The video most people are calling Trailer 3 is not officially a trailer. GamesRadar+ reports that Rockstar released it as Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look and did not call it Trailer 3. It premiered on Netflix on 27 August 2026 at 3pm ET, and Netflix held a six hour exclusive window before it reached YouTube at 9pm ET. In the UK and Ireland that was 2am BST on Friday 28 August, so it landed here overnight rather than in the evening.
It runs about 26 minutes. Shacknews reported that all of the footage was captured in game on a PlayStation 5, and Push Square reported that the capture machine was a base PS5 rather than a PS5 Pro. Press and creators who saw it early were hands off, per GamingBible, with the embargo timed to the Netflix broadcast. So everything below is what was shown, or what Rockstar staff have said in interviews, not what a reviewer has played.
What the footage showed
The Wrap, watching the premiere, lists third person shooting, a cinematic death camera, character switching happening live in play, convenience store robberies and dog petting. The setting is the fictional US state of Leonida, based on Florida, and the main city is Vice City, based on Miami.
Alongside the crime there was a spread of side activity. Across The Wrap and Push Square, the reported list includes basketball, swimming, jet skis, working out, kayaking, base jumping, shooting galleries, nightclubs, circuit and track racing, and scuba diving. Outlets differ slightly on exactly what appeared, so treat that as the shape of it rather than a complete inventory.
The systems that got named
Push Square's write up of the premiere is the fullest list of mechanics. The wanted level goes to six stars, up from five in Grand Theft Auto V. Police no longer appear on the minimap, and a Focus mechanic is used to locate them instead. They react to your face, your clothing and whether a weapon is drawn, so changing clothes or getting a haircut helps you lose them.
- A karma system. Petting a dog adds positive karma, crime adds negative karma.
- A Criminal Profile that tracks how you behave in free roam.
- Talking to people uses a held trigger and a short prompt menu, in the style of Red Dead Redemption 2.
- A bullet time mode that highlights weak points on targets.
- A minimap that renders buildings in 3D.
- Switching between the two leads is instant when they are together and takes a few seconds when they are apart.
- The romance between the two leads is optional and shaped by player decisions.
The two leads are Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos, and Lucia is the series' first non optional female protagonist. Speaking to Dazed, reported by Video Games Chronicle, Rockstar North co studio head Rob Nelson said Jason is an ex military drug runner and Lucia has recently been released from prison, and that players can control the pair together or independently. Nelson also described a body that changes: exercise visibly builds muscle, food affects weight, and lost sleep or a long police chase changes how the characters look. Carrying a rifle openly changes how people on the street react to you.
The music
GamingBolt, crediting IGN's identification, lists twelve tracks used in the Extended Look, plus an original synthesiser led score. They are Pop Bottles by Birdman and Lil Wayne, Pound Town by Sexyy Red and Tay Keith, Skrilla by Kodak Black, Let Your Love Flow by The Bellamy Brothers, Love Bites by Def Leppard, People Are People by Depeche Mode, But I Think It's a Dream by Captain and Tennille, Cars and Girls by Prefab Sprout, Devil Woman by Cliff Richard, Se Me Nota (Agarrame) by Chimbala and Omega, Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now) by Phil Collins, and Inner Light by Elderbrook and Bob Moses.
A song used in a promotional video is not a confirmed radio station lineup. The sources below identify what played over the footage, and nothing more than that.
What is still not known
- No PC version and no Switch 2 version has been announced. The launch platforms are PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S.
- No frame rate or performance mode has been confirmed for any machine.
- No specific mission, heist or story beat is confirmed beyond the setup above.
- No character beyond Jason and Lucia is confirmed in the sources below. Other names are circulating in secondary write ups and this page will not carry them.
- Story length is not official. Nelson told the New York Times, reported by GameSpot, that his own playthrough took about 80 hours covering the main story plus some optional objectives. That is one developer describing one run, not a stated game length.
- Online play is not covered by any source on this page, so this page says nothing about it.
Two smaller details from the same Dazed interview, reported by Video Games Chronicle: over 50 real street artists were commissioned to paint murals in the game world, and Miami based stylist Jillian Carr has worked on the game's fashion since 2023. Nelson also said Rockstar has roughly doubled in size since Red Dead Redemption 2.
Grand Theft Auto VI is out on 19 November 2026, a Thursday, on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S.