None of this matters. With no hard facts to draw on, fans of Grand Theft Auto have learned to work with scraps, and on the r / GTA6 subreddit, locals have been piecing together the puzzle for days. “The VI is too obvious, because the ‘V’ is markedly different from the very straightforward ‘I’,” wrote one user. “At a glance, that clearly says six in Roman numerals, it’s too cheeky to be a coincidence.”
“They’re not going to spoon feed us. I would say that was the first sign of 6. It’s not a coincidence at all,” adds another.
The discussion goes on and on. A thread on the subreddit already touts the virtues of a potential rural Virginian for a sacred franchise that has so far focused on some of America’s most iconic and densely populated cities. “The southern portions [of a hypothetical GTA 6 map] can have a Louisiana vibe, “says the author, who says he would rather his hypothetical Ozarkian Grand Theft Auto be a prequel to GTA: San Andreas, and follow the adventures of CJ’s father.” There may be have a train mission from Motor City to Vice City and you defend it from the Dukes Of Hazzard KKK types. “
“Oh yeah, and there will be Nixon. You have to meet Nixon and do ‘special jobs’ for him,” they add.
Elsewhere, you can find GTA lifers spamming the lyrics to John Denver’s West Virginia classic, “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” One enterprising con artist even claimed to have cracked the code. He has written effusively about how, under analysis, the coordinates point to Medellin, Colombia, where Pablo Escobar thrived during the ’70s and’ 80s. The subreddit admins quickly stepped in to correct the record. This poster used a forged screenshot equipped with coordinates indicating their ideal setting for a future Grand Theft Auto, as a wishful thinking. “After reporting the flaw, the OP said they were dylxlexic,” a mod team member said in an interview with IGN. “Just another day of chronic misinformation in the rumor mill.
This moderator, well versed in the theories of regular subreddits, says they’re not sure what to believe about the apparent Easter egg. At first, they thought the dusty backwoods of rural Atlantic Canada were far too unfavorable to serve as a home for an official GTA 6 tease. It was too random, too small, too weird. But after thinking about it a bit more, the mod remembered that he was dealing with Rockstar, historically one of the most unpredictable studios in the business.
“The studio might troll us. The fanbase is over-analyzing everything, so it’s not hard for them to slip those details into a trailer and be sure they’ll be found.”
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“They’ve done things like this in the past,” they say, considering the number of aliens and UFOs already lurking around Los Santos. “The studio might troll us. The fanbase is over-analyzing everything, so it’s not hard for them to slip those details into a trailer and be sure they’ll be found.”
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Another frequent poster is a skeptic. He watched this so-called “VI” long and hard, and wasn’t able to see what everyone is seeing. “It looks more like an N or an inverted Z,” he said in an interview with IGN. “The coordinates probably have something to do with the upcoming GTA Online DLC, which is disappointing, but expected.”
That said, even the most ardent GTA skeptics can’t help but theorize next. The poster has its own pet theory. In the future, he explains, maybe Rockstar will take a trip to those coordinates to emboss a definitive and unambiguous Grand Theft Auto badge for all to see. “Maybe they are in cahoots with Google Maps and will ask for an update of the satellite image after changing the roads in this area,” he explains. “Which would be really interesting for GTA VI.”
All of this avoids the most likely scenario – that Rockstar just wanted to have a little fun, and the eventual announcement of the next Grand Theft Auto will materialize in a much more conventional fashion. I guess in the years to come you’ll wake up, pick up your phone, and find a 90-second trailer that’s already bouncing around your timeline. All the memories of the Middle Mountain Trail will fade in, as the world gets the first glimpse of the game they’ve been waiting for. But Grand Theft Auto fanatics are used to these wild goose chases. There is still a vibrant community dedicated to unraveling the mysteries surrounding Mount Chilliad in Grand Theft Auto V. (By the way, we never found BigFoot in San Andreas.) Those legends, clues and gestures that oscillate between myth and reality, is what makes the GTA franchise so impenetrable. As frustrating as the wrong direction can be, the folks in r / GTA6 live for this stuff.
“Fans love Rockstar games and want everything to come out of them, but the company makes that difficult to do because they put so much detail and little mysteries that evolve over time,” says the frequent poster. “I think they realized people really liked them as early as GTA Vice City, where there were Scarface plots appearing somewhere in that game. Rockstar blew up. [with their crypticness] for the last matches. With their popularity, this leads to more frank theorizing communities, while others are more reserved. “
The mod agrees. They tell me this Virginia diversion will be just another part of the tradition. With just a handful of Google Map coordinates, Rockstar is able to set its followers on fire. “It’ll be a fun thing to look back on in about 10 years,” they say. By then, the subdirectory will likely have moved to the next urban legend.
Luke Winkie is a writer and former pizza maker in Brooklyn. Follow him on Twitter.
