Former Rockstar Games developer Mike York has chimed in on all the fan theories about GTA 6’s second trailer and what the studio really thinks about the rampant speculation.
For over one year, GTA fans have anxiously waited for Rockstar to reveal more information about GTA VI ever since the first trailer made its record-breaking debut.
In the time since, fans have poured over every social media post, screenshot, in-game update, and just about anything GTA-related for hints at when the next trailer will be unveiled.
Time and time again, these theories have failed to come to fruition – but now, a former dev at Rockstar who worked on GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 has revealed the truth about these teases.
Former GTA dev says Rockstar “trolls” fans with teases
In a new YouTube video, York explained that Rockstar is extremely secretive and said that this actually helps them out, because it creates more “allure” towards what is being worked on.
“It creates allure and it creates mystery and it creates people talking about [GTA 6] without them having to do anything,” he said. “The more they’re silent, the better it is, because the more people will be antsy and want to talk about it and have this feeling of not knowing what’s going to happen.”
According to York, Rockstar is specifically keeping the trailer date vague, because it’s all a marketing tactic that creates wild fan theories.
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The ex-dev pointed to the GTA Online moon phase theory. Basically, in 2023, the Moon Festival event ended up aligning with the actual moon on December 5, 2023. This was the date that the first GTA 6 trailer released, so players instantly took that as a sign that history could repeat itself.
“What’s cool about this stuff is Rockstar can capitalize on it, and if someone has some big theory, even if they didn’t do it on purpose, they can come in and make it look like they did this thing on purpose a long time ago,” he said. “It’s really neat. In a way, this brings the fans together.”
York further added how people always dive into these theories and the devs “geek out” about it behind the scenes, noting how a lot of these things are “trolls.”
“It’s a mystery to nowhere. It’s just to have you dig and search for stuff and find it, but even though it won’t lead to something, it’ll bring a chase and a journey for players for years to come and it’s really cool.”
The dev ended his video by saying he hopes that players will continue to look for signs, because when he used to work for Rockstar, he found it cool to see all the theories people would come up with.
It’s not clear if York’s comments will affect the amount of GTA 6 theories on the net, but with the game still slated to release in Fall 2025, we’ll have to see what the future holds and if any of these conspiracies end up having a shred of truth to them.