A lot of the gameplay mechanics that made Grand Theft Auto special are no longer considered impressive by modern-day standards and conventions which is probably why it’s taking so long to make GTA6

I will never forget the day GTA3 released for PS2. To this day, I still remember my parents giving me annoyed looks as I begged them to drive faster and rush home so I could play it. But there was a very good reason I was excited.

Having played GTA2 a lot (never played 1, sadly) I knew that this was a game where you could do literally anything! If you saw a car, you could just take it. Just like that. You could just walk up to anyone and kill them. But now it was in 3D! The idea of this was so crazy it seemed too good to be true.

But it wasn’t.

This game's release changed everything. The idea of what was possible in its sandbox caused games to imitate it or adapt to its style for almost a decade. With games like Saint's Row for example being called a GTA clone. But there were MANY games with that basic premise: walk up to a vehicle and steal it, attack people on the street, etc.

But no game could out-GTA GTA like GTA. And so, in a relatively quick time, we got Vice City, San Andreas, the forgotten GTA4, and then, of course, the history-making game, GTA5.

Each game pushed the limits of what was possible in its sandbox/simulation farther and farther, culminating in a game like GTA5 which wrapped it all together with a cinematic masterpiece of storytelling.

but notice…you don't see many "GTA clones" these days or in the intervening years since.

it's because over the last ten years, the bar for what is considered technically impressive, innovative, and fun has changed with more power and more compute.

The idea of being able to walk up to any vehicle asset and take it is not, by itself, a terribly impressive feature anymore in 2025.

The very core and I'd argue MOST important feature of a series called "grand theft auto" is no longer the showstopper it was in the PS3 era and the PS2 era.

We have games like No Man's Sky (finally good) where you can fly on and off entire planets. We have games now where you can BUILD vehicles from blocks and then fly those vehicles into space.

GTA6 will need to up its game massively to live up to over 12 years of hype. It might be able to do it since Red Dead 2 was able to live up to expectations. But that's probably why it's taking forever.

It can't just be a "better" GTA5 and go down well. Because if GTA5 released in 2025 it would be nothing new or special at least from a strictly gameplay or technical perspective.

The original and exciting draw of the series: the idea that you can ACTUALLY go up to any car you see and just…take it.

In 2025, that is no longer as jaw-dropping as it was during the bygone eras.