Examining the fan theory that suggests GTA 6 may be set in the late 90's based on a license plate in the latest GTA 5 E&E trailer.
The Grand Theft Auto fandom may not have been waiting as long as the Half-Life fandom for the fabled sequel, but by virtue of numbers — and not being tired out — they're a lot more loud about wanting GTA 6 news. Recent months even saw fans pull stunts on television to coax some news out of Rockstar — now, some think the latest Expanded and Enhanced trailer had a hint.
You really have to leave it to fans to comb through every frame of a new trailer and then assign meaning to every single string of symbols that appear on the screen. Being so thirsty for new information and hints, the latest tidbit the GTA community latched onto is a license plate that briefly pops up during the trailer that accompanied the announcement of the next-gen port's delay.
The plate reads "61SAL890" which some fans have partitioned up as "6 1S A L8 90", which in turn has been interpreted as '6 is a late 90'. The assumption here is that Rockstar snuck a hint about GTA 6's setting into the trailer, revealing that the game will take place during the late 90's.
As far as stretches go, this is quite the big one. Hiding cheeky hints in trailers is hardly unheard of, and after all this time it is safe to assume that Rockstar might start dropping very vague hints like this — but we imagine that a deliberate and legitimate hint would have correct syntax. It also seems a bit uncharacteristic of Rockstar to pull a stunt like this.
While it is clear that fans are eager to hear any official word on GTA 6 — so much so that the thinnest of straws are being grasped — most reputable insider sources claim that the game is still many years away, being only in early stages of development. It's a bit early then to start dropping hints like this, especially when leaks and insiders can't seem to agree on what the game's setting will be.
This is the first time we're hearing of the 90's, for example — until now the two prevailing theories painted the game as being set in the 80's with a few flashback scenes taking place in the 70's with a different protagonist, or it being set entirely in the modern age.
Either way, we suspect that just like the game, any actual official hints regarding GTA 6 are still a long way away, and that ultimately this license plate in the trailer is a dud. Whether it is a complete coincidence or a deliberate red herring placed in the trailer by the pranksters at Rockstar is anyone's guess, though.
