Mark Your Calendars, GTA 6 Is Getting Some Serious Competition On Nov. 19

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@ 26/09/2026

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Published Sep 26, 2026, 12:36 PM EDT

Oli Welsh has been covering the business and culture of video games for two decades. He started out writing for Edge and other publications (specializing in MMOs and Blizzard, as cover for his World of Warcraft playtime) before joining Eurogamer, where he worked for 14 years as reviews editor, deputy editor, and editor-in-chief; Eurogamer won many Games Media Awards during his tenure. At Polygon, he writes about film and TV as well as games, and provides news, analysis, and criticism on the entertainment we love and the industries that make it, all from his home in London. He loves role-playing, racing, puzzles, tactics, exploration, storytelling, Nintendo, mysteries, spies, fantasy, reality, cars, and classic cinema. He wanted to be a movie critic when he grew up, and now he’s definitely grown up, and occasionally is one. He considers this a win.

Meet Phantom Vice Auto, a cheeky game with a cheeky release date

PC gamers will have GTA 6 at home on Nov. 19

Flying in the face of convention, Rockstar Games isn't launching Grand Theft Auto 6 on PC alongside PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X on Nov. 19. Why? You'd have to ask Rockstar. The official reason is that it likes to serve its core audience and work to fixed hardware specs first. (I'd be surprised if paranoia about software piracy isn't in the mix, too.)

Well, never mind, because thanks to an opportunistic Turkish developer, PC gamers will be able to enjoy free-roam driving, shooting pedestrians in the head, and possibly some other activities in a Miami-style metropolis on the same day GTA 6 launches. Brgames Interactive's Phantom Vice Auto will launch in early access on Steam on Nov. 19.

You've got to admire Brgames Interactive's chutzpah in going up against the biggest entertainment release of all time with, going by the trailer, an extremely unfinished product made by (at the most recent count available on the company's website) three people. You could see it as a cynical move, or a stupid one. But I choose to see it as bravery; after all, most other publishers and developers are bending over backwards not to release any games within six weeks of GTA 6. You go, Brgames Interactive.

Phantom Vice Auto, which has a distinctly familiar-looking logo, features driving (in at least four different types of car), shooting (using a choice of five guns), pedestrians, and parkour animations. That's about it, although the trailer is over a year old, so hopefully Brgames has had time to add things like a story and some missions.

The game's store page promises three playable protagonists in the style of GTA 5 — "a street-smart hustler, a disgraced former agent, and a cold-blooded mercenary" — and a 32-player standalone Phantom Vice Online mode. But perhaps the store page's proclamations should be taken with a grain of salt, since it also invites players to "experience entertainment blockbusters Phantom Vice Auto and Phantom Vice Auto Online — now upgraded for a new generation," as if this was a remaster of a classic release and not an early-access project that Brgames started work on in 2024 (again, according to the official website).

In all honesty, no-effort clones and copycats aren't a laughing matter; they are a blight on the game industry, a challenge to the livelihoods of smaller developers, and at best, needless clutter on digital storefronts. Phantom Vice Auto looks pretty amateurish. But context matters, and we're talking about the biggest and doubtless most expensive game production of all time versus three guys from Turkey. Aren't you tempted to root for them? Just a little bit?