GTA 6: what we learned from Rockstar's 26-minute Netflix preview

After more than 18 months without an official glimpse, Rockstar has finally shown GTA 6 in action, releasing a 26-minute "extended look" that debuted on Netflix six hours before it went live on YouTube. As BBC Newsbeat reported, it was the first chance players have had to see detailed footage of the game running.

The montage arrived with no commentary and no explanatory captions, just improved graphics, densely detailed environments and a run of car chases and shoot-outs. It followed a week of unauthorised gameplay leaks that the developer said it had been "heartbreaking" to see shared online, and which prompted Rockstar's statement on the gameplay leaks.

Two's company: Jason and Lucia are the story

A long stretch of the preview was given over to the relationship between protagonists Jason Duval and Lucia Camino, the couple at the centre of the game's "Bonnie and Clyde" story. In a preview published on IGN, the developers said the characters' story - and the way it unfolds - can be affected by the player's actions, although players can "opt out" of developing the pair's bond if they want.

The Netflix footage did not show that playing out in any detail, but it did show the ability to switch control between the two characters at different points. In one segment, Jason was seen lowering Lucia from a window as the pair escaped a drug bust in a block of apartments. A similar switching system was used in Grand Theft Auto 5, which had three playable main characters.

What GTA 6 actually looks like

Praise for the graphics was more or less universal. Characters were shown with photorealistic faces and lifelike movements, and fans described them as "mind-blowing" to see. The locations mattered just as much: apartment interiors, rooftop bars and sleazy underground clubs all featured, alongside the wider environments of Leonida, the fictional, Florida-inspired US state the game is set in.

And what we still don't know

A great deal. The preview was a showcase, not an explainer, and without commentary much of what was on screen is still open to interpretation - how the branching relationship system works in practice, how much of the character switching is player-controlled and how much is scripted, and how the two strands of the story fit together across a full playthrough.

Then there is the sequencing. Putting the footage on Netflix six hours ahead of YouTube reads as an unusual choice for a video game reveal, turning what would normally be a platform-native trailer drop into something closer to a television event. Whether other publishers follow is a separate open question.

The effect, whatever the intent, is to put Rockstar back in control of the conversation. A week of leaked footage had set the terms of the discussion, with the studio reduced to responding to material it had never meant anyone to see - the Spider-Verse finale trailer leak caused a similar headache earlier this month. A polished reel, released on Rockstar's own schedule and its own platform of choice, takes those terms back.