There have been rumors and reports going around online saying that Leslie Benzies has recently confirmed that the open world action-adventure video game “Grand Theft Auto (GTA) 6” is now in development.
Many keen critics and observers find the rumors odd considering the fact that Benzies, the former President of Rockstar North, a subsidiary of New York-based American game developer Rockstar Games, already left the company as announced in January this year.
For sure, Benzies can no longer speak for Rockstar nor any of its games under development including the highly-anticipated “GTA 6″ now that he has left the company.
Almost one year after Rockstar released on the Xbox One, the PlayStation 4, and the PC the very successful “GTA 5” in October 2013, Leslie Benzies took a sabbatical leave from the company beginning on September 1, 2014.
In January this year, Rockstar announced that Benzies has already left the company. On April 12, 2016, Benzies sued Rockstar Games and its parent company, Take Two Interactive, claiming $150 million in unpaid royalties.
Thus, the report published recently by the International Business Times of Australia saying that Benzies confirmed that Rockstar is now in the earlier stages of development in “GTA 6” is way off the mark, critics note.
The same report also quoted the supposed interview of Benzies from other news outlets where the former Rockstar North president supposedly said that game development all started with the idea, then the location, and then the missions, before the map and the story get worked up together.
It seems, however, that most sites picked up the interview with Benzies from way back when he was still connected with Rockstar and most of them are presenting it as rehashed old news to make it new.
Foundations have been laid
From all the rumors and speculations about “GTA 6,” what seems confirmed is that the foundations have been clearly laid for the game following the commercial success of “GTA 5” and the franchise per se.
However, up until this time, no location or settings have been agreed upon by the development team and only preliminary production has begun on the game possibly involving artwork, drawing boards, rough modeling, among other stuff, reports Valuewalk.
Having said that, it also means that “GTA 6” would be a deeper and much more developed state of a game pretty soon and it seems that the game developer is heading to the direction where a female protagonist will rule the gameplay story and new maps will be created for the game.
Rockstar Games has not made any official pronouncement regarding the setting for “GTA 6” but previous reports have included plenty of possibilities including the entire US, London, Japan, and recently, Marseilles in France.
There were also previous reports saying that all the gameplay maps in the previous iterations of the game shall be combined to form the entire map for “GTA 6.”
However, all those settings appear to be mere speculations as the American game developer has to confirm anything regarding the development of the game.
London becomes a prime candidate
Of late, however, the London setting rumors have been greatly resurrected when reports came out that the London map has already been teased by Rockstar Games in its current game, the “GTA 5.” In fact, some media outlets referred to the tease as Easter eggs for “GTA 6.”
In addition, the London setting rumors is strongly being supported by history as apparently, the franchise has had side stories or mission packs that had the UK capital as setting, particularly the “Grand Theft Auto: London 1969” and “Grand Theft Auto: London 1961” both released in 1999.