GTA VI's first trailer was made before the game was ready: Rockstar CEO
Rockstar's Rob Nelson tells you how a Tom Petty song became the game's guiding light
Remember watching that first GTA VI trailer back in December 2023, rewinding it just to catch every second of Vice City? You weren't alone; it broke viewership records almost instantly. What you probably didn't know is that the game behind it wasn't even close to finished yet.
Rockstar North's Rob Nelson recently told French outlet TroisCouleurs that GTA VI wasn't "fully formed" when that trailer dropped.
If you've ever wondered how a studio reveals a game years before launch without giving away a broken product, the answer here is simple: they didn't lean on gameplay footage to carry it. They leaned on a song.
The group produced the video based on the song "Love Is a Long Road" by Tom Petty, and Nelson has pointed out that it acted as a sort of a guide for the entire process.
To put it another way, there is an idea of what it will look like, but putting everything together requires effort. If you take the time and watch the trailer again now, you can feel the same hope and fear of the unknown reflected in the choice of music.
Now, you have been given two additional trailers, one of which is Netflix Extended Look from August and lasts 27 minutes, and a clearer picture has emerged.
Vice City turned out to be twice as large as Los Santos in GTA 5, and it offers eleven times more towns to discover and a campaign that may require up to 80 hours of your time.
You've watched this game get delayed twice already, so some scepticism is fair. But Nelson and Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick have both repeatedly reaffirmed November 19, 2026, as the date, and Take-Two's own investor guidance is now built around it.
