GTA 6 launch trailer debuts Justice's Flower in a Hurricane

Rockstar Games released the launch trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI on October 15, with no teaser beforehand. It went up on the Rockstar Newswire and Rockstar's YouTube channel. The music is "Flower in a Hurricane", a new standalone single from French electronic duo Justice featuring Tame Impala, SZA and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. Rockstar says the footage was "captured entirely in-game from a PlayStation 5," and it restated the November 19 release date on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

An original song this time

Justice is no surprise guest, since Rockstar has already named the duo as composers of GTA 6's original score. The song still marks a change in approach. As PC Gamer points out, the first two trailers were set to licensed classics: Tom Petty's "Love Is a Long Road" and The Pointer Sisters' "Hot Together". PC Gamer also found this trailer more restrained than the earlier ones, with more weight on character and story than on chaos.

The single will appear on Grand Theft Auto VI: The Album, the official soundtrack. You can pre-save it on the major streaming services or pre-order it on vinyl or CD. Rockstar also promised more on the game's music, including the official score album. That album now has a date, and our guide to the Justice score album's December 11 release has the formats and prices.

What the trailer shows

Rockstar's synopsis hasn't changed: an easy score goes wrong for Jason and Lucia and pulls them into a criminal conspiracy that reaches across Leonida. Kotaku expects the roughly 90-second spot to run on TV and in cinemas as the marketing push builds.

• Jason's past: Jason opens with "I got in trouble in the army. Didn't leave on the best of terms," and adds that people like him can't get loans. Kotaku takes this to mean he feels pushed into crime. GamesRadar+ notes that he has long hair for most of the trailer and short hair in later shots.
• Lucia's ankle monitor: Lucia wears a monitoring tag, which Dexerto says confirms earlier rumours. Eurogamer thinks she may be on parole, and that a reverse-charge call Jason takes could be Lucia phoning from jail. That is the outlet's reading of the footage, not something Rockstar has said.
• Helicopters everywhere: GamesRadar+ counts three big chopper moments. One crashes behind Jason, Lucia rides another with a grenade launcher, and a third swings chained cargo through a row of windows. Dexerto describes that cargo as part of a bank vault. Soon after, the pair leap off a roof into what looks like a hotel pool.
• The shower scene: Both Kotaku and Eurogamer highlight an intimate shower scene between the leads. Eurogamer says it seems to confirm the rumoured sex scenes. GamesRadar+ reports Lucia asking, "Are we gonna be OK."
• New ground: Eurogamer says the trailer opens on The Keys, a region earlier footage barely showed, and includes a tense police chase.

GamesRadar+ reports that the video passed a million YouTube views in about half an hour.

The "downgrade" debate

Some fans posted side-by-side comparisons arguing that the trailer looks softer than the 2023 reveal. Kotaku thinks the soft look is a deliberate post-processing choice rather than a drop in fidelity, and possibly a filter players can toggle, as in Red Dead Redemption 2. Rockstar hasn't commented.

The backdrop

The trailer landed during a rough week for Rockstar. Eurogamer notes that the studio's employment tribunal was underway in Glasgow. The trailer also followed days of leaked gameplay clips from a hacker called CyberLeek, who, Dexerto reports, threatened to post story spoilers. We won't share or point to any of that material. Eurogamer.es adds that a making-of report came out the day before. It covered production trouble, crunch and anti-union practices, and in it Rockstar said fans won't have to wait eight years for the next GTA. Our rundown of Bloomberg's making-of report has more.

Rockstar still hasn't announced a PC version. PC Gamer mentions a rumoured early 2027 release but says it isn't convinced. On consoles the wait is nearly over, and our GTA 6 release date and launch times guide covers November 19 in detail.