GTA 6 vs GTA 3: 25 years from Liberty City to Vice City

GTA 6 launches November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, 9,158 days after Grand Theft Auto III reached PlayStation 2 in North America on October 23, 2001. The first 3D GTA was set in Liberty City, modeled on New York. GTA 6 moves the series to Vice City and the state of Leonida.

	GTA 3	GTA 6
Release	October 23, 2001 (North America), October 26, 2001 (Europe)	November 19, 2026
Delays	3 weeks, announced September 19, 2001	2: from 2025 to May 26, 2026, then to November 19, 2026
Launch platforms	PlayStation 2	PS5, Xbox Series X|S
PC version	May 21, 2002, 210 days later	none announced as of October 10, 2026
Team	about 23 people at DMA Design in Edinburgh	headcount never published by Rockstar
Setting	Liberty City, modeled on New York, three islands	the state of Leonida, Vice City included
Playable characters	1: Claude, who never speaks	2: Jason Duval, Lucia Caminos
Metascore	97 on PS2, from 56 reviews	pending
Sales	14.5 million by March 2008, 11.6 million of them on PS2	pending

GTA 3 figures come from the game’s Wikipedia entry, checked on October 10, 2026; its sales total dates from March 2008 and has not been updated since. GTA 6 figures come from Rockstar Games and Take-Two. The same grid exists for GTA 4 and Vice City, and the whole series is in our GTA series history.

A three-week delay after 9/11

On September 19, 2001, eight days after the September 11 attacks, Rockstar pushed GTA III back three weeks. Rockstar managing director Terry Donovan told IGN that “we have come across certain small contextual references that we were no longer comfortable with, as well as a couple of very rare gameplay instances that no longer felt appropriate to us.”

Police cars lost their blue-and-white livery, too close to the NYPD’s, and went black and white. A plane’s flight path was changed so it no longer seemed to pass behind a skyscraper, a mission referencing terrorists was cut, and the cover art was redrawn. Rockstar called the finished game “about 1% different.”

GTA 6 has moved twice, and much further. Announced on December 4, 2023 for 2025, it shifted to May 26, 2026 on May 2, 2025, then to November 19, 2026 on November 6, 2025, another 177 days. Every date is in our release date guide.

Twenty-three people in Edinburgh

GTA III started as a Dreamcast tech demo around 1999 and was built by a core team of about 23 people at DMA Design in Edinburgh, working with Rockstar Games in New York. Producer Leslie Benzies pitched it as a “crime simulation game.” Rockstar first offered it to Microsoft as an Xbox exclusive, and Microsoft passed.

DMA Design became Rockstar North in May 2002 and had about 650 staff by 2018, per Wikipedia. For GTA 6, Rockstar has published neither a total headcount nor a list of the studios involved.

One silent lead, then two

Claude says nothing for the whole of GTA III and only gets a name with his San Andreas appearance in 2004. GTA 6 flips that with two leads, Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos.

Liberty City still turns up in Rockstar’s profile of Lucia: “More than anything, Lucia wants the good life her mom has dreamed of since their days in Liberty City.” The page does not say which version of the city that is. Her full profile is in our Lucia Caminos entry.

The PC precedent

GTA III reached Windows on May 21, 2002, 210 days after PS2. The team held that version back on purpose to get the port right, citing problems with the simultaneous releases of earlier GTA games. As of October 10, 2026, Rockstar has announced no PC version of GTA 6; every past gap is compared in our PC version guide.