Twelve screenshots nobody has seen, fourteen pages of reporting and a cover with Jason and Lucia in a red convertible. That is the package Game Informer revealed on September 25 for issue 382, which is built entirely around Grand Theft Auto VI. The digital edition goes live on Tuesday, September 29, and it is the next piece of new material we know is coming, right after the Vice City Collection pre-order.

What the magazine promises

According to the announcement on Game Informer's own site, the cover story runs 14 pages and rests on interviews with senior Rockstar Games designers. The stated focus is Leonida, the fictional Florida-inspired state where the game takes place, and the studio's research approach to getting the look and culture of the place right.

Two topics are named in the three pages we opened:

  • Weather. The magazine talks about dynamic weather cycles. RockstarINTEL, which read the teaser in more detail, says the system aims to simulate Florida's less sunny weather too, not only the clear skies of the trailers.
  • Wildlife. The coverage mentions a variety of animals on land, in the air and at sea.

Game Informer also credits original cover art by Rockstar: Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos, the two protagonists, in a red convertible. The 12 new screenshots come with it, described as images of Vice City locations and residents. If you follow this site you already know what Rockstar has said about the pair, as in our piece on the Jason and Lucia relationship system, and about the size of the map, in Leonida's map is nearly double GTA V's. Issue 382 is the first chance to see those subjects get detail from people who sat down with the designers.

Digital on Tuesday, print later (or already?)

The sources disagree here, so it is worth pulling them apart.

Game Informer's official page says the issue is cover-dated September 25, has a digital release on September 29, and that print follows in the coming weeks, to subscribers' mailboxes and newsstands. RockstarINTEL, meanwhile, writes that physical copies are already shipping to subscribers. Both can be true at once, since the magazine usually ships to subscribers before it reaches retail, but the official page speaks of "coming weeks" after the digital release, not of shipping already under way. In our reading, RockstarINTEL is describing an initial mailing to subscribers, and the official date for general print availability is still open in every page we read.

There is also a minor calendar difference. The VGTimes aggregator logs the news as September 26; Game Informer's cover date is the 25th. What matters to readers is the 29th, which the sources confirm.

What else is in the issue

GTA VI shares issue 382 with Gamescom previews, coverage of Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons, Persona 4 Revival and Tides of Annihilation, and an interview with actor Finn Wolfhard about Pokémon. So this is not a single-subject issue: the 14-page story is the biggest slice of an otherwise normal magazine.

And in Brazil?

None of the pages we opened mention a price for the digital edition or availability by country. Game Informer only says it sells 10-issue annual subscriptions in the United States and more than 50 countries, without listing them. We did not find, in the sources we read, confirmation that the digital edition of issue 382 is sold as a single issue in Brazil or priced in reais. The safest route is to check the magazine's own store on Tuesday. What will reach Brazilian readers regardless is the information itself: news sites usually summarize a cover story like this within hours, and we expect the 12 screenshots to circulate online the same day.

Why Game Informer, again

RockstarINTEL frames the cover as the continuation of a two-decade tradition in which Rockstar picks the magazine for major Grand Theft Auto announcements. That is the site's claim and we could not check it against a second open source, so it stays attributed. GameRant, which called September 29 the "next official update", notes it comes after the Extended Look (the August 27 video) and the $400 collector's box reveal.

What nobody has confirmed

In the sources we read, there is no confirmation of:

  • which screenshots will run, or whether any of them show new gameplay systems;
  • whether the story includes numbers (how many weather types, how much wildlife) or only a general description;
  • whether Rockstar will also publish the images on its own site or social channels;
  • the price and availability of the digital edition in Brazil.

In our reading, the most likely outcome is qualitative material, with designer quotes and images rather than a technical list, since the teaser itself stresses "research" and "aesthetics". That is a guess, not information: the answer comes Tuesday the 29th. Once the story is out, we will update this piece with whatever is new.