Motocross, Base Jumping, Gunfights and Cocktails: The Most Spectacular Entertainment Is Almost Here

It begins at night in Vice City. Jason and Lucia enter a run-down building to collect a bag, only to find themselves in a huge drug kitchen. Barely dressed women prepare cocaine at long tables while boom-bap hip-hop plays softly in the background.

Then the pressure breaks. A man demands to know what the pair are doing there. His phone rings, and a warning comes through that the police are on their way. Moments later, a special unit storms in, shooting at everything that moves. The camera swings behind Jason’s shoulder. A health bar and ammunition display appear, a crosshair settles in the center of the screen, and control passes to the player.

That is the world of GTA 6, described here as the most eagerly awaited video game of recent years, and perhaps of all time. Like no other game series, Grand Theft Auto stands for a feeling of anarchic freedom. Players can explore and drive through enormous worlds, reaching almost every corner. Death brings few lasting consequences: the player returns outside a hospital seconds later, with a few dollars gone, steals another car and carries on.

The article presents that freedom as a rejection of what it calls the “absolutism of reason” in a world experienced as dull and over-regulated, especially by younger players. Friedrich Schiller once idealized the human urge to play, but the series has placed that urge at the center of a major entertainment industry.

GTA 5, released in 2013, has sold more than 230 million copies. It ranks behind Minecraft as the second-best-selling video game ever. That record helps explain the extraordinary attention surrounding the sixth game, which is also counted as the eighth main installment depending on how the series is numbered. Netflix is adding to the hype.