Sony dropped a new Grand Theft Auto VI clip into the wild on August 17 and within hours Grand Theft Auto fans were doing what the internet does, freezing it frame by frame and arguing about it. The truth, as always, isn't quite what fans are making it it out to be.
GTA 6 only shows up three times in a one-minute commercial posted by PlayStation, which is a glossy montage of live-action shots and game footage built to sell PlayStation 5 consoles. You'll see it roughly around the 24, 44, and 52-second marks of the "It Happens on PS5" commercial embedded below, sandwiched between clips of Marvel's Wolverine and God of War Laufey.
Is there brand new footage? No. Every GTA 6 shot in the ad is lifted straight from the second trailer that dropped back in May 2025. Nobody at Rockstar Games filmed anything new for a console ad. However, it does look a little bit different, probably because Sony's marketing team got their hands on it.
GTA 6 guide
Grand Theft Auto VI: Everything We KnowRelease date, map, characters, gameplay and more, updated regularly.
Nearly all of the changes on the newest GTA 6 footage are about presentation. None of it confirms a change to the actual game. Trailer 2 was framed in a wide, cinematic ratio with letterbox bars along the top and bottom, giving it a movie-screen look. The ad strips those off and fills the whole screen in standard 16:9, so you are seeing a bit more of each shot. The getaway scene, where Jason hangs off the back of a convertible while Lucia drives, also looks brighter, and Lucia's eyebrows are softer and her hair a shade browner. Finally, fresh sound effects got layered in too, including a crisp trunk slam near the end that was not there before.
Trailer 2 versus the PlayStation ad, shot for shot
Element | Trailer 2 (May 2025) | The PS5 commercial (August 2026) |
|---|---|---|
Framing | Cinematic widescreen with black bars | Full 16:9, filling the whole screen |
Lighting | Original grade | The getaway scene looks noticeably brighter |
Lucia's look | As first shown | Softer eyebrows, slightly browner hair |
Audio | Original mix | New sound effects, including a sharp trunk slam |
Context | Straight game footage | Intercut with live-action, one clip shown on a billboard |
Almost every single one of the changes between the GTA 6 Trailer 2 footage and the one used on the PS5 ad are merely cosmetic.
From the outside, the latest PS5 ad looks identical from the GTA 6 Trailer 2 footage. A downgrade didn't, or at least, hasn't happened yet, nor did Rockstar redo anyone's faces. Most GTA fans are just theorising or making much ado about anything, like what happened when a "leaked" Netflix listing turned out to be a two-minute fake. The information vacuum intentionally created by Rockstar turns everyone into a forensic analyst.
With that said, this ad is a quiet reminder that GTA 6 has become a machine for selling PlayStations.
Back in May, Take-Two Interactive chief executive Strauss Zelnick confirmed Rockstar had signed an exclusive marketing partnership with Sony for the game, and this is what that looks like in practice. The most anticipated title on the planet is now the centerpiece of Sony's flagship hardware campaign, which is also why pre-order links once prominently pointed at PlayStation and quietly stepped around Xbox.
Yet, while Sony has the exclusive deal, the marketing budget, and the prime-time slot, it still had nothing newer to show than the same year-old convertible clip the rest of us have watched a hundred times. Even PlayStation is stuck recycling Trailer 2, because Rockstar is not handing anyone fresh footage until it decides to. The live-action bits, the Miami-flavored shots fans tied to Vice City and a clip staged on a billboard in Warsaw, are Sony dressing up old material to feel like an event.
The good news here is that the the actual new look is only days away. Rockstar's Extended Look hits Netflix on August 27, and with GTA 6 now under 100 days from its November 19 launch, we'll know if any real changes will show up soon enough.