Even though GTA 5 is hardly about to go anywhere and Rockstar has their hands full with Red Dead Redemption 2, many fans are already hotly anticipating the next installment in the company's flagship modern-day criminal sandbox franchise. However what many fans don't consider is the ever-changing landscape of the industry as well as some internal shakeups in Rockstar that might result in GTA 6 being a whole lot different than what we might expect.
Generally speaking, the majority probably assume that the next game in the franchise will return to one of the previously visited cities. Based on the pattern of each of the three main locations — Liberty City, San Andreas and Vice City — appearing in each "era" at least once we might conclude that the next game will go to Vice City. This fan theory is the most popular and even spawned a nifty little logo with "VI" stylized as a neon sign that sometimes flashes "VICE".
This assumption by itself doesn't seem unlikely and might very well end up being true. However, the most common fan theories also include a vast single player campaign with a lengthy and spectacular plot, memorable characters and a whole lot of side activities to pad things out with. Additionally, we'd get the next iteration of GTA Online.
Of course, it is logical to assume this. Before GTA 5, the franchise has first and foremost (and often exclusively) a single player game with character-focused storylines. The franchise became popular as a single player affair and was very often praised for its storytelling alongside the gameplay.
However, the winds of change blow across the vast plains of the gaming industry and GTA 5 proved to be an entirely different beast. The game exploded in popularity soon after launch and remains one of the best selling - at times the best selling — video games, beating even new major AAA releases time and again.
The game recently broke 75 million shipped copies and GTA Online saw its most active month last December. Now, with the massive success of the game, you might assume Rockstar will just do more of the same when sequel time comes. However not every aspect of GTA 5 is going to live on into the future, and fans might soon learn that popularity isn't all sunshine and rainbows.
Over the course of three years, the game attracted an altogether different audience than the core gaming crowd that elevated the franchise to fame in the first place. It is this change in demography might leave its mark on the future games of the franchise. See, back in the 3D era, GTA titles were built with meaningful storylines and deep characters in mind because that's what the primary audience of the game expected.







