GTA 6's Jason and Lucia story leans on Red Dead Redemption 2, not GTA 5

ⓘ Rockstar (edited)

Bloomberg's Jason Schreier says Jason and Lucia's story in GTA 6 draws more from Red Dead Redemption 2 than GTA 5, after watching Rockstar's Rob Nelson play the game. The demo showed the couple kissing, training at a gym, and robbing a petrol station office, and Rockstar confirmed hundreds of small, enterable interiors.

The story of Jason and Lucia in GTA 6 appears to draw more from Red Dead Redemption 2 than from GTA 5, according to Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier. Schreier gave the assessment after visiting Rockstar Games for a behind-the-scenes feature on the game.

Rockstar did not let Schreier play GTA 6. He instead watched Rob Nelson, one of the studio's development leads, control Jason through a session built largely around the relationship between the two protagonists. Schreier said he had replayed the opening hour of GTA 5 shortly before the visit and found its cast tiring, since the characters spend much of their time insulting and shouting at one another.

Schreier described Jason and Lucia as “two people who actually enjoy spending time together.” In the demo, Jason phoned Lucia to meet up, and a single button press had him kiss her when she arrived. The pair walked through a park holding hands, then drove to a gym, where Jason did squats while Lucia ran on a treadmill.

The session also covered the couple's criminal work. Jason and Lucia scouted a bank as a possible target before Jason called off the job because of the number of guards on site. They then slipped into the back office of a petrol station, disabled an alarm, and left with the cash without drawing attention.

Rockstar told Bloomberg that the game world contains hundreds of small interiors players can enter, including offices and petrol stations. The feature also includes Rockstar's head of publishing Jennifer Kolbe and development leads Aaron Garbut and Phil Hooker alongside Nelson.

Rockstar has not said what shaped the GTA 6 narrative, and Schreier's view rests on a short, hands-off viewing. The studio's official premise describes an easy score that goes wrong, pulling Jason and Lucia into a criminal conspiracy across the fictional state of Leonida and forcing them to rely on each other to survive.

GTA 5, released in September 2013, rotated between three protagonists, Michael, Franklin and Trevor, and leaned heavily on satire. Red Dead Redemption 2, released in October 2018, followed Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang through a slower and more emotional story built around loyalty within the group.

GTA 6 is due on November 19, 2026, for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Rockstar first targeted 2025 before moving the game to May 26, 2026, and then to its current date, which Take-Two Interactive reaffirmed in a July 2026 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Rockstar has not announced a PC version.