A resurfaced leak claims Rockstar is developing a sequel to L.A. Noire set in San Francisco and based on the Zodiac killer, with a possible 2030 release. The claim comes from an old GTA Forums post by user Shahansha, which has recently gained renewed attention on Reddit, according to a report by Metro.
The post, from December 2023, shared alleged details about GTA 6, none of which can be confirmed until after the game comes out, but which new interviews with Rockstar over the past few months have lent some unexpected credibility.
Leak details and credibility
The post claims GTA 6 was supposed to have four playable characters instead of two. This was confirmed by Rockstar North boss Rob Nelson recently, who said they decided to focus on Jason and Lucia instead so they're not 'diluting the amount of player time' with each character.
While this is one detail within the post, with the majority being alleged story spoilers that won't be verified until the game's launch, it's put renewed focus on the leak's claim around Rockstar's next title.
Alleged sequel setting and features
According to the post, Rockstar was in 'very early stages of development' on a sequel to L.A. Noire at the time. Additionally, it's claimed the follow-up was set in San Francisco and based around the Zodiac killer, an unidentified serial killer who murdered at least five people in the area between December 1968 and October 1969.
The post further claims it will 'probably be 2030 when it comes out' and that Rockstar was 'talking about doing the face scanning stuff again, but making it insane'. The original L.A. Noire famously used advanced facial recognition technology, titled MotionScan, to replicate the performances of actors within the game.
Industry hints and background
While it's still worth taking this post with a pinch of salt, earlier this year, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick did state that they were considering making more L.A. Noire games. 'You never know,' Zelnick said. 'The answer broadly is we're looking at doing something in the future with all of our intellectual property, but nothing to announce.'
L.A. Noire is an action adventure game where you solve cases as detective Cole Phelps. While there hasn't been a sequel, an enhanced version of the game was released on Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2017, along with a VR port.
There are other signs that Rockstar is cooking up a sequel. L.A. Noire's original director, Brendan McNamara, rejoined the studio as the head of Rockstar Australia in March last year. Before the team was acquired by Rockstar, the studio was called Video Game Deluxe and worked on L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files and GTA: The Definitive Trilogy.
