GTA 6 could be playable a year early thanks to GTA Online
The gaming world was left devastated when another delay was announced for Grand Theft Auto 6, meaning that fans now have to wait another year to finally get their hands on the title that's been over 12 years in the making.
If you're one of the millions of hardcore Grand Theft Auto fans, then it hasn’t been a great couple of months. Gamers were only just starting to get over the initial delay announcement for GTA 6 before Rockstar Games hit back with another, taking the game's official release date all the way back to November 19, 2026.
That's a lot of waiting to do, especially when you consider what will end up being 13 years of waiting overall since the last entry in the series, and photorealistic graphics mods, remasters of old classics, and multiple replay sessions can only do so much.
Thankfully, some nosey dataminers have discovered that you can actually play part of GTA 6 right now. This seemingly shocking turn of events sees GTA 5's popular Online mode hosting assets from the upcoming game.
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As reported by RockstarINTEL, there was recently a new update for GTA Online called 'Money Fronts', introducing a new series of mansion teaser missions to the popular multiplayer mode.
Naturally, many of the game's fans were intrigued to know how these new missions work, prompting dataminers to dive into the game's files to see what it looks like from the inside.
Popular dataminer Lucas7yoshi_RS discovered a neat trick used by Rockstar to create something new out of old assets, where a pool cover inside one of the mansions was made up of tarp-covered fences. It’s a bit like how LEGO uses hot dogs for seats in some sets.
Another dataminer by the name of rollschuh2282 noticed the same detail, but upon their investigation, they revealed that several assets that are using the naming convention Rockstar's employing for GTA 6 files, and not the GTA 5 ones that you'd expect.
If you're unaware of what this means, game developers sometimes label files in a certain way that remains consistent within the game that they're designed for, and it can be useful for dataminers trying to determine where assets come from.
Three assets found by the second dataminer appeared to have an unfamiliar naming convention that's presumably for the upcoming game, with a pair of chinos, love heart underwear, and a bra featuring this oddity.
Any players who manage to find and wear these specific items will technically be 'playing' part of GTA 6 before it's officially released, although it might not be quite as simple as that.
Lucas7yoshi_RS believes that these could simply be the result of an artist at Rockstar using the wrong workflow, having created assets for both GTA 5 and GTA 6 concurrently. Remember, it's not the first time something like this has happened to GTA Online in the past.
It’s still a somewhat promising sign that GTA 6 does actually exist, which is what some fans are simply looking for at this point. Then again, don't get your hopes up because Jason and Lucia's story is still a long way off.