'GTA 6' job listing may confirm an unprecedented plot twist for the franchise

For months, Rockstar Games has been growing its development team and showing signs that work on Grand Theft Auto 6 may have already begun. Now, one new job listing could be a sign that the sequel will involve a plot structure that's unlike anything the franchise has done in the past. The company posted a number of job listings for programmers, engineers, and artists to work on unnamed “next-generation games," but a new posting for a position at Rockstar’s main office in Scotland has seemingly confirmed a long-standing GTA 6 rumor.

Rockstar North — the main branch responsible for the core Grand Theft Auto series — is hiring a “Character Costume & Wardrobe Stylist” who will develop how characters dress in the company’s next sprawling digital world.

All of Rockstar’s most iconic games, including Red Dead Redemption, GTA, and L.A. Noire have featured stunning wardrobes emblematic of these interactive period pieces. There’s one specific detail in this listing, however, that hints at GTA 6.

Under the "Skills" section, it states Rockstar is looking for a person who has, “an obsessive eye for detail and drapery in respect of garments of all types, and an acute awareness of how fabrics and materials age and degrade over time." When you consider this alongside GTA 6 rumors that the game might take place across 10 years of time in different locations, this could be taken as confirmation of the new game's massive scope.

If GTA 6 takes place over multiple years, the in-game fashion and environments will change as well, reaching a new level of immersion where we might watch the same outfits erode over the course of a decade. The fit might even evolve as the character ages and their body changes.

Unconfirmed GTA 6 chatter from 2019 claimed the game was in early development under the codename “Project Americas.” Among those leaks was the claim that the game will take place primarily in Vice City (fictional Miami) but that players would travel to a handful of Latin America-inspired areas and cities in the world.

Think GTA meets Netflix’s Narcos. It would definitely require that members of Rockstar's art department be "critically aware of cultural and societal trends and vibe in clothing/outfits, wear, and styles." Players might watch as architecture and vehicles change over the course of an in-game decade while economies surge or crumble with the progression of time. Weather events, like hurricanes and floods, might also reshape the tropical and urban terrain gamers might traverse.

The aforementioned leaks also stated that this new entry would be more arcade-y and less realistic than Red Dead Redemption 2. Players probably won’t have to eat, sleep, and bathe like they do in the ultra-immersive Wild West-inspired game, but there will still be elements of immersive realism similar to RDR2 that will affect the digital world in compelling ways. Perhaps this subtle evolution of clothing will be one of them?

We're likely still years away from the release of GTA 6, but past rumors and Rockstar’s current job listings are beginning to coalesce into what sounds like one of the most ambitious video games ever. There's also the possibility that this and other positions are for a totally new franchise for the developer.

But with the next generation of video game consoles on the way pretty soon in the form of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, it's only a matter of time until Rockstar’s first next-gen title is announced. It would make sense for Rockstar to develop a sequel for their flagship series, and this new job could be key to developing the clothing styles of GTA 6.

Grand Theft Auto 6 remains unconfirmed but feels inevitable.