Welcome to the first installment of Stealing Cars, Kotaku‘s monthly column dedicated to Grand Theft Auto and Rockstar Games. (Name and frequency pending.) Expect some news, videos, rumors, and debunking in each installment. For this inaugural edition, we got some interesting speculation about Grand Theft Auto 6 from a former Rockstar dev, as well as newly unearthed details from that massive GTA IV beta build leak. Oh, and stick around for bad news for Game Pass subscribers and one of the wildest rumors I’ve ever heard about GTA 6.
Former GTA V dev Claims GTA 6 Wait Is Because Of An Engine Rebuild
The wait for Grand Theft Auto 6 has been a long one. GTA V is over a decade old. People have been waiting a long, long time for Rockstar’s next big GTA sequel. So what’s the holdup? Everyone has theories! I’ve been told in the past that developers working from home was allegedly slowing things down. Others have claimed online that the game’s size has been growing and growing, causing delays as Rockstar devs try to manage the beast that is GTA 6.
But a new theory floated by Rob Carr, a former audio engineer at Rockstar Games who worked on GTA and L.A. Noire, is that Rockstar has “rebuilt” its proprietary Rage engine, the same engine that has powered its open-world games since GTA IV. This comes from an interview he did with the Kiwi Talks YouTube channel.
“I know nothing about [GTA 6],“ said Carr, via GameRant, on the podcast. “Other than the fact that they probably will have, given the time frame of how long it’s taken them to get to this stage, they’ve probably rebuilt the entirety of the Rage Engine.” He added, “That’s the only thing I can say with real, genuine confidence.”
“I’ll be amazed if they didn’t because the architecture of technology has advanced significantly since GTA V, which again, easy to forget, that was three generations ago,” said Carr.
I reached out to some folks and heard back from one source with knowledge of Rockstar Games, and the response was…mixed. They didn’t claim Carr was lying, but explained that Rockstar likes to mix tech and that GTA 6’s version of Rage builds on work done not just for GTA V but also Red Dead Redemption II. This is something Carr seems to agree with in a different part of the interview, where he suggests that GTA 6 will include some features found in RDR2. Which isn’t surprising, as past Rockstar Games have shared code and engine tech between studios and projects.
So while it’s nearly certain that the Rage Engine has been updated, tweaked, and expanded, from what I understand, it isn’t entirely accurate to frame this as a complete rebuild. Could the work of updating Rage be one reason GTA 6 is still not out yet? Maybe. Games are complicated, and a lot of factors are at play here. Hopefully, Rockstar nails its November release later this year.
More Cool Content Has Been Found In That GTA IV Mega Leak
GTA IV may have planned a open theme park at Funland — this finding was by DOUGL4S1.
In the November 2007 beta build, Liberty Eye and the cart models are separated suggesting Rockstar had plans to make them rideable or at least animated
Source:https://t.co/zSV071oHMj pic.twitter.com/qdFUoRbznC
— ben (@videotech) March 31, 2026
People are continuing to dig into the files found on an old Xbox 360 dev kit that contained a beta build of GTA IV. A new find includes theme park rides that were built in a way that seems to imply that at some point, Rockstar Games had plans to let players ride them in-game.
Former Rockstar employee and GTA developer Obbe Vermeij says that he doesn’t have any memory of that being the plan, but that, based on how the leaked assets appear to have been built, it seems likely that, yes, at one point, the rides at Funland in GTA IV were planned to be functional. This feature would later make its way to GTA V, in which players can ride the rollercoaster.
Video Break!
This upcoming GTA San Andreas mod is basically a new GTA game set in Carcer City, the setting of Rockstar’s other violent PS2-era game, Manhunt.
GTA V Leaving Game Pass…Again
Rockstar is doing that annoying thing again where it removes GTA V from Xbox Game Pass. This has become one of the weirdest traditions.
Like clockwork, Rockstar and Take-Two add GTA V to Game Pass only to remove it months later. This time around, it hung on for a year after it was added to Game Pass in April 2025. This is reportedly the longest it’s been allowed to linger on Game Pass. In the past, like in 2024, it has only stuck around on the subscription service for about six months. You have until April 15 to enjoy GTA V and GTA Online via Game Pass. Then you have to buy it. Or wait and see if it returns again one day.
Wild (And Definitely False) GTA 6 Rumor Claims Saving/Loading Isn’t Working In The Game
I see a lot of rumors about GTA 6 while doing this job. Many of them are believable, but can be debunked pretty easily. But some are wild and can be debunked just by using logic, like rumors that float around every GTA game claiming this one will feature interiors for every building. Spoilers: No way.
But a new rumor “reported” by longtime UK rumormag PopBitch claims that GTA 6‘s delay isn’t because of how big it is or a large-scale engine rewrite. Nope, it’s because the guy who was working on the game’s save and load features was laid off, and now that very important function is just completely broken. Even wilder, PopBitch claims that “early versions of [GTA 6] were not built” with saving and loading “in mind” and the game was “accidentally developed in such a way that adding this feature to the game is highly advanced work that requires extremely experienced technical knowledge.”
Folks, I’m only sharing this complete nonsense so that you can laugh at it and then explain to whoever shared it with you that it is complete and utter nonsense! From what I understand, GTA 6 has saving and loading. Big scoop, I know, but there you go.
See you next month!
Or sooner…? We are still working that out. Seriously, if you have a better name for a recurring newsletter dedicated to GTA, let us know in the comments below.
