When it comes to highly anticipated games, few titles have as much hype behind them as Grand Theft Auto 6. Over decades, the Grand Theft Auto franchise has positioned itself as the gold standard when it comes to open-world mayhem, and the latest mainline release, Grand Theft Auto 5, has managed to endure for three gaming generations. Plenty of gamers are also looking forward to the next entry in Atlus' Persona series. The studio has given no word about when fans can expect Persona 6, although there are already many theories swirling around.
Although both Grand Theft Auto 6 and Persona 6 are eagerly awaited by gamers, they have several challenges to overcome. Their predecessors are so celebrated that it will be a tall task for these games to surpass them. Furthermore, as more time passes, expectations only grow, making it even less possible for the games to live up to what gamers are imagining.
The Legacy of Grand Theft Auto
The first Grand Theft Auto game was released in 1997 and, with its top-down perspective, it looked nothing like the GTA games that players are used to today. However, it had the DNA that would characterize the series, as it allowed gamers to wreak havoc and commit violence in an urban setting. With GTA 3, released in 2001, Rockstar introduced 3D environments and popularized the open-world genre. The game was a hit, becoming the highest-selling video game of 2001 in the USA, although it did attract a significant amount of controversy for its violence, its depiction of women, and its crass humor. Critics praised the game's movie-like storytelling, as well as the astonishing freedom it granted players. Following GTA 3, Rockstar would prove that the game was not a fluke and that it was capable of not only recreating its success but also innovating on what it had created.
GTA 3 was followed by GTA: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas, both of which are considered landmark titles. The release of GTA 4 marked a new era for GTA as Rockstar switched to using RAGE, which is its in-house game engine. New levels of realism were possible thanks to RAGE, and Rockstar used it to take players back to Liberty City. GTA 4 was followed by GTA 5 which remains the bestselling GTA title and one of the bestselling games of all time. The game is set in Los Santos, a city in San Andreas, and it features three protagonists that players can easily switch between. Through these three protagonists, players can view Los Santos through different lenses and take on differing interpretations of the events that unfold.
It is difficult to overstate GTA 5's impact. Within six weeks of its release, it surpassed GTA 4's lifetime sales in the USA and, quite strangely, the game's sales have only accelerated over the years instead of slowing down, with 2020 being the game's bestselling year. According to Take-Two Interactive, GTA 5 has sold 165 million copies globally, with only Minecraft sitting ahead of it in terms of sales. The desire to see GTA 5's successor is high and while Rockstar continues to support GTA 5, gamers seem ready to move on. When Rockstar released a trailer for the current-gen remaster of GTA 5, it was met with a deluge of dislikes on YouTube, indicating that gamers believe that Rockstar is focusing on the wrong things. Fortunately, the company has confirmed that the next GTA game is in development.
Persona's Enormous Shadow
Persona grew from humble beginnings, starting as a spinoff of Atlus' Shin Megami Tensei series. The games all follow a similar format featuring a silent protagonist in a high school setting who comes across supernatural mysteries. Gamers have been drawn to the games through the way they ingeniously weave their exploration of the human psyche into their combat by featuring Personas and Shadows that battle against each other, and it is through these battles that characters discover their true selves.
Since the first game was launched in 1996, the Persona series has steeply grown in popularity. However, the franchise's popularity has been greatly boosted by its latest mainline release, Persona 5. According to Atlus, Persona 5 has sold over 5 million copies, with Persona 5 Royal making up 1.8 million of those sales. This is an impressive feat on its own, but it is even more impressive when one considers that the entire series has sold 15 million copies. The series' fame is only set to grow with the upcoming ports of Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 5 Royal which will introduce the games to a new range of gamers.
Grand Theft Auto 6, Persona 6, and the Weight of Expectations
Both Grand Theft Auto 5 and Persona 5 are iconic titles that have left a mark on the gaming world. Consequently, gamers have high expectations for their successors, and those expectations grow with every year that passes. Already, there has been speculation that Grand Theft Auto 6 may feature multiple protagonists again, that it could have a dynamic map which constantly changes, or that it will vastly overhaul the police system. Similarly, gamers have voiced plenty of wishes for Persona 6, including the inclusion of even bigger and better dungeons for gamers to explore.
Having all these expectations can be motivating for developers. However, it can also be paralyzing, causing games to spiral into development hell as developers constantly strive for a level of perfection that can never truly be achieved. Such games may never release or, when they do, even if they are great games, they never satisfy gamers because expectations are simply too high to be reasonably met.
Both GTA 6 and Persona 6 are confirmed to be in development, though it is not yet known when gamers will get to experience them. Although Atlus and Rockstar have shown themselves to be experts, their biggest challenges may lie ahead. Nothing short of masterpieces will have to be released if they wish to top the sky-high expectations created by Persona 5 and GTA 5.
The next Grand Theft Auto title is currently in development.
