Legendary character set to be missing from GTA 6
Few games are as highly anticipated as the upcoming Grand Theft Auto.
GTA 6 is 10 years in the making, and rumors are swirling around what it will - and won't - include.
Fans are in uproar about a particularly troubling rumor - that a legendary character in the franchise has been cut.
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Lazlow Jones is the leather jacket-wearing talk show host in the game, and in real life he's been involved with writing and producing it.
His fictional character first appeared in Grand Theft Auto III, and has been in every game since.
According to GTA Wiki - the community-built database around all things Grand Theft Auto - Jones "comes across as an insecure, vain, pathetic, ill-mannered, whiny, creepy, and perverted weakling, qualities that are played for laughs in the games".
Gamers might have loved to hate the character, but chances are he won't appear in GTA 6 - and it's all down to moves the real-life Jones has made.
According to LinkedIn, Jones left Rockstar Games in 2020 after nearly 20 years as a director, producer and writer, and in 2021 he moved on to work at Absurd Ventures - a new studio set up by Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser.
As Absurd Ventures is a rival to Rockstar Games, chances are we won't see Jones' character pop up in GTA 6 as he's no longer working at the company.
But what we can look forward to are new offerings from Absurd Ventures - which might not just be producing video games, but also live-action animation, graphic novels and more.
The company has already reportedly filed two trademarks: 'American Caper' and 'A Better Paradise', which both sound pretty exciting to us.
This isn't the first bit of controversy around the upcoming GTA game - which might not even be playable for millions when it's eventually released.
If the rumors are true, Rockstar Games reportedly plans to initially launch GTA VI for PS5, and Xbox Series X/S only - meaning gamers with previous console generations will have to wait even longer before they can get stuck in.
The long-awaited game is set to be released in 2024 - but there are suggestions it could get pushed back to 2025.
And no wonder it's taking so long to produce - GTA 6 could eventually be the most expensive video game ever made.
But at least we'll soon find out a bit more about it. Next month marks the 25th anniversary of Rockstar Games, and to celebrate, we're going to be treated with the first trailer for the new game.