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If you’ve kept tabs on the rumors that have swirled around the release of Grand Theft Auto VI, you likely know GTA fans have a tendency to buy into some pretty outlandish conspiracy theories. With that said, it appears one of them is grounded in reality thanks to a cryptic message that appears to have teased at least one release date.
Last week, Rockstar Games announced its plans to drop the highly-anticipated trailer for GTA VI on the morning of December 5th, and there’s little doubt every single frame will be analyzed to a laughable degree as fans of the video games attempt to figure out what’s in store.
If history is any indication, we’ll likely be treated to a release window as opposed to a specific date when the trailer drops, although there are plenty of people who are convinced they’ve already found a clue in the form of a shirt that surfaced in GTA: Online earlier this year.
In June, the “??? Tee” was added to the collection of clothing in one of GTA V’s virtual storefronts that featured an alien surrounded by various symbols inside a diamond flanked by a string of seemingly random numbers.
However, they may not have actually been as random as they appeared to be at first glance, as some eagle-eyed internet detectives realized that string included the digits “1252309,” which appeared to be a nod to the release date for the first GTA VI trailer as well as the specific time it will come out (9 A.M).
Besides @RockstarGames teasing at the GTA 6 reveal date & time with the secret number sequence of "1252309" on this GTA Online shirt a few months ago, there's also more POTENTIAL interesting numbers here.
040125 = April 1st 2025
Could that be the intended GTA 6 release date?! pic.twitter.com/yoR0jJjraR
— Michael (@LegacyKillaHD) December 3, 2023
That revelation led to other people searching for more clues, which led to a new theory that suggests “40125” is a reference to April 1, 2025, which could be a potential release date for the game itself.
However, it’s a bit hard to believe GTA VI won’t be dropping before then. The folks at Rockstar have hinted they’re expecting 2024 to be a very profitable year, and it’s hard to think of any other projects that would allow it to generate the revenue they’re expecting.
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.