// KOTAKU — GAMING
Time Is A Flat Circle As People Online Debate If GTA 6 Has Suffered A Graphical Downgrade
Some things never change. Gravity makes things fall. CEOs are greedy. And of course, video game fans online will nitpick screenshots and trailers endlessly until a game is out, looking for secrets to share or flaws to catalog. And that’s happening with Grand Theft Auto 6 as fans debate a supposed graphical downgrade.
On June 24, Rockstar Games finally revealed that GTA 6 will cost $80. (Or, if you want everything, $100.) Alongside this news, Rockstar shared a huge amount of new screenshots of the game, which will only be available digitally at launch, with even “physical” copies simply containing a download code. And as you can expect, GTA fans began going over those new images with a fine-toothed comb. I did this myself and ended up finding a strange lore mistake. But others are, as you might expect, comparing screenshots and claiming that Rockstar Games had done the most dreaded, terrible, evil thing a game developer could ever do: Downgrade the visuals! We’ve seen this song and dance before…
Across Reddit, Twitter, and the GTA Forums, you can find people comparing buildings, bushes, and characters’ beards in an attempt to argue that GTA 6 doesn’t look as good today as it did the last time Rockstar showed it off. A lot of the debate is focused on a safehouse seen in the second trailer and now seen in a newly shared official screenshot. Some claim that the new version looks worse.
The GTA 6 graphics have been downgraded so much look#gta6 #GTAVI pic.twitter.com/KU9Qehr5dw
— GTA6 Insider Hub (@ShaarifRehan334) June 24, 2026
When people pushed back and pointed out that these images are showing two different times of day, might have different weather activity, and aren’t from the same angle, the downgrade believers began pointing out details like the bushes in front of the house.
“Look at the vegetation around Jason’s house (near motorcycle), POV is different, but cmon,” posted someone on the GTA Forums in a thread all about the supposed downgrade.
“The sun is in a completely different location and casting completely different shadows,” replied another user. “The lower sun is painting the scene in a yellow light, which changes the colour of the entire scene as well.” This same person then later posted gifs from Cyberpunk 2077 showing how the time of day can vastly alter the look of a scene and, yes, bushes as well.
“I hope I’m crazy,” posted a user on Twitter. “I don’t know if it’s just me, but I’m seeing a slight downgrade in the textures, and especially the characters’ hair.” They shared images of the main character Jason and his beard and hair from past trailers with images shared today by Rockstar.
I have to admit, I’m starting to get a bit worried about the actual graphics in GTA 6… 😟