Rockstar Confirms That “The GTA 6 Trailer Was 100% In-Game PS5 Footage”

So, here we are again. Rockstar Games drops a GTA 6 trailer, the internet loses its mind, and then everyone collectively screams: “No way that’s real gameplay footage.” But this time? Rockstar came in swinging, with receipts.

In case you missed the second GTA 6 trailer, it delivered everything: neon-soaked Vice City vibes, social media chaos, thirst traps in high-res, and a couple named Lucia and Jason who already have more chemistry in two trailers than most rom-com couples in full-length movies. And now, Rockstar’s confirmed what might be the most unbelievable part of the whole thing: every frame of that trailer was captured entirely in-game on a standard PlayStation 5. No PS5 Pro wizardry. No dev-kit rendering magic. Just your average five-year-old PS5 turning pixels into a jaw-dropping Miami-inspired fever dream.

Wait—All That Was Real Gameplay?

Short answer: yes. Long answer: heck yes, and gamers are still trying to emotionally recover. Here’s the official statement straight from Rockstar’s social channels:

“Grand Theft Auto 6 Trailer 2 was captured entirely in-game from a PlayStation 5, comprised of equal parts gameplay and cutscenes.”

Let that sink in. Those cinematic shots of helicopters flying over sun-drenched beaches? In-game. The jaw-dropping detail on character models? In-game. Jason’s rippling torso that had Twitter (ahem, X) in meltdown mode? Also in-game. No CGI, no pre-rendered filler. What you saw is what you’re going to play. Eventually. Someday. Probably in 2026.

The Doubters Were Loud—and Understandably So

Right after the trailer dropped, players were quick to point out just how good everything looked. Suspiciously good. Like “are we sure this isn’t secretly Unreal Engine 6?” kind of good. Some even speculated that Rockstar was sneaking in footage from a PS5 Pro—or worse, pulling a “bullshot” marketing move where the visuals don’t match the final product. But Rockstar shut those rumours down faster than a five-star wanted level at a police station. And honestly? Good on them. We’ve all been burned before (cough Watch Dogs cough), so scepticism is part of the gaming survival kit. But Rockstar’s confidence here speaks volumes.

Let’s be clear: the PlayStation 5 is no slouch. But five years into its lifecycle, most of us didn’t expect it to keep up with visuals this slick. Yet somehow, GTA 6 looks like it crawled out of a cinematic universe and decided to play nice with your console. The lighting alone feels like it belongs in a Hollywood production. And the seamless blend of cinematic cutscenes and what Rockstar calls “gameplay” is borderline unfair to other developers. Is it the Rockstar polish? Some kind of in-house engine sorcery? Did someone make a deal with a pixel god? We don’t know, but the results speak for themselves.

Vice City Is Back—and It’s Looking Finer Than Ever

The trailer gives us an even deeper look at Rockstar’s reimagined Vice City, and it’s so alive you can almost smell the Florida humidity through your screen. There’s chaos on beaches, party yachts, crocodiles wandering down suburban sidewalks, viral livestreams gone wild, and more neon than a vaporwave playlist cover. It’s like TikTok met Scarface and had a high-budget baby. It’s not just pretty—it’s immersive. Rockstar’s world-building feels dense, like you could walk into any random gas station and overhear an NPC arguing over hotdog prices.

The Delay? Yeah, It Still Hurts

Of course, this is all still running on the pain of GTA 6’s release date delay. What was supposed to be a glorious Fall 2025 launch now has us waiting until May 26, 2026. Rockstar’s reason? You guessed it—more time to make sure it hits the quality we expect.

“We need this extra time to deliver at the level of quality you expect and deserve.”

You can almost hear the quiet frustration behind every controller as that sentence echoes into the void. But hey, if the trailer is anything to go by, that wait just might be worth every second. There’s an unexpected upside to the delay—other studios can now launch their games in peace. Earlier this year, several developers openly admitted they were holding back release dates just to avoid being crushed by the gravitational pull of GTA 6.

“We don’t want to be anywhere near that,” one exec said.

Now that the timeline’s shifted, publishers are already making moves to fill that 2025 gap. You can practically hear the collective “phew” as titles quietly get rescheduled without fear of getting steamrolled by Rockstar’s monster.

What’s Next?

With almost a year left before launch, fans are already poring over every second of the trailer, breaking down reflections, NPC animations, billboards, and more. And you better believe Rockstar is loving every frame of it. Will we see another trailer soon? Probably not. Rockstar plays it slow, like a cat waiting to pounce. But if they say that was all in-game on PS5, then expectations for the final product just shot through the stratosphere. Because if that’s what current-gen hardware is capable of—under Rockstar’s direction—then we’re not just getting a game. We’re getting an experience.