GTA 6 is Game Informer's cover story: 14 pages of new details land September 29
Game Informer's issue 382 carries a 14-page Grand Theft Auto VI cover story based on interviews with several lead designers at Rockstar Games, focused on how Leonida and Vice City were built, illustrated with 12 new exclusive screenshots and original cover artwork of Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos (Game Informer, September 25, 2026). The digital edition goes live on Tuesday, September 29, 2026 — fo
What Game Informer announced
Grand Theft Auto VI will be the cover story of Game Informer's issue 382, the magazine confirmed on September 25, 2026. Senior associate editor Marcus Stewart signed the reveal, writing that he "spoke with several lead designers at Rockstar Games to learn exclusive new details" about the game, "with a particular focus on how Rockstar brought the game's setting and Florida parody, Leonida, to life." The announcement came from the magazine itself — not from a Rockstar trailer, or from a Newswire post.
The 14 pages, and what they promise
The cover feature runs 14 pages and, in Game Informer's words, will carry "exclusive interview quotes and details of all things Vice City and Leonida." Stewart, who presents himself as a lifelong South Florida native, says the story covers "never-before-shared features," among them weather systems built to "simulate Florida's less sunny weather phenomena," "the staggering amount of wildlife — native and otherwise — roaming Leonida on land, air, and sea," and Rockstar's approach to researching Miami and Florida. Twelve new, exclusive screenshots accompany the text, and the cover is original Rockstar artwork featuring protagonists Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos.
The five Rockstar names behind the cover story
The reveal never said who was interviewed. Rockstar Actu, the French GTA site that relayed the announcement on September 25, 2026, lists five Rockstar staff quoted across the 14 pages: Aaron Garbut, presented as co-president of Rockstar North, Rupert Humphries, vice-president of narrative, plus Paul MacPherson, Owen Shepherd and Michael Kane. Garbut is the studio's co-studio head and has been credited as art director on every mainline Grand Theft Auto since GTA III in 2001 — the man whose team decides what Leonida looks like. Humphries joined Rockstar in 2008 and shares the GTA V writing credit with Dan Houser, per the game's own credits. The cast fits the promise: art direction and narrative, not a technical deep dive.
14 pages against GTA V's 18
The page count is the first hard, comparable number attached to this announcement. When GTA V took the cover in December 2012, Game Informer's Matt Bertz described an 18-page feature as "our biggest cover story yet" — one that introduced three protagonists and the reimagined Los Santos. GTA VI gets four pages fewer, in a magazine that calls it "the biggest game of the year, decade, and quite possibly of all time." A page count says nothing about the quality of the information inside; it does say something about the shape of the promise.
Issues 169, 236 and 382: three covers in nineteen years
Game Informer has now put all three mainline Grand Theft Autos of the modern era on its front page. GTA IV fronted issue 169 in May 2007. GTA V fronted issue 236 in December 2012, 67 issues later. GTA VI takes issue 382 in 2026, 146 issues after that. The gap between the GTA V and GTA VI covers — roughly 14 years, December 2012 to September 2026 — is more than twice the five-and-a-half years that separated the GTA IV and GTA V covers.
September 29 is the date that matters
The digital edition of issue 382 goes live on September 29, 2026. Print copies, Game Informer says, "will reach subscribers' mailboxes and arrive in bookstores/newsstands in the coming weeks." That reveal-to-readable delay contrasts with the previous cycle: in November 2012, the magazine told digital subscribers they could read the GTA V issue "around 2pm Central Time" on the day of the cover reveal, with print copies landing within two weeks. September 29 sits 51 days before GTA VI's November 19, 2026 release on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
A cover story for a magazine that almost disappeared
The backdrop rarely makes the headlines. GameStop shut Game Informer down in August 2024, ending a 33-year run that began in 1991. The title returned in March 2025, acquired by Gunzilla Games and revived as an independent operation, Game Informer Inc., with its laid-off editorial staff rehired, GamesIndustry.biz reported on March 26, 2025. GTA VI is the biggest licence to grace the relaunched magazine so far, roughly nineteen years after Game Informer first put a mainline GTA on its cover.
Confirmed, promised, still unknown
Confirmed: the cover, the 14 pages, the 12 screenshots, the September 29 digital date, the print window and the original Rockstar cover art. Promised but not yet verifiable: the "never-before-shared features" themselves, since no excerpt of the story is public. Not announced anywhere in the cover reveal: a new trailer or gameplay video, a PC version, GTA Online plans, or any change to the November 19, 2026 release date. RockstarINTEL's Aaron Trueman notes that GTA VI's weather systems had until now circulated as "rumours, patents and more," with "nothing from Rockstar officially" — the cover story is the magazine's promise to close that gap, not the closure itself.
How to read it, and what else is in issue 382
Game Informer subscriptions cover 10 issues a year and, according to the magazine, ship internationally to more than 50 countries. Single copies go on sale in bookstores and on newsstands, and the GTA VI issue "will only be available for a limited time." The rest of issue 382 sketches the season crowding in around GTA VI: Gamescom previews from the staff's trip, a Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons interview, Persona 4 Revival impressions, a ten-page Tides of Annihilation feature, and previews of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Final Fantasy VII Revelation.
Issue 382 cannot be bought as a single digital copy
One practical detail sits outside the reveal. Game Informer's website sells annual subscriptions only, Rockstar Actu points out: there is no way to buy the GTA VI issue on its own there. The routes left are a print subscription — 10 issues a year, delivered in the U.S. and, Game Informer says, internationally across more than 50 countries — or a physical copy picked up later in bookstores and on newsstands, exactly what the reveal promised. Game Informer adds that the GTA VI issue "will only be available for a limited time". For readers who want the 14 pages on Leonida and nothing else, the window opens digitally for subscribers on Tuesday, September 29, and closes for everyone else when the newsstand stock runs out.
