Rockstar has officially announced Grand Theft Auto V.
The latest title in the multimillion-selling crime adventure series has no official release date as yet, but the publisher is promising a teaser trailer on 2 November.
No console platforms have been mentioned either, leading to speculation that GTA 5 may not arrive until the next generation of Xbox and PlayStation machines. However, the game is almost certain to have been in development for at least two years, meaning a late 2012 release is not out of the question.
The Grand Theft Auto series has sold 115m units since the first title arrived in 1997, making it one of the biggest game franchises in the world. The last instalment, Grand Theft Auto IV, has alone shipped more than 22m units since its launch in 2008.
For the last year, gaming news sites have been speculating wildly over the possible setting for GTA V. In March, Rockstar's parent company Take-Two held acting auditions for an unnamed project, the casting call for which provided details for a selection of characters, including mobsters, movie agents and wannabe starlets – suggesting to sites such as Kotaku, a possible Hollywood setting for GTA V, although Rockstar did not comment on the casting session or on the nature of the project.
Certainly, the 2004 release, GTA: San Andreas featured an area named Vinewood, heavily modelled on Hollywood. The series has also pastiched a number of films over its history, including Scarface and Boys in the Hood.
