PARIS, France (AFP) — Fans of the violent Grand Theft Auto video game franchise are just two weeks away from getting their hands on the latest edition, which has taken almost a decade to make and has become the most expensive title in history.

The franchise allows players to act out gangster fantasies — shooting up bars, crashing cars — in fictional renderings of US cities where the soundtrack piped through in-game radio is almost as important as the cutting-edge visuals.

GTA VI, which comes 13 years after its predecessor, is expected to break sales records when it lands on November 19, thanks in part to a monumental marketing campaign that kicked off in late 2023 with the first official trailer.

“It is going to be the biggest entertainment launch of all time,” Chris Dring of The Game Business outlet told AFP.

The previous edition, GTA V, is still the second-biggest selling game ever. It took just three days to rack up US$1 billion in sales, two days less than the movie
Avengers: Endgame.

The budget of GTA VI has reportedly ballooned to over US$1 billion, far higher than any other game or film, and projections have it on track to make several billion in its first week, which would smash all records for any cultural product.

GTA VI has two main protagonists, former drug-runner Jason and newly released ex-con Lucia, who try to survive in Vice City, a re-imagining of Miami.

Lucia is the first playable woman character in a main edition of the almost 30-year history of a franchise.

During the 1990s and 2000s the game’s graphic depictions of sex, violence, and misogyny became notorious — tabloid media outrage boosting the title’s notoriety and helping sales to skyrocket.

Rockstar Games has spent eight years developing the sixth edition, a process beset by difficulties including the leak of development footage and code for the game online in 2022.

But expectations are sky-high.

“They’ve spent a long time on this game, but they are probably the top game entertainment creators in the world,” said Dring.

Analysts expect the game to have an impact on the entire video game sector, including on console sales and accessories.

Several other studios delayed the release of new games to avoid being caught in the hype cycle around GTA VI.

Analysis firm Sensor Tower said the game had already generated around US$750 million from pre-sales.

Surveys suggested almost one-third of the 49 million people who use PS5 and Xbox Series consoles in the United States intended to buy the game.

“The purchase intent that we’re seeing on Grand Theft Auto is far away above any other game we’ve ever tracked,” said Mat Piscatella of consultancy Circana.

“For me, it’s the game of the decade,” Jocelin Lebeau, 39, a gamer who works for the French military, told AFP at a recent event in Paris. “I’m ready to buy it sight unseen.”