Grand Theft Auto 6: A Space-Time Odyssey – What the Heck Happened While We Waited?
AI Gaming News Author · Polygon ·
Join Jeff on a curious, irreverent journey through the last 12 years, marveling at everything from console generations and pop culture shifts to bizarre social media trends and deadly lemonade that arrived before Grand Theft Auto 6. It's a look at how much the world changed while we waited, prompting a playful, slightly bewildered reflection on the passage of time in gaming.
Right, so you know that feeling when you try to cast a simple 'summon pizza' spell, and instead, you accidentally tear a hole in the fabric of reality and find yourself several millennia in the future, wondering where all the good arcades went? That's kinda what waiting for *Grand Theft Auto 6* feels like, isn't it?
It’s been a mind-bending, reality-warping 12 years since *Grand Theft Auto V* first graced our screens back on September 17, 2013. Twelve whole years, mate! That’s not just a long time; it's an entire epoch, a digital eon where the gaming universe, and indeed the actual universe, has done a fair bit of shape-shifting. We're talking about a stretch of time long enough for bands to go on '10th-anniversary' tours, for middle-schoolers to be born, grow up, and still only know a world with *GTA V* in it. Bloody hell, some of us old-timers are looking in the mirror and wondering if we've discovered a new kind of existential decay.
So, I’ve been tinkering with this notion, trying to get my head around just how much has genuinely changed in the interim. And let me tell you, it's wilder than it first appeared. It's like checking a digital tea leaf reading from a decade ago and seeing all the timelines that unfolded while we were all still cruising around Los Santos.
First off, let’s talk gear. When *GTA V* first dropped, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were still two months away from launch. Think about that for a second! We’ve literally cycled through *two full generations* of video game consoles since then. We went from PS3 to PS4 to PS5. From Xbox 360 to Xbox One to Xbox Series X. Nintendo, bless 'em, launched two consoles of their own (Wii U and Switch, for those keeping score). And don’t even get me started on the VR revolution – five Meta Quest headsets and a slew of handheld PCs have burst onto the scene. At this rate, I half-reckon Xbox Game Pass might have collapsed and been reborn as a sentient AI before we even get to download *GTA 6*. (Though, knowing Rockstar, they'll probably add it, pull it, then add it again just to mess with us.)
And for a truly bizarre twist, Nintendo, those cheeky devils, have announced plans to bring Virtual Boy games to Switch Online, even prototyping a functional reproduction headset. A Virtual Boy comeback! Before *GTA 6*! If that doesn't scream 'reality is having a laugh,' I don't know what does. What was once an April Fool's punchline is now a genuine thing, mate. This is like finding out your discarded magical apprentice project from a decade ago now runs a small but successful artisanal cheese shop.
If console generations aren't your jam, how about the geopolitical landscape? We've seen three different American presidents across four terms in the gap between *Grand Theft Auto* games. *GTA V* came out practically at the beginning of Obama's first term. We’ve had a full Trump ride, a Biden shift, and *GTA 6* is likely dropping smack dab in the middle of a potential second Trump term, with the man nearly 80. Bonus fact: Trump was still a reality TV host when *GTA V* came out. Talk about a glow-up... or something.
Social media, that chaotic digital beast, has practically lived multiple lives since then. Vine launched the same year as *GTA V*, then vanished in a puff of viral smoke. Its spiritual successor, Byte, tried to take its place, then merged, renamed, and eventually sputtered out. Meanwhile, TikTok, that ubiquitous short-form video behemoth, has lived its entire glorious, algorithm-driven life waiting for *GTA 6*. It's like watching a new dimension spring into existence and thrive, all while your original reality is just, well, waiting for a game.
And let's not forget the cultural titans. Taylor Swift, bless her heart, has practically built an empire. When *GTA V* came out, *Red* was barely a year old. Since then, she's had *1989*, ascended to superstardom, had a couple of 'flop' (by her standards) periods, and then went full wizard, re-recording *four* entire albums, including *1989*. We've had Taylor Swift singing about Travis Kelce's... 'new heights of manhood' before *GTA 6*. The universe is truly a bizarre place, isn't it?
Even the world of film and TV has been busy. The entire *John Wick* franchise, that glorious ballet of bullets and broken rules, has sprung up from scratch. Four mainline films, a spin-off, a TV show, a tactics game (now delisted, mind you), a VR experience, comics, docs, and even a *Fortnite* crossover. Keanu Reeves, the absolute bastard, hasn't aged a day while all this unfolded. Meanwhile, *Top Gun: Maverick* arrived 36 years after the original, *Happy Gilmore 2* is on the way 29 years later, and yet, here we are, still counting down for *GTA 6*. Go tell a *Miami Vice* fan about your 'long wait' for Vice City, I dare you.
And then there's the truly random stuff that makes you scratch your head. Remember Panera’s 'Charged Lemonade'? The one that was named in lawsuits linking it to wrongful deaths? Yeah, that existential dread-inducing beverage also came and went before *GTA 6*. Just saying, mate, the world got *deadly lemonade* before we got a new *Grand Theft Auto*.
Now, for a quick-fire round of 'what else popped into existence or faded away while we were hitting up the Vanilla Unicorn':
* We got *Hollow Knight*, an eternity of *Silksong* hype, and... well, we're still deep in that *Silksong* hype cycle, aren't we? Some things never change. * 19 *Call of Duty* games (excluding remasters). Nineteen! That's practically a new COD for every year of waiting. * Chris Pratt as Mario. Bowsette. And, perhaps most bafflingly, Martin Luther King Jr. in *Fortnite*. * A pandemic that reshaped the entire planet. * Three McRib returns. Because priorities. * 28 movies featuring The Rock, including the earthquake-fest *San Andreas*. See what they did there? * A SouljaBoy game console. Yes, that happened. * Whatever the hell happened with NFTs – a chaotic digital experiment that tried to blow a hole in reality itself, with mixed results, I reckon. * CM Punk quit WWE and returned a decade later. A wrestling saga more drawn out than some game development cycles. * *Until Dawn* and then a remake of *Until Dawn*. * 30 MCU movies. 46 seasons of *Chopped*. 534 *One Piece* episodes. The human capacity for content creation is truly astounding. * White Claw. Mayochup. An Oasis reunion (a rumour, but still!). A live birth on Twitch (seriously, that happened). * An entire *Star Wars* trilogy. Baby Yoda. *Fortnite* itself, period. * A *Sonic the Hedgehog* redemption arc. Because even hedgehogs get second chances before *GTA 6*.
But what didn't we get, you ask? Ah, the perennial question that haunts many a gamer's dreams: *Bully 2*. Alas, some spells remain uncast, some realities stubbornly refuse to manifest.
So, as we edge closer to that seemingly distant release date, it’s not just a game we’re anticipating. It's the culmination of a decade-plus of shifts, changes, and downright surreal developments across every corner of our world. It's a reminder that sometimes, the longest journey is the one where you're waiting for something new to begin. Here's hoping it's worth every single second of this utterly wild ride.
*This article was inspired by and repurposes content from "Everything we got before Grand Theft Auto 6" by Giovanni Colantonio, published on Polygon.*
Tags: Grand Theft Auto 6, Gaming Industry, Video Game Development, Pop Culture, Gaming History
Original article: Polygon