The Grand Theft Auto 6 announcement graphic has become the new CD Projekt Red apology as brands scramble to snag some hype of their own

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Announcements for announcements are the new announcements.

Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer announcement template without text.
(Image credit: Rockstar Games)
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BREAKING: Following a leak, the first Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer dropped early.

In case you missed it, a little-known developer called Rockstar finally revealed that its first trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6 would be dropping on December 5. With little more than a graphic with warm sunset tones, palm trees, and the words "Trailer 1, December 5, 9 AM ET," the developer set fans into an absolute frenzy.

I don't know how I didn't see it coming, but that template has proved prime fodder for tons of others to hop straight on the hype train. The days since Rockstar's reveal have seen CD Projekt Red apology levels of mimicry and memery. While the Cyberpunk template was mostly utilised by fans—especially since attempts by actual developers, like in Guilty Gear's ArcSystemWorks' case, were not received too well—this one has been co-opted by numerous developers.

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A Grand Theft Auto 6-style announcement for Fall Guys.
(Image credit: @FallGuys via Twitter.)

Fall Guys' Mediatonic seems to have been one of the first to hop on the trend with their own rendition, giving one of their stages the same pinky-purple hue to announce a trailer coming on December 6. Other games like Halo Infinite, Overwatch, and Call of Duty swiftly joined in with GTA 6-themed announcement posts of their own, with the first two on December 4 and the latter on December 6.

It's even managed to expand beyond videogames, with the freakin' official São Paulo City account tweeting about the country's Samba Day using the Rockstar format. If that's not a sign of how much reach such a simple graphic has had, I don't know what is.

It makes sense for so many brands to be jumping in for their own slice of the hype pie, especially with something that's quickly becoming incredibly recognisable with relatively little effort. There'll no doubt be plenty more Rockstar replication moments in the future. For now, we have Grand Theft Auto 6's first trailer landing tomorrow (December 5) at 6 AM PT / 9 AM ET/ 2 PM GMT to pick apart frame-by-frame. We're definitely all going to be doing that, right?

Mollie Taylor
Mollie Taylor
Features Producer

Mollie spent her early childhood deeply invested in games like Killer Instinct, Toontown and Audition Online, which continue to form the pillars of her personality today. She joined PC Gamer in 2020 as a news writer and now lends her expertise to write a wealth of features, guides and reviews with a dash of chaos. She can often be found causing mischief in Final Fantasy 14, using those experiences to write neat things about her favourite MMO. When she's not staring at her bunny girl she can be found sweating out rhythm games, pretending to be good at fighting games or spending far too much money at her local arcade.