WMG / Grand Theft Auto

The Grand Theft Auto universes all operate under Tulpa laws.

The basic idea of a Tulpa is a thing created via the power of thought. The more minds at work, the more powerful it becomes. One of the most famous stories using it, although not the name, is Dream of 1000 Cats from Neil Gaiman's The Sandman. Grand Theft Auto games seem to work on the idea that stereotypes are true, and the populace is extremely stupid, but not as wrong as you might think. After all, the Scientology stand-ins are right. How could that be? Well, all of them have a singular view, while every other religion close to that size is so fractured that you can't get more than a single congregation to all agree on what the nature of their god is, so their powers are all far, far weaker. Thus, the stereotypes and nicknames become reality just by the general consensus, making reality a democracy. Enough people nickname Miami, which was still Miami in GTA 3, Vice City that the name is retconned. The entire world thinks Americans are the dumbest people ever to live, making it fact. Something caused the entire state of California and all the names to be changed, as well as other locations, and the idiocy in San Andreas is just the typical stereotype of everyone there being a vapid, fame obsessed moron. That's why songs still manage to refer to it as California, because people remember the songs well enough to keep them the same. As for why they're all islands? Because the people in them think of them as islands, although originally it was metaphorical. However, enough people thought it that it became reality, and literal. Why is Carcer City so insanely screwed up? It already had a high crime rate and murder rate, and the stereotype of it being a city of gangsters and serial killers became fact. Of course, as this goes on, everything gets more and more exaggerated.

Brian Johnson's death was the event that drove Big Smoke and Ryder off the deep end.

The Grand Theft Auto games takes place after massive world wide flooding

Try to leave Liberty City and what you find? Endless ocean. Try to leave Vice City and what do you find? Endless ocean. Try to Leave San Andreas and what do you find? More endless ocean. It makes little sense that so many major cities with such high traffic congestion and freeway infrastructure would be build on relatively small islands cut off from the rest of main land so it stands to reason that some major flooding must of occurred in the recent past.

The Grand Theft Auto universe takes place in the final stages of universe 25

Universe 25: http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-sci-fi-dystopias-weve-actually-created-for-animals/ There's a huge amount of violence, there are heaps of people who don't fit in and attack each other, and most importantly there are no children in the entire game. Remember the pram Easter Egg? This would put the GTA universe in the final stages of a human version of universe 25.

• That article was a bit long. Short version - In all of the 25 real experiments, overcrowding, even though they had food and water caused some mice to become agitated and separate from the rest of the group. They became reclusive from society and attacked random members of their society. Some stopped paying attention to the problems and just isolated themselves. In later stages the the mice stopped reproducing and the entire society went extinct because there were no babies. Theorised to apply to humans too.

The Statue of Happiness in GTA4 eats children

Notice how there are no kids in a GTA game except for the ones in cutscenes? And that strange beating heart inside of her? Plus the fact that she looks like Hillary Clinton? It all adds up.

The protagonists of GTA IV are psychic.

Specifically, they can tell when people are lying, and what the person really means. This is why people out-and-out say on the radio that they're going to rip you off if you buy their product (they really are), or that they're going to kill someone (they're thinking that they'd love to do it while saying normal things), or political commercials hurling insults at the opponents instead of just saying "their policies suck". Somehow WEAZEL News has managed to partially shield their reporters, as you can tell they're trying to impede free speech by saying people that don't like ridiculous government restrictions are terrorists, but you don't hear them say out loud that they are actually a propaganda machine. Independence FM is probably taking the music and radio announcer directly from the protagonist's mind, as at one point the DJ says "now for more lies from WEAZEL News." or something along those lines.

GTAIV's Liberty City is a purgatory for lost souls.

Liberty City is a place where partially sinful souls can earn redemption. For one thing, notice that Liberty City is an island that is impossible to leave. No matter how far you fly, swim, or boat away, you can never leave the city. As well, if you follow the random inhabitants around the city, you will notice that they never actually do anything. They are simply soulless husks, placed there to give the illusion of a city.

Something else that fits in with purgatory being different for each main character is how their perceptions of other characters change. For example, in Niko's story, Jim Fitzgerald is white, whereas in Johnny's story, Jim is a black man. Johnny is clearly established as being Jewish American, so he sees Jim in purgatory as a fellow minority. Also, notice that anyone who expresses anti-Semitic beliefs against Johnny ends up dead. Perhaps in Johnny's original life, he was a victim of racial violence, and in order to earn his penitence, he must kill those who expressed racist beliefs.

In fact, upon further reflection, the game is rife with symbolism.

The title of the game is The Lost and Damned. Johnny leads a gang of souls, some of whom, such as Johnny, Jim, Terry, Clay, and Angus, are simply lost in purgatory. There is no gang affiliated with the term "Damned" in the game, making it clear that it refers to the corrupted souls within the gang.

As well, there is plenty of other symbolism, such as the rival gang being named "The Angels of Death", and the fact that the final act all the "Lost" characters do is to burn down the club house, symbolizing spiritual cremation and earning their rights to ascend to heaven.

A final note to consider: In all three games, the penultimate confrontations either take place on modes of transport that would allow you to leave Liberty City, or the enemy has an explicit want to leave the city. Niko kills Dimitri on a tanker ship, then kills Jimmy Pegorino in a helicopter while he attempts to escape on an outboard boat. Johnny kills Billy Grey, who were are informed was going to be leaving the city and moving to Arizona, and in the end of The Ballad of Gay Tony, Luis kills Bulgarin in a plane in midair as he attempts to fly away from Liberty City.sdmitch16: So each person in purgatory gets their own city?

GTA IV is in the Matrix.

To out-weird the above theory; Why is it that cheats (or hacks) are accessed via phone? Why do the police have a hive mentality, indeed with some being copies of each other? Why can't you leave the city? Why do people never die? Because Niko, and everyone he knows are part of the Matrix.

The cities are actually supposed to be connected to the United States mainland but it's not shown for technical reasons

Possibly because of graphical limitations, as you'd need to draw an entire background which players won't even see during gameplay. The only reason as to why players assume it's an island is moreso due to higher draw distances revealing the lack of a mainland, per say. Additionally, the police do mention a mainland in their radio call-outs.

Luis Fernando Lopez will kill Bulgarin in The Ballad of Gay Tony.

This one's not just due to Bulgarin's mysterious disappearance and the police computer referring to him as deceased. Think about it — everyone in Grand Theft Auto IV short of Niko and Johnny gets theirs at some point (and the two of them do as well, to some degree), while Bulgarin seems to pull off a huge Karma Houdini, who causes a lot of problems for a lot of people. The general way the story of the original game was crafted to accommodate The Lost and Damned helps — it seems weird to have a What Happened to the Mouse? situation in this particular game, especially after that diamond subplot that Bulgarin's interference spelled the abrupt end of. And whose diamonds were those initially? Gay Tony's, and Luis is his bodyguard. Plus, Luis doesn't have as clear a position in things as Johnny did prior to The Lost and Damned, so he'll need something to do and somebody to kill...

• 100% confirmed. Bulgarin was the Big Bad of The Ballad of Gay Tony, and it ends in his death.

The entire GTA III canon is part of a Lotus-Eater Machine within the GTA IV canon.

It explains how the two continuities seem so connected, yet are so different. Think about how the world of the III-canon games is so wacky and over-the-top, while IV is so much more realistic and somber. The Liberty City in III is a scaled-down version of the Liberty City in IV, with obvious creative liberties taken with the portrayal. Lazlow's presence in both means that either he's in on it, or one of the programmers is a fan of his, and threw in clips from his show as a Shout-Out. The machine is located in a bunker deep beneath the offices of U. L. Paper, whose real purpose is to run the machine as a vast experiment.

• Update: Word of God says that III and IV are set in different worlds, and that the III canon is "not necessarily over.''

The Holland Hustlers are an off-shoot of The Grove Street/Seville Boulevard/Temple Drive Families.

The Hustlers are a part of The Grove Street/Seville Boulevard/Temple Drive Families that spread to Liberty City. Proof: If you look at the backup Dwayne sends for you they'll have green hair. Not a coloring glitch, it's deliberately dyed green.

• (Going by what the GTA wiki tells me here): Indirectly Jossed. GTA IV takes place in a different continuity than San Andreas, and The Families (Grove Street, Seville Boulevard, and Temple Drive) are COMPLETELY anti-narcotic (except maybe weed and other "soft" drugs) at the end of the game. It is also doubtful that the ONLY green thing they have is dyed hair, or that they would be riding around in black Patriots and Landstalkers.
• However they may be an offshoot of the Families and Ballas that exist in the HD era.

Only very few people in GTA REALLY die.

People you randomly shoot on the street are actually never killed but severely wounded. However Medi-care in the GTA world is so damn good that even shooting someone's head clean off can be healed.In previous games you could shoot someone a million times but an ambulance could always put them back on their legs and in Grand Theft Auto IV, even after you killed someone (reduce their health to 0) they still moved sometimes. Shooting them again just knocked them out.That's why you get out of jail with a relatively low bribe all the time, you're NEVER actually accused of murder except during plot points.

• Also explains why, despite the over the top deaths you can achieve, you just get "wasted" not "die".
  • Then explain how plot-required deaths happen, instead of those people getting revived ten minutes later.
    • Plot.
    • The ambulance doesn't get there in time, or someone makes sure they're actually dead dead, and not only mostly dead.
    • The reviving rests on the medical personell. If they just ignore you, you are screwed.

Mike Toreno is an X-COM agent.

It's never explained which agency he works for, only that it's not the FBI or the CIA. He has undercover agents working in the United States, and has to keep them secret from US government agencies for some reason. At least one mission (the one with the plane landing at your airfield) involves you fighting 'men' in black suits who don't seem to be entirely...human. This troper believes that Toreno is an undercover operative working for the GTA universe's version of X-COM, and he has contracted you to help root out a group of body-snatching aliens that have infiltrated the government.

By 2008, almost every protagonist from the III era is dead.

This is pretty much taken from the easter egg in IV with the names of the previous protagonists. Considering the line of work they're in, it's highly likely that such a thing would have to happen sooner or later (more likely for Tommy and CJ, who were last seen in 1986 and 1992 respectively).

• This is at least partly true since Victor Vance's death was what effectivly started Vice City's plot.
  • True. Salvatore Leone DID threaten to kill CJ, his friends, and his family for betraying his trust by robbing Caligula's. However, CJ knows Mike Toreno, knows how to operate a jetpack, a Hydra fighter jet, and a wide range of other vehicles and aircraft, all of his friends are bad asses like him, he has an entire gang at his disposal, is friends with the leader of another gang, and is an expert with a wide range of weaponry. CJ may die, but he'll take a lot of Mafia down with him.
• One of the online news articles in IV makes reference to the meth epidemic having effectively wiped out Vice City's drug lords, who were heavily invested in cocaine and couldn't compete with the meth dealers. The obvious implication of this is that Tommy Vercetti is either dead or back in prison.

Rockstar will be making GTA IV: Vice City and GTA IV: San Andreas

They would be stupid not to.

• GTA IV: Vice City will be inspired by CSI: Miami, The Glades, and Dexter, with the protagonist being a Cuban gangster coming to live the American dream. Early in the game, he kills someone, and for the rest of the game is pursued by a red headed police officer who may in fact be a killer himself.
  • No Burn Notice?
• That... would be awesome.
• Yeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh

Uncle Fu from the first game is Fu Manchu in his old age

Well, they have the same surname, the same moustache, and Uncle Fu is said to be over 130 years old, while Fu Manchu is said to be using an elixir vitae to extend his lifespan.

The GTA world works in very slow motion

Which is why the distance covered by a super car going full speed (we'll say 200 mph, just to make it simple) in an hour is the same distance as a regular car in our world can cover in 5 minutes going 45 mph. By 2008 (when IV happens) the world became faster by a small amount. The game just fixes it so that it seems like things are at normal speed and that the clock is just faster for our convenience.

Sequels

The next game will be set in the IV continuity, will star Niko and be set in San Andreas, focusing on Las Venturas. It will be called GTA: Sin City. The next true sequel will be in the timeline of GTA 2 and it will be called GTA 5, and it will have a expansion/sequel set in Tokyo. This is going by the trademarks that R* registered just before San Andreas came out.

Big Smoke survived his assassination.

His surviving henchmen found him barely alive, and rushed him to a back-alley surgeon, who worked through the night to save Smoke's life. Upon waking, Smoke realized he had gone way over his head. Tenpenny was dead, so he didn't have to work anymore, but he could never go back to Grove Street. Deciding to take it easy for a while, he moved to Liberty City, becoming a saxophone player in a Jazz Band at one of Salvatore Leone's clubs. He takes it easy until 2001, when Claude assassinates Salvatore, and Toni Cipriani takes over the Leone Family. Carl Johnson comes to Liberty City to check up on Joey Leone and offer his condolences, and happens to run into Smoke at the Jazz Club. The two wind having to join forces to take down Tommy Vercetti, who is trying to wrestle control of mob operations in Liberty City, with Claude serving as his Dragon. The whole thing will end with Carl killing Claude (perhaps partially as revenge for killing Catalina), and both Carl and Smoke using a pair of missile launchers to overkill Tommy.

• You forgot to mention the explosion. I await an explanation of how Smoke is really Wild Dog.
  • If one wanders back to Big Smoke's fortress after the last 'mission' is won, well, the place is remarkably well preserved for being wracked with explosions. Possibly Smoke was smart enough to have special effects explosions going on so as to fake things so he can bug out if need be. Heck, the guy was smart enough to have a fortress in the first place.

  • That sounds more like Fan Fiction, as it doesn't relate to anything and is useless.

In the GTA universe the evil on the streets is cosmically balanced with the greatest public works department the universe has ever seen.

Wherever you drive, you're knocking over lamp posts, mailboxes, fire hydrants, street signs... but circle the block and everything's neatly back in place. There must be an army of DPW trucks following you around.

If Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Stories is ever made, either Ryder or Sweet will be the main character.

In the previous Stories spinoffs, the main protagonists were Toni Cipriani and Victor Vance, a supporting chraracter and a minor character, respectively. Following this trend, either Ryder or Sweet would be the protagonist of the San Andreas incarnation. If it turned out to be Sweet, perhaps it would follow Sweet shutting down some of Tenpenny's early operations, a la the Grove Street 4 Life LP.

• Alternately, it could actually show some of the seemingly invisible Balla command structure.

If Rockstar ever makes a Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Stories, it will star either Ryder, or Brian Johnson.

Mike Toreno is an alien. The Truth is an X-COM agent.

The Truth may be a Cloud Cuckoolander, but he also often seems to be the only person who really knows what's going on in the world. Mike Toreno makes a lot of bizarre and inscrutable comments and sends you on strange and ridiculous missions that are never explained. The Truth is at least partially aware of Toreno's existence and seems to be in conflict with him in some way. This troper postulates that Toreno is either an alien in human form, or a human who is collaborating with an alien race. The Truth is an agent of the GTA universe's version of X-COM, probably the organization' resident Bunny-Ears Lawyer, who is working to undermine the alien threat.

The main characters have a power passed down to each other

Claude. C.J. Johnson. Tommy Vercetti. They all hung out in Liberty City at one point. Or just plain met each other. My theory is that 'being able to recover from a machine gunning' and 'cops don't really mind being slaughtered that much' are all part of a huge cosmic power that gets passed from person to person.

Carl Johnson is Jesus Christ

Similar initials. C.J. to J.C. Both easily come back from the dead. Both collect a large following of people, some of questionable morals. They have problems with loyalty.

There's only a few hundred real people in San Andreas

Everyone else is just a semi-sentient drone. This explains why C.J. gets in so much trouble over the framed murder of one cop and yet he can mow down dozens of others and get away with it by getting a car repaint. Also, the rest of his hideous massacres (he murders his neighbors in San Fierror and nobody stops by to ask if he saw anything).

The protagonists in GTA are Schrödinger's cat from the point of view of the cat

This would explain why a player character never dies, you are seeing the world from the point of view of the protagonist. What ever they do quantum immortality keeps them alive as they are always going to perceive the universe they survived in. When they get arrested they are always going to get executed or killed by the gangs/cops in prison they made enemies with so they always end up getting off free as they will never perceive that universe.

The GTA 3 era games are set in a world revolutionised by hyperspace storage and advanced medical treatment.

People only die when the ambulance doesn't show up in time. Vehicles explode easily, but respawn instantly. Nobody locks their cars. Repairs are cheap and easy. You buy spawnpoints instead of specific vehicles, and the replacements are built by a vast excess in production caused by the inefficient american car industry.

Grand Theft Auto, Manhunt, and Max Payne all take place in the same universe.

Specifically, Max Payne and Manhunt take place in the GTA III continuity. Carcer City is mentioned numerous times in the GTA Radio series, and Adrenaline is clearly the same stuff Max Payne's been taking for the past few years (which might very well be Valkyre...)

• That's not a WMG, Word of God confirms it.
  • Heavily jossed, only Manhunt takes place in the same universe with GTA, not Max Payne since New York City exists in Max Payne universe whereas NY is replaced by Liberty City in GTA universe. plus, Rockstar didn't own the rights of the series until Max Payne 3

Grand Theft Auto (III era) and Scarface (1983) take place in the same universe.

After Tony Montana's death, Ricardo Diaz (one of the Diaz brothers mentioned in Scarface) takes over the mansion. While cleaning up the mess left by Sosa's men, Diaz has the mansion remodeled into what you see in Vice City. That's also why the soundtrack to Scarface is played on the 80's station in GTA III—those were the songs that were topping the charts at that point.

The Grand Theft Auto III universe is a film franchise in the Grand Theft Auto IV universe.

Think about it, GTA IV's universe is more realistic, Liberty City goes above and beyond on being an expy for New York, and Lazlo Jones exists in both universes. The GTA 3 Liberty City could be a set on a back lot, or filmed in Toronto to save money. We see Las Venturas on TV in GTA IV, and the other cities are said to exist, so it's possible those movies were filmed there. That's why the games in the GTA III franchise are based on mafia movies, Vice City is like Scarface, and San Andreas makes multiple movie references and features many A-list actors.

• To expand on this theory, the 3D GTA games are the equivalents to films in our universe as well:
  • GTA III - Drive (2011): A protagonist who doesn't talk a lot, has a Memetic Outfit, works as an errand boy for The Mafia, and is often the victim of Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.
  • GTA Vice City - Scarface (1983): To the point it was basically Scarface: The Game before Scarface: The World Is Yours.
  • GTA San Andreas - Gang Banger movies like Menace II Society and Boyz n the Hood:
  • GTA Liberty City Stories - Movies about The Mafia, like The Godfather or Goodfellas: Heck, there's even an in-universe film called Badfellas!
  • GTA Vice City Stories - Possibly a bit of Scarface, but also considerable traces of Blaxploitation: Based mostly on Victor Vance being one of the biggest badasses of the 3D era.

The Grand Theft Auto III universe and the Grand Theft Auto IV/V universe are one and the same.

The events of GTA III happened, but it's all in Broad Strokes. The Liberty City we know in GTA III is simply retconned to be the one we see in GTA IV, and the same applies to Los Santos in San Andreas/GTA IV. Given Liberty City in GTAIV being increasingly a police state paranoid of terrorism, and being largely a cleaned-up, gentrified version of its former self, it's not hard to draw a line from the explosive events of GTA III (not to mention Liberty City Stories and GTA Advance) to the obvious parallel of 9/11.

Mike in GTA Advance could be someone else

Mike's real name is Michael, and there are way too many characters named Michael in the series. Without his confirmed surnames, he could be Mike Toreno of GTA SA, a drug dealer in Chinatown Wars, or he was used to be a DJ in Liberty City. Let's not forget Michael de Santa from GTA V.

Michelle is killed by Dimitri.

Maybe he shot her silently and got rid of her body with Niko and the head of Liberty Paper didn't noticed it. When Niko confronts him in the end, Dimitri didn't mention to him what he did to Michelle because he is aware that they're not a couple anymore.

• Jossed she shows up in GTA V

GTA V will be set in the "London" of the GTAIV-verse

Awesomeness will ensue...

• Much like the real thing, there will be police-manned surveillance cameras around that will be a part of the "wanted" system.
• Beat cops (bobbies) will be armed with nightsticks, not guns. Maybe most will be of average skill, but you will also randomly encounter expert bobbies that will crack your skull open before you even blink. While getting away with petty crimes may be easier, by the time the ones with the guns DO get called in, you're in for a world of hurt.
• As in GTAIV, gun shops will be of the "black market" variety.
• Rockstar will show that they are equal-opportunity "lampooners" as they will go after the left much more than the right this time around.
• At some point, the protagonist comes across filming for a certain popular British car show in desperate need of some wheels. He winds up jacking a test driver in a white jumpsuit and helmet. You KNOW it could be awesome...
• Jossed, it's set in Los Santos.

All GTA protagonists are Assassins.

They have one mission: to turn their Crapsack World into a better world. It involves in ruling the world and killing the Templars, the rival gangs and corrupt officials.

Luis Lopez and Johnny Klebitz are parts of Niko Bellic.

When Niko has arrived in Liberty City, he has trouble of understanding what America's lifestyle is. He represses the moments of getting to know of it that he suddenly splits into three people: himself, Luis, and Johnny. Luis is the manifestation of having an American lifestyle working for clubs while Johnny is the manifestation of leading his own gang.

Grand Theft Auto V will be multi-regional.

Liberty City, Vice City, and San Andreas will all be featured in the game. With some luck maybe even Carcer City.

• Los Santos is the city featured in the trailer based on the Vinewood sign shown. It hasn't been announced what system it will be on so anything's possible at this point.
  • Jossed, it's just Los Santos, Los Santos County, and Blaine County. It's specifically implied to just be a representation of southern San Andreas.

The protagonist of Grand Theft Auto V will be an All-American optimist.

To fully contrast against Niko's well-travelled pessimism.

The GTA Universe is really an libertarian utopia, or dystopia, depending on which way you see it.

It's got a great amount of social freedom, and great public service, the most prominent of which are the health care and public works department. Because of the great medical care it's nigh impossible to die, and of course the public works department puts anything back to normal improbably fast. Utterly relaxed, sometimes non-existant, laws can be observed when dealing with free speech, traffic safety and property damage. On the other hand: People are more tense, neurotic dramatic because to the consequences of this society, such as poverty due to higher taxes and rampant criminality, higher drug use, etc.

Carl Johnson didn't learn ANYTHING during his time at Liberty City/San Andreas contains a mysterious force that helps develop people towards faster attribute growth

The more Carl (CJ) uses weapons, or drives, or partakes in physical activity such as running or swimming, in San Andreas it adds to a corresponding meter. When each meter is high enough, he rises up a level. Through each level, he'll become a better driver, be a better aim with weapons (can even get to a point where he can fire two weapons simultaneously while moving), and have longer stamina (even becoming a harder hitter with more muscle gained). CJ starts the game as bottom in all stats. In the grand scheme, he's a poor driver, rubbish aim, and even other people comment on how pasty and skinny he is. His time back in San Andreas sees him build up his stats, but he spent alot of time in Liberty (when he left San Andreas), and didn't build up any of these stats at all. One might even go as far as to say Liberty City has a mysterious presence that HINDERS people's attribute growth.

• Or CJ just spent all his time in Liberty City working a shitty job and going home tired and never working out or doing anything exciting. Skills atrophy if you don't use them, and we've got no reason to believe he'd been using any of them.

Cars will need fuel in the new game.

The series had become a lot more realistic. GTAV is set to be a commentary on the economic crisis. And fuel is very much a part of the financial landscape. Plus this will add to the challenge: you have enough to buy that Uzi you want but you need gas too.

• I fucking hope not...
• Would you care to elaborate, perhaps, why you fucking hope not?

Claude is immortal and far older than his looks imply.

He appears in a poster in Vice City (which takes place in the mid-80's), and doesn't age a day between his cameo in San Andreas. The only possible reason for this is that Claude is simply a lot older than he looks.

Claude in Grand Theft Auto III is not the Claude in Grand Theft Auto II but...

He is his father. Claude impreganated Catalina in the early days of their relationship. After, she gave birth, Claude was concerned for his sons well being and didn't want him to grow up with Catalina's abuse, so he abducted his son from the hospital and put him up for adoption in an orphanage. Claude still wanted his son to know who he is, so he had him named Claude Speed Jr. Jr heard of his father through news reports on his crimes and it infulanced him to become the criminal he is in Grand Theft Auto II.

GTA V will have multiple main characters.

The trailer and the images have, so far, depicted two characters prominently. One of them is a middle-aged man in a business suit, who appears to be the narrator of the trailer and is seen leading the robbery of the store and driving a blue convertible. Later on, we see a black/Latino-looking man running from the police. The former character can be quite clearly seen in this image◊, while in this one◊, the man in the picture appears to be darker-looking.

Conclusion: GTA V will have two main characters: the rich, middle-aged white guy, and the younger street thug. How their stories will interact, it's still too early to say.

• PC Gamer magazine seems to be behind this theory, only they figure there'll be three characters. Most interestingly, their guess is that the middle-aged man in a business suit is none other than Tommy Vercetti. This could be seen as being supported by his narration in the trailer, when he talks about wanting to retire from "his line of work". Looks like he might be getting pulled out of retirement sooner than he thought.
  • And the other two characters? That's right, it's Carl "CJ" Johnson and Cesar Vialpando, bitches!

Jossed by none other than Game Informer. There will be three main characters: Michael, Franklin, and Trevor. You can switch between them in the pause menu. So, no returning characters have been confirmed...yet.

If Rockstar makes Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories 2, it will star either Roman, Little Jacob, or Brucie.

If Roman is the star, it would detail how he got into so much debt to the Russian mob. If Jacob is the star, it will be about him becoming friends with Roman and he will do missions for Badman. If Brucie is the star, it will be about his rise to super-stardom and how he became the owner of a company, as well as detailing how he became friends with Roman as well.

There will be a Los Santos chapter of the Lost and/or Angels of Death MC

Considering there are chapters across the country, it'd be no surprise if the Lost or Angels of Death also have a presence in LS. Don't expect the remnants of the Alderney chapter (Johnny, Terry, Clay and Angus) to be there.

• Confirmed, One of the trailers shows Franklin beating up on some members of the Lost MC.
  • Specifically, they're now really dysfunctional, and they're one of Trevor's enemies.

GTA:III is the only game that is not in continuity with the HD universe

• Liberty City in III and IV are almost completely irreconcilable, but there's nothing in V that would put San Andreas out of continuity; all the same gangs are there, and there are references to characters from SA.
  • But Liberty City in its III incarnation appears in San Andreas...

Victor Vance survived the drug deal ambush at the start of Vice City, went to get revenge on Tommy for the death of Lance, leading to both being killed for real

It wasn’t Victor Vance that was killed, at the start of Vice City (1986), it was Pete Vance, his and Lance’s other brother. Hence why he looks much older than Victor, and has a completely different personality. Presumably he has a strong Dominican accent because being the oldest brother, he was the only brother to be born in the Dominican Republic, unlike Victor and Lance who were born in the States. In addition to that, Victor openly stated (1984) he was getting out of the drug game, so it was likely Pete got well and decided to fill in his place.

Some time after the events of Vice City, maybe 1987, Victor hears about the death of his brothers, Pete and Lance. Pete’s killers, Ricardo Diaz and his cartel, had already been wiped out, but Lance’s killer, Tommy Vercetti (as well as his gang), still lives on as the dominant crime influence in the city.

Victor, with the assistance of Ron A.Muck (one of Victor's associates) and several other previous Vance crime family associates, rage an intense and gruesome war with the Vercetti Gang, wiping each other’s gangs out, and in the process leading to Victor and Tommy facing off, killing each other.

Ken Rosenburg, having gone into rehab, remains sketchy of most of his memories, and is still living in denial that Tommy is in fact dead. Hence why Tommy wasn’t answering his calls, because there was no longer any Tommy Vercetti to answer his calls.

And the reason we no longer hear anything coming from Vice City after 1986, is because there is nothing interesting to mention, as all the gangs have been weakened to nothing but wandering street gangs, and with all it’s kingpins gone the drug scene has been diminished.

Hence why Kent Paul moved out of it, and went to Las Venturas.

GTA 7/VII will be in Las Venturas

With the logo combining with a slot machine-777.

GTA 6 will take place in Carcer City or Texas/New Austin

Anywhere City is the capital of, or is at least located in North Yankton

San Andreas was meant to be rotated through 90 degrees

As it is, the geography doesn't quite match up with the Real Life versions of the cities and surrounding environs. But if you rotate it 90 degrees clockwise, Los Santos becomes a southwestern coastal city and San Fierro is north(ish) of it. Las Venturas would become a city to the east of LS but on the same general longitude. This agrees with real life geography better (even if perhaps the SF airport might have had to be redesigned). Perhaps this was neglected due to time constraints.

Health care in the GTA-verse is extremely advanced... and based on alien technology.

The FIB managed to capture a UFO sometime in the 90's and experiment on the species within at Area 69. They discovered some form of incredibly advanced cellular regeneration system and managed to reverse engineer parts of it for human use. The tech is leaked into the mainstream market under the guise of big scientific breakthroughs. With the tech, humanity has become a pseudo-immortal species where the only real way to die is if the body is totally destroyed, not brought to a hospital in time, or can't afford the procedures. However there are some unintended consequences. For instance, there's a high chance of becoming sterilized through the process which explains the lack of kids in the games. Also with life becoming nearly endless, everyone has slowly begun losing their normal sense of "morality" as killing or harming someone severely with your actions has become rather hard to do. Cops almost always go for a 'kill' since revival is not to difficult.

When the protagonists are complaining about someone ruining their car, they're not talking to the other driver, they're chastising you for your reckless driving

Whenever they make a remark such as: "Are you fucking blind?!", "You call that driving?", or "You must be either blind, stupid, or both", the "you" they're referring to is the player.

GTA VI will take place in Vice City.

IV was in Liberty City, and V in Los Santos. It only makes sense for VI to bring Vice City into the HD era.

Tommy Vercetti was being Cruel to Be Kind when he abandoned Ken Rosenberg

In San Andreas, we learn Tommy sent Ken to rehab and, once Ken was clean, stopped accepting his calls and effectively shut him out. The reason for this was simple: Ken would've been guaranteed to relapse if he returned to Vice. Tommy made the effort to make sure his single most loyal ally and friend was cleaned up, and abandoned him so he wouldn't come back to the same life and just fall back into old habits.

There will be Expy's of 3D era protagonist, but with a twist.

Like with Johnny, the protagonist from Grand Theft Auto Lost And The Damned. they could deconstruct previous protagonist. Like for example: one guy is built up to be a legendary badass among the criminal underworld, who went from a simple thug to running an entire city. But when he finally appears, he'll be a sickly man on life support, because of all the violence they were involved with over the years, without a friend in the world. Showing an image of what the current protagonist, could become.

The real antagonists of GTA 3 are not Salvatore, Miguel and Catalina.

First of all, Salvatore Leone is portrayed as the Disc-One Final Boss of GTA 3, but he's hardly a tertiary antagonist. As in, he doesn't antagonise the player during the first part of the game. The player spends the entire first chapter working for his organization and hierarchy, and by all account each high ranking member of the Leone family (Salvatore included) openly comment on how useful and reliable Claude is. The turning point was a combination of Salvatore's paranoia, and uneasy marriage with Maria due to her cheating. In which he acted on irrational emotion towards what he viewed as a betrayal against him IN THE VERY FINAL MISSION of the first island. If it hadn't been for Maria opening her mouth and flat out lying about her and Claude, nothing would have happened. In fact, the mafia aren't even hostile to Claude until he kills Salvatore at the start of the second island, which storyline wise lasts one mission after then you never hear of them again. It would make more sense for the antagonist to be an enemy of the Leone family Claude was working for, like one of the Forelli brothers, or one of the Triad warlords.

Then there's Miguel, who only seems to be deemed an antagonist due to him co-leading the Columbian Cartel. Presumably being in the cartel that's hostile to Claude from the very start, due to Catalina's betrayal of him, he would know about Claude and likely supports Catalina's hostility to him as well as the rest of his gang in some way. But HE DOESN'T ANTAGONISE CLAUDE. If anything, he seems pretty terrified of him when they (presumably) first meet, and it becomes clear that he's just another victim of Catalina's manipulation. If being The Dragon to the actual main antagonist is enough to automatically warrant the status of secondary antagonist, then why isn't the Forelli Capo the secondary antagonist of Vice City? Why isn't Molly Schultz the secondary antagonist of GTAV? Cases like Ryder and Eddie Pulaski in San Andreas are different, in the sense that they do actual serve a role that antagonises the player. But Miguel is pretty, well, pathetic. What they could have done instead, is have Miguel be a far more aggressive character, both in the game and Claude's backstory, and make him serve as the tertiary antagonist that dies in Bomb Da Base.

Catalina of course is antagonistic to the bone, but I'd pin her as the secondary antagonist rather than the first, largely because she doesn't really do a good enough job at causing the player shit throughout the entire game. That title instead goes to Maria. After all, She IS the reason Salvatore betrayed you AND the reason you get exiled from Portland. And, probably, why the Leone had search parties on Staunton temporarily looking for you. It's likely Claude only rescued Maria in the last mission because he wanted the honour and privilege of killing her himself. Plus, given the fact that she was willing to turn on the mafia, it's entirely probable she'd turn on the Yakuza and Claude too, and there's always the possibility that Catalina AND Maria were the ones who made a deal and faked the whole kidnapping.

The HD games are real life, with the 3D games being the video game franchise based off real life, and the 2D games being the metagames within that.

This explains why Laslow is a whiny young celebrity in GTA's real life, but is then portrayed as older and more mature within the video game adaption (despite the fact that it takes place in earlier years). El Burro in GTA's real life (Chinatown Wars) is grossly exaggerated for the 3D universe (and then again for the 2D universe). This is also why the maps for the HD universe's locations better fit the cities they are based on (i.e. GTAIV's Liberty City is much like New York where as GTA 3'S is more like a reassembled combination of different cities.) Also, this is why the HD universe has more realism where as the 3D ones tend to be a bit over the top and cartoony. Additionally, Claude and Misty are actually real people in the HD universe, and the characters in GTA 3 were based OFF these GTA real life people. Also, that graffiti in GTAIV pertaining to the death of the 3D era protagonists is actually pertaining to the death of 5 people in GTA's real life, and the characters within the 3D games were created in their memory.

A future GTA game will be set in Hawaii-inspired area.

That is possible. Hawaii is an islandic nation composed of four main islands, and there are not much barriers around. Plus, Hawaii is a perfect platform for Wide-Open Sandbox.

• This area will be named State of Alola, Or something sounding Hawaiian.
• Epileptic Trees, much?

GTA VI will also have multiple playable characters.

And they will be CJ, Tommy, Trevor, and perhaps even Claude and Niko.

GTA VI will be HUGE.

How huge? It'll have the biggest map in the series, encompassing the whole state of San Andreas (including Los Santos, San Fierro, Las Venturas, and a new city called San Joseph, based on San Jose), with locations you can access by taking a plane to, including Liberty City, Vice City, Carcer City, North Yankton, even locations north and south of the border.

This time, there will be SIX protagonists, these being Michael, Franklin, Trevor, Niko, Taliana Martinez, and an aged, HD Universe version of Tommy Vercetti.

We'll also find out what has happened in the last five years (assuming the game is released, and takes place in, 2018):

• The De Santa family has become a crime family, with Michael as the head, Amanda as the accountant, Tracey as the legal front, and Jimmy as the specialist. They still live in their mansion in the Rockford Hills, still keep in contact with Dave and Lester, and are all happy. In fact, Michael is now contracted by the FIB and IAA to carry out false flag terrorism so the government can justify some new law or new war overseas. He also works for Trevor Philips Enterprises, using his new boat he bought as a coastal tramper to move drugs and guns by sea.
• Franklin is now married to Ursula (the hitch hiker in V), and works for Trevor Philips Enterprises smuggling illicit goods to and from the Port of Los Santos; these goods range from drugs and guns, to more minor things like bootleg films and games or even just regular, legal goods. Franklin still lives at 3671 Whispymound Drive, but has since vastly expanded it.
• Trevor has become the sole provider of drugs in Los Santos and Blaine County, and is now looking to expand to San Fierro and Las Venturas. He'll have to deal with the various Chinese and Vietnamese gangs in San Fierro, and the mobster families in Las Venturas, but he's ready. In addition, Trevor also deals in other goods now, including meat-packing (alongside Cletus), bounty-hunting, scrap metal, and of course, still owns the Vanilla Unicorn. Trevor still lives in his trailer in Sandy Shores, still has Ron as his next door neighbor and second-in-command, and now has Patricia Madrazzo living with him, after Martin abused her one too many times.
• Niko went off the radar, but never actually stopped his life of crime. Making connections in Carcer City, Bellic Enterprises is now a front for a massive criminal organization. But after the IAA basically rooted out his operations in Carcer, and finding out Karen masterminded it, Niko gets Lester's help and tracks her down to Los Santos. Dragging Roman, Mallorie, and their daughter Kate with him, and praying there are no bowling alleys there, Niko sets out not only expand Bellic Enterprises, but get revenge on Karen for not only leading him on as Michelle, but also destroying everything he had worked to build in Carcer.
• After the Union Depository job, Taliana was rich beyond her wildest dreams. Rather than retire, though, she went further, creating her own criminal organization friendly to Trevor Philips Enterprises specializing in boosting, modifying, and reselling cars. This operation has been quite profitable, and she plans to expand to San Joseph, where smug, condescending tech people live with cars she can quickly flip.
• Tommy Vercetti is a Jaded Washout. After the massive success of the Vercetti Gang in the late 80s, he was run out of Vice City by Wei Cheng Sr. After learning of the death of Cheng, Tommy decided it was time to get back into the game, establishing a foothold on Carcer City in the wake of the IAA operation that drove out Bellic Enterprises, with the ultimate goal of getting back to Vice City.
• Lamar was killed by Franklin when the former did something so stupid, it killed Tonya (exactly what happened, though, is not said, though it's implied he accidentily caused her to OD).
• Denise was also killed by Franklin when she tried to force him to return to Strawberry as her slave.
• Dave is still head of the FIB, and still hosts Underbelly of Paradise, but is also involved with false flag terrorism via Michael.
• Lester was able to bribe Humane Research Labs to uncover the cure for cancer, which the government had ordered them to withold for "population control" reasons, also uncovering a procedure that cured his wasting disease. He is still heavily involved with Trevor Philips Enterprises, and is now lining up jobs to rob big targets, such as Maze, Pacific Standard (having had alot of experience and backdoors left over from the job pulled in 2013), every Fleeca branch in the state, and even every single casino in Las Venturas, one by one.

The game will be huge, in scope, size, and story.

Some Ballas relocated to the East Coast and created the Purple 9s.

Following the Families reuniting and taking over most of the Hoods, some of the Ballas decided to pack it up and move to the East Coast and start new lives in Liberty City and hopefully not be part of a gang that could be so utterly defeated, they joined the Southside Hoods in order to take over that gang from the inside by influencing the members with talk of how they used to gang bang, sell and do all types of Narotics back in San Andreas and what colours they wore influencing some members to wear Purple and go into the Narcotic drug dealing game because of such glorious gangster tales they heard from these West Coast OG Ballas. It didn't entirely work as D-Ice and everyone loyal to him chose to remain with their Red colours and whilst for a period of time the two gangs didn't have beef with each other 2001 was the point where the Southside Hoods split into the Red Jacks and the Purple 9s and D-Ice being in prison at that time is no coincidence.

Possible GTA VI protagonists

• A Yakuza underling. If so, the game will be set in the GTA universe's equivalent of Tokyo.
• A delusional Frank Castle-esque Vigilante Man that does more damage than good.
• A computer hacker, possibly as a Take That! to Watch_Dogs.
• A Corrupt Politician who isn't afraid to get his hands dirty.
• A street racer that gets involved with the criminal underworld.
• A woman. Maybe a rich girl who's in the wrong place at the wrong time, much like Orange Is the New Black.
• A deadbeat dad who resorts to crime to pay off his various debts. He'll basically be a Frank Gallagher Expy.
• A wannabe terrorist. He can specialize in crafting his own weapons.
• A Crazy Survivalist.
• A down on his luck businessman who wants to make Vice City great again by bringing back guns and drugs to a safe and sober Vice City.
• A member of The Lost, or another gang, whos trying recruit more members and regain control of the criminal underworld.

If San Andreas Stories is ever made, Big Smoke will be the protagonist.

Since it will be a prequel to the original game, it would most likely take place in 1991 - less than one year before the original game. It could show Smoke's Start of Darkness in depth, as the Grove Street Families slowly declines in power and he runs out of options: from merely trying to weaken the Ballas to failing to convince Sweet to sell more powerful drugs. Eventually, this leads up to his mass alliance with various rival gangs plus C.R.A.S.H. starting to formulate. The final mission is a playable retread of The Introduction.

GTA takes place in the South Park Universe

I've never seen SP, but based on what I've read, they're quite similar,in their not-at-all subtle mockery of pretty much everything, and everyone being complete idiots.

This theory would probably be discredited if I ever watched an episode of SP

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