our storage guide has the space clearing checklist.
05 / QUICK HITS
GTA VI now leads the banner carousel on Take-Two's own homepage. Take-Two reports results on 9 November, with a call at 9.30pm UK time. Take-Two homepage
Leak accounts say Travis Scott will release three Nike Air Force 1 pairs called RS on launch day at $130 each. Nike, Travis Scott and Rockstar have not confirmed it. Nike rumour
Insiders point to a review embargo on 18 November, the day before launch. Rockstar has not confirmed it. Review codes
DON'T HEAR IT SECOND
That is the brief. A map fans say takes 35 minutes to drive, ads from Manhattan to Princes Street, a firmware number to watch and a big download to plan for. Preload is 10 days away and launch is 17.
Talk soon,
The GTA 6 News desk
P.S. Know someone still guessing the launch time? Send them the signup link.