Author: Game Infliction

Did you watch the new GTA 6 trailer and think, ‘Wow, the bubbles inside that bottle of beer look really, really good?’ You’re not alone. Hundreds of millions of viewers have now watched the second Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer and marveled at the technical brilliance on display. And knowing that the trailer footage was all captured on PS5 is just mind-blowing. But are we being set up to be fooled?

IGN spoke to Digital Foundry’s Alexander Battaglia to help break down what we saw and understand whether there are any takeaways we can glean from the newest GTA 6 trailer and how it might translate into actual gameplay experience on console. And it turns out, we can.

“The trailer is running at 30 fps and is completely made up of — presumably — real-time cutscenes and not gameplay — hence the black bars on the top and bottom of the screen,” Battaglia says. “I imagine the game’s primary target for such cutscenes is 30 fps, and it’s likely the same for gameplay.”

30 fps on PS5 and Xbox Series X is nothing new. Games often come with either a fidelity mode, which prioritizes up to 4K resolution at 30 fps, or a performance mode, which targets 60 fps at lower resolution. But with the launch of the PS5 Pro, Sony has made efforts to bridge the two modes, and it’s something Battaglia says we’ll likely see pushed closer to the game’s release.

“Given the image quality in the trailer, which may well be a use of FSR1 (AMD’s AI performance enhancing tool and the basis of PS5 Pro’s PSSR) from a low internal resolution, PS5 Pro could enhance image quality through the use of PSSR making a less aliased, more detailed image with less blur.”

Personally speaking, I tend to always opt for performance mode over fidelity mode, but one of the key selling points for PS5 Pro is that you don’t have to make that choice, you can have both. So while Digital Foundry thinks PS5 Pro can improve image quality, the big question is: Will GTA 6 run at 60 fps on console?

On the Digital Foundry tech breakdown posted on YouTube, the panel seems to agree that GTA 6 will not be able to hit 60 fps on console. “As soon as you have RTGI [Ray Traced Global Illumination], a massive open world, those things tend not to run well at 60 fps… I think everything points to this being a 30 fps game, maybe with a 40 fps mode on some [consoles].”

At the heart of the matter is ray tracing, which Digital Foundry says seems integral to GTA 6, not just from a tech perspective but an artistic one. “You can’t get rid of RTGI. It’s inherent to the way the game works. And they’re throughout the trailer, so they obviously made them a part of the gameplay.”

Leonida, Rockstar’s version of the Sunshine State, is full of light. Whether it’s from the sun itself beaming on bright beaches and suntanned bodies, or the neon lights illuminating Vice City’s nightlife, ray tracing feels core to GTA 6’s art direction, and also why it likely won’t run higher than 30 fps. It could also be where PS5 Pro players find the most joy over their PS5 and Xbox Series X counterparts: “The trailer uses ray tracing extensively, which could be further enhanced on PS5 Pro,” Battaglia says.

While the ray tracing improvements on PS5 Pro are speculative, you only have to compare the new GTA 6 trailer with the first one to see that Rockstar is hammering the importance of RTGI to the look of GTA 6. “Real-time ray-traced transparency reflections are much more obvious in this trailer, so glass on beer bottles, cars’ windscreens, building windows, and more look particularly good.” The bubbly beer that hundreds of millions of GTA fans are obsessing over is why GTA 6 might not run at 60 fps, but also why GTA 6 might look even better on PS5 Pro.

While 30 fps seems to be the default across consoles, PS5 Pro’s better ray tracing capabilities mean this key GTA 6 feature should get a better showcase on Sony’s more powerful console. To date, the improvements PS5 Pro offers over the base console varies wildly from one game to the next, with Assassin’s Creed Shadows currently the best showcase for what the console can do. But I’m hoping Rockstar and GTA 6 take it a step further and make the difference even more noticeable.

At the opposite end of the powerhouse scale is the Xbox Series S, which is currently the weakest console that can play GTA 6 (there’s no word yet on whether Rockstar will bring GTA 6 to Switch 2). Digital Foundry says that to get GTA 6 on the Series S, Rockstar may need to sacrifice ray tracing completely to run the game at 30 fps, with sub-1080p resolution. But the Series S still has the same ballpark CPU power and storage as Series X, so it’s not impossible.

There’s still a whole year until GTA 6 hits shelves (sadly), and with only two trailers released so far, there are still a lot of unknown variables. But even the changes from the first GTA 6 trailer to the newest one reveals loads of interesting technical details, from a constant 30 fps captured on PS5 to the improved ray tracing. And with history telling us that Rockstar typically only releases 30 fps GTA games, all signs are pointing to the same for GTA 6 – although if the trailers are anything to go by, the series has never looked better.

GTA 6 Trailer 2 is the biggest video launch of all time, Rockstar has claimed.

It told The Hollywood Reporter that Trailer 2 hit 475 million views across all platforms on its first day. That’s bigger than all other movie trailer launches, including Deadpool & Wolverine’s 365 million views in its first 24 hours, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ 200 million. Last year’s Superman trailer launched to over 250 million views and became the most-viewed trailer in the history of both DC and Warner Bros. GTA 6 Trailer 2, however, overshadows them all.

It’s worth noting that GTA 6 Trailer 1, which saw 93 million views on its first day, was released exclusively on YouTube first and became the biggest non-music video launch of all time on the platform. Trailer 2 is now up to 85,276,196 views on Rockstar’s official YouTube channel at the time of this article’s publication on May 8.

IGN has already reported on how The Pointer Sisters’ Hot Together has seen a monumental increase in Spotify streams following its use in GTA 6 Trailer 2. Global Spotify streams for the 1986 tune shot up a staggering 182,000% in the two hours following the trailer’s premiere alone.

“Grand Theft Auto cuts through popular culture like almost nothing else,” Spotify’s Global Head of Editorial Sulinna Ong said in a statement. “Music has been synonymous with the series since the very beginning, so it’s great to see fans both new and established connecting with an iconic track in this way.”

GTA 6 Trailer 2 was released following the game’s high-profile delay from fall 2025 to May 26, 2026. It is expected to be the biggest entertainment launch of all time, setting revenue records not just for video games, but movies.

The Hollywood Reporter noted that Rockstar is believed to have spent north of $1 billion on GTA 6’s development, so the pressure is on to deliver. But based on the interest in its trailers, GTA 6’s success is pretty much guaranteed.

We’ve got plenty more on GTA 6, including all the details we’ve discovered so far, all the GTA 6 fan theories emerging from Trailer 2 itself, and comments from Rockstar itself on Trailer 2 being captured on a base PS5.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Microsoft has secured another victory over the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in its quest to secure Activision Blizzard.

The FTC’s appeal to block Microsoft’s $69 billion deal to acquire the company behind Call of Duty was denied by San Francisco’s 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today, further cementing a purchase that was originally announced in late 2022 (via Reuters). It was a move decided by a three-judge panel that brought an end to the FTC’s questioning of the July 2023 decision to allow Microsoft to finalize its purchase.

Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard has faced scrutiny from across the board for more than three years. Select U.S. Senators were among the first to oppose the transaction, bringing up concerns of the ongoing consolidation of the tech industry as the Xbox maker brought in more major companies under its wing. As competitors and gamers alike grew concerned an acquisition meant popular franchises like Call of Duty would no longer launch on competing platforms, Microsoft confirmed it had no interest in barring certain franchises behind lengthy exclusivity periods.

While challenges continued to arise throughout 2023, Microsoft was finally able to complete its purchase of Activision Blizzard in October of that same year. The FTC’s appeal could have presented a late roadblock to continuing operations as normal, and now that its efforts have failed, it seems its pursuit is finally over.

For a full timeline of all of Microsoft’s struggles with finalizing its Activision Blizzard acquisition, you can click here.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

The long-running GTA 6 mapping project has gone into overdrive with the release of Trailer 2, with one of its chief members telling IGN: “it really changes everything for us for the rest of the year.”

The GTA 6 Mapping Discord is buzzing as the project’s 370 (soon to pass 400) members get started on making sense of Trailer 2 and all the new details it provides.

“It’s an information overload – it really changes everything for us for the rest of the year,” Garza, who oversees the Discord server, told IGN. “We have so much new content to work on and we’re really just getting started.”

The GTA 6 Mapping Discord began life after the huge September 2022 leaks (the same leaks some believe Rockstar playfully referenced at the start of Trailer 2). Its goal is to organize the most accurate GTA 6 map possible, work that was, up until the release of Trailer 2, based on the leaks and December 2023’s Trailer 1.

The latest version of the GTA 6 map, released at the end of March by project lead DuPz0r, is now outdated, with the flood of information Trailer 2 provides helping to create a much more accurate and detailed effort.

GTA VI Mapping Project v0.049https://t.co/gv4pgMkJcS pic.twitter.com/ItsNdPafjA

— DuPz0r (@DuPz0r) March 30, 2025

As well as confirming plot details, characters, and releasing 70 brand new GTA 6 screenshots, Rockstar revealed information and images of the explorable places in the state of Leonida, GTA 6’s take on Florida.

Locations confirmed as part of this week’s reveal include Vice City, GTA 6’s version of Miami, tropical archipelago Leonida Keys, Grassrivers, Port Gellhorn, Ambrosia, and Mount Kalaga, a national landmark up against the state’s northern border.

But the volunteers will also be scouring the trailer itself for details on the exact location of everything we see, and trying to match up images of fictional spaces to their real-life counterparts as they lock-in more of GTA 6’s map. Once the work is done, DuPz0r will release an updated map, which fans hope will give them their best look yet at what to expect from GTA 6 when it eventually comes out in May 2026.

And, if before then, Rockstar releases more GTA 6 assets, when fans get their first proper look at gameplay perhaps, the volunteers will go again. Only when GTA 6 is released and they can compare the fan map to the real thing will they find out just how accurate their work has been.

Of course, hanging over the GTA 6 mapping project is the potential for Rockstar parent company Take-Two to shut the whole thing down. In March, the modder who released a playable recreation of the GTA 6 map in GTA 5 ceased all work on the project after being hit by a Take–Two takedown. The mod itself was based on the GTA 6 mapping project.

Last year, I asked Garza if he was worried about potential action from Take-Two, and he admitted to “some mild concern.”

“This project has been going on for quite some time with no direct disruption to our community,” Garza continued. “However, I always keep it into consideration if they intend on communicating with us in the future for any reason. We do not explicitly showcase leaked material in the map, so I do not believe they would take that down in particular. I believe they are aware that this project gathers popularity and interest in the game, since everyone wants to see how the world may look like. This can be one of the reasons why they haven’t done anything, since it’s not too negative. If I were ever in the situation of receiving a cease and desist though, then I would respectfully cease and desist. As we get closer to a precise map, it may be possible to receive that notice in the future.”

While we wait to find out, we’ve got plenty more on GTA 6, including all the details we’ve discovered so far and all the GTA 6 fan theories emerging from Trailer 2 itself.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.