A first glimpse of the sixth game in the Grand Theft Auto series has finally been revealed after the trailer for the long-awaited blockbuster was leaked.

Developer Rockstar pressed publish 15 hours before a heavily trailed release after a low-quality copy spread online.

The 90-second teaser confirmed the game will be set in Miami-inspired Vice City and star a female protagonist, Lucia, for the first time since the 1990s.

But the waiting isn’t over, as the game isn’t due to be released until 2025.

The latest main game in the series will be the sequel to 2013’s smash hit GTA V, which became the second best-selling video game of all time, following Minecraft.

There have been seemingly endless rumours and leaks for the past decade about GTA VI.

The mere confirmation that a trailer was coming – an announcement of an announcement, if you will – was enough to spark global headlines in November as desperate fans sought out any information about the new game.

The trailer shows people racing cars, partying on boats and a man pulling an alligator out of a swimming pool, all to the Americana sounds of Love is a Long Road by Tom Petty.

Gamer Jess, known as “Rage Darling” online, usually streams multiplayer RPGs but said she’s been “keeping an eye on” the upcoming game.

“If you’re not at least intrigued by GTA, you’re a bit of a black sheep at this point, because it’s so big,” she said.

She said the series “has always been a man’s game”, but the new female perspective has left her intrigued.

While it’s been a long time since GTA had a female protagonist in a mainline game – the last was back on the original PlayStation – she thinks the impact on the wider industry will be big.

“I think this is just going to show a lot of other game developers and AAA developers that having a female front and centre is a non-issue,” she said.

But while the trailer provides lots of things for fans to chew over, some questions have yet to be answered.

Chief among them is which consoles the game will release on, as this information was not revealed in the video.

However, Take-Two Interactive, which publishes the game, has announced GTA VI will launch on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X when it releases in 2025.

There is no further information on the release date, or on a potential PC version – though if it follows the same pattern of previous games in the series, a PC release will follow.

GTA IV and V both came out on PC several months after they launched on console.

Fans are also asking who provides the voice behind lead character Lucia, but the identity of the voice actor remains a mystery.

It has taken a long time for the new game to come, and James Binns, chairman of gaming media firm Network N, said that might be explained by the sheer success of GTA V, which sold 190 million copies worldwide.

“It’s one of the biggest games in the world and it’s kept alive now by GTA Online, an online game where you rob banks and build gangs,” he said.

“That means it’s at the top of the play charts most weeks now for Xbox, PlayStation and PC.

“They spent over a billion dollars on it, so it’s going to be epic in scale. This is going to be the most expensive game ever made.”

Previously the gaming giant’s president Sam Houser said the December release for the trailer was intended to coincide with its 25th anniversary.

Originally developed in Dundee in 1997 by DMA Design, later known as Rockstar North, GTA has been as critically and commercially successful as it has been controversial.

Questions were even asked in the House of Lords about the first game’s violent content.

Rockstar has separately announced a deal with Netflix to bring several of its titles to the streaming giant’s gaming offering.

GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas – all much-beloved by gamers – will be made available to Netflix subscribers on mobile devices on 14 December.

Additional reporting by Tom Richardson and Andrew Rogers.