GTA 5 PS5 and Xbox Series X is an 'expanded and enhanced' version of the game that's scheduled to release on March 15, 2022.
Coming around nine years after the original game launched on Xbox 360 and PS3, this new version of GTA 5 and GTA Online intends to take advantage of the power of the latest generation of consoles to show the increasingly familiar setting of Los Santos at its best.
Players can expect new graphics modes, HDR options, ray-tracing, faster load times, 3D audio and more besides, with Xbox One and PS4 players able to transfer their saves over. Whether or not these enhancements will be enough to tempt them to do so, however, remains to be seen.
With development of GTA 6 now confirmed to be “well underway”, you might be wondering why Rockstar is even bothering with this release. Well, GTA 5 has been a huge success for the developer and its online counterpart, GTA Online, continues to be a massive hit. With that in mind, it’s not totally surprising that Rockstar wants to retain engagement across as many console generations as possible. Besides, while GTA 6 is definitely in development, it still doesn’t have a release date so we can’t be sure just how long we’ll be waiting for a new next-gen GTA adventure.
Want to know more? Read on for everything we know about GTA 5 PS5 and Xbox Series X, including all the enhancements that have been confirmed so far.
GTA 5 PS5 and Xbox Series X: cut to the chase
- What is it? A remastered version of GTA 5 for PS5 and Xbox Series X
- When can I play it? March15, 2022
- What can I play it on? PS5 and Xbox Series X
GTA 5 PS5 and Xbox Series X release date and platforms
Rockstar has confirmed that GTA 5 is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S on March 15, 2022, with GTA Online also releasing for the consoles as a separate standalone edition.
GTA 5 on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S was initially meant to release on November 11, 2021, but Rockstar Games announced the upgraded edition of the game was delayed until March 2022 in September 2021. The new release date was then confirmed, alongside the announcement of GTA 6, in February 2022.
PlayStation owners have a significant advantage in all of this. If you play GTA Online on PS4, you'll get GTA$1 million to spend in-game every month until the PS5 version of GTA launches. And when GTA Online's standalone edition arrives on PS5 in March 2022, owners of the console will have three months to claim the game for free after release - until June 2022. That means that Xbox Series X/S owners will have to pay if they want to play the new version of GTA Online at launch, though a price hasn't been disclosed just yet.
Rockstar is yet to confirm if GTA 5 on PS5 and Xbox Series X will offer those who already own the main game on PS4 and Xbox One a paid upgrade option or whether these new versions will need to be bought outright.
GTA 5 PS5 and Xbox Series X trailers
PlayStation Showcase 2021 trailer
A GTA 5 trailer was revealed during Sony's PlayStation Showcase 2021 event. You can check it out below:
Announcement trailer
GTA 5 on PS5 was the first trailer revealed for the console during Sony's Future of Gaming Event in June 2020. The intro, featuring Michael saying 'Why did I move here? I guess it was the weather" parallels GTA 5's famous first trailer in 2011. Check it out below:
GTA 5 PS5 and Xbox Series X enhancements: what are they?
Grand Theft Auto 5 and GTA Online on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S will benefit from a range of technical improvements, visual upgrades and performance enhancements to "take full advantage of the latest hardware".
In a blog post, Rockstar Games confirmed that both titles feature "new graphics modes with up to 4K resolution, up to 60 frames per second, texture and draw distance upgrades, HDR options and ray-tracing, as well as offering the technical advancements of the latest console generation with faster loading times, immersive 3D audio, platform-specific features like advanced haptic feedback, and much more."
Another welcome feature is that players can transfer their save data from the PS4 and Xbox One to their more modern consoles, including their GTA Online characters.
In addition, the new version of GTA Online will feature "a range of improvements", including the ability to skip the GTA 5 Story Mode prologue before jumping into Online and a new GTA Online Tutorial (like the replace the prologue).
This should make jumping into GTA Online much easier for newbies, with new GTA Online players now able to enter Career Builder, granting instant access to one of four illegal businesses: Biker, Executive, Nightclub Owner, or Gunrunner. What's more, new players will get a chunk of in-game currency to help them get started.
Where is GTA 6?
GTA 6 has now officially been announced by Rockstar Games. It doesn't have a release date just yet but you can check out our GTA 6 guide for all the juicy details we have on the next Grand Theft Auto game.
GTA 5 PS5 and Xbox Series X: news and rumors
Vehicle upgrades for Online
Rockstar has announced on Twitter that when GTA Online hits the latest consoles, “select vehicles will be upgradable” on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions of the game, with “all-new speed improvements and more”.
“These special upgrades will be available only on PS5 and Series X/S versions of GTA 5,” the Tweet confirmed, adding, “stay tuned for more details.”
The tweet doesn’t go into a huge amount of detail, though a February 2022 blog post explained a little more about vehicle upgrades in the standalone PS5 and Xbox SeriesX/S versions of the game.
According to the post, “The PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions of GTA Online also include the new Hao’s Special Works auto shop, located within the LS Car Meet, which will allow players to upgrade select vehicles (5 new vehicles and 5 existing vehicles at launch) for elite driving performance that takes full advantage of the upgraded power of new console hardware.”
When GTA Online launches on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S later this year, select vehicles will be upgradable with all new speed improvements and more. These special upgrades will be available only on PS5 and Series X|S versions of GTAV — stay tuned for more details. pic.twitter.com/R9SS2miSC8July 18, 2021
Not a 'simple port'
Speaking during the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference, in March 2021 (via VGC), Take-Two's CEO, Strauss Zelnick, explained that the company doesn't necessarily see remasters becoming a bigger part of the company's strategy going forward, it plans to approach any potential remasters differently from its competitors.
"Remastering has always been a part of the strategy," Zelnik said. "We’ve done differently than the competition – we don’t just port titles over, we actually take the time to do the very best job we can making the title different for the new release, for the new technology that we’re launching it on."
"So, we improve the technology, we upgrade the visuals, and we make performance enhancements," Zelnik continued. "And that’s why I think our remastered titles typically do so well.”
“We’ve done great with the Mafia series, for example, and Grand Theft Auto [V] is now heading into its third generation which is incredible", Zelnik said of the upcoming GTA 5 remaster. “It was a standard-bearer when it was launched, it continued to be the standard-bearer in the second generation, we’ll see how Grand Theft Auto does in the next generation. Obviously, I’m confident that Rockstar is going to deliver just a great experience, but you can’t do that if you’re just doing a simple port.”
Using Rockstar's RAGE engine?
There have been rumors that the game could use Rockstar’s refined RAGE engine, used in the development of Red Dead Redemption 2.
The rumors come from Rockstar insider ‘Tez2’ (Via Wccftech) who posted on GTAForums that new GTA 5 game data makes reference to the RAGE engine rather than GTA 5’s original engine. Tez2 does also note, however, that this could mean that the game’s UI will run on the new engine while the rest of the game will still use its original engine.
Writing on the forum, Tez2 says “Found out new structs that were added with the recent update relating to the standalone version and one of them is “rage::fwuiMessageBase”, which is from RDR2’s RAGE version, so that seems to go along what @Spider-Vice & @uNi stated, that the enhanced edition is likely to utilize RDR2’s RAGE version. However, it could just be that the UI would utilize RDR2’s base code, while the rest remains the same.”
Rockstar has not officially confirmed this rumor, even this close to the game's release.
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