Grand Theft Auto 6 may very well be the most anticipated video game on planet Earth, and anticipated video games make people do crazy things. So it’s not super surprising that fans are putting every pixel of the image accompanying the tweet announcing the upcoming GTA 6 trailer next Tuesday under the microscope.
The image shows a beautiful sunset, palm trees, and three birds flying across the sky. Let’s get the obvious one out of the way: this is all but Rockstar coming out and saying that this game is going to take place in the Miami-inspired Vice City. But that’s old news, and this is new news. Get ready, GTA fans: Grand Theft Auto 6 will have birds and palm trees.
— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) December 1, 2023
Now, you may scoff at this deduction, but consider this: birds are kind of weird in the Grand Theft Auto games. Remember when they were called “flying rats” in Grand Theft Auto 4 and you got something for killing all of them? The fact that we know that Grand Theft Auto 6 will have birds could be a big deal. Or maybe not.
What fans are focused on, however, is not that birds are in the image, but the number of birds in the image. That’s right: we’re counting birds. Some, including IGN's own staffers, have theorized that the three birds are a reference to the song that will accompany the reveal trailer, with Bob Marley and the Wailers' “Three Birds” being the top contender. Others have suggested that it might indicate that Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” might appear in the trailer.
Others have taken the birds, being the first characters in GTA 6 that have been officially revealed, might tell us something related to the cast. In a Reddit thread titled “CONFIRMED: Birds will be included in GTA6,” user klvr954 said “I was wondering if the three birds were significant, like maybe we’re getting three characters again.”
That would be a departure from what we learned from the leaks, but games change a lot during development. Maybe klvr954 is on to something there. Maybe the birds mean nothing and this is all an elaborate psi-op by Rockstar to try to make us think the birds mean something. I wouldn’t put it past them.
The one thing we know for sure about the three birds? One of them is voiced by Final Fantasy XVI’s Ben Starr. His name is Brian. (Just kidding. That’s also likely a joke.)
Happy to reveal that I play one of the THREE BIRDS in #GTA6. https://t.co/nyVPXGwjuU pic.twitter.com/6ZV63gWdht
— Ben Starr (@The_Ben_Starr) December 1, 2023
Others are looking at the palm trees for clues. IGN’s own Brian Altano suggested that the four palm trees might mean there are four main areas to play in. Others are taking it as further confirmation of a Vice City setting. Some just think the artists at Rockstar like palm trees. Who can say, really?
Mostly, however, fans are rolling with it in stride, making fun of all the speculation about birds and palm trees being confirmed and excited that we’re finally, finally getting a trailer for GTA 6 next Tuesday. Until then, all we can do is speculate, consider about everything we already know about GTA 6, and wait. And maybe think about the birds some more.
Will Borger is a freelance writer at IGN
