With all eyes currently fixed on GTA 6, another Rockstar Games franchise is suddenly back in the conversation. That IP, as we say in the trade, is L.A. Noire, released in 2011 and famous for the "unbelievable" facial modelling of its characters, courtesy of MotionScan technology. It was staggering back then, and it's still rather impressive today.
Now, for the past few hours, social media has been in a frenzy following leaks dropped in a Reddit thread — leaks packed with some very interesting details. But why take any of this seriously? Because the same person had already shared several details about GTA 6. At the time, they mentioned 4 protagonists planned during development, before Rockstar ultimately refocused the story on Jason and Lucia. The same source also talked about various interactions allowing their relationship to evolve, as well as a Wanted Level system — elements that have since been confirmed by the GTA 6 gameplay trailer.
And on top of that, these claims are given extra weight by the fact that Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two's boss, has more or less let it slip himself...
Off to San Francisco on the trail of the Zodiac Killer
In fact, these rumours aren't new at all: they date back to December 2023 and were originally posted on 4chan. Except they've since been picked up on GTA Forums along with fresh details we hadn't seen until now. What's being said is that Rockstar is indeed working on a sequel to L.A. Noire, with a release pencilled in for around 2030. After Los Angeles in the first game, the action would this time unfold in San Francisco, with an investigation centred on the Zodiac Killer.
That infamous criminal, who terrorised California in the late 1960s, was never officially identified. A case that would give Rockstar plenty of rich material for building a new detective story, very much in the vein of the first L.A. Noire. The leak also claims the studio is looking to push the limits of facial capture even further to deliver characters that look more lifelike than ever. A choice that would echo the original 2011 game directly, which left its mark with MotionScan technology capable of faithfully reproducing characters' expressions during interrogations.
Big up Team Bondi
It's worth remembering that L.A. Noire wasn't developed directly by Rockstar Games, but by Australian studio Team Bondi, working alongside the star-logoed firm, which handled publishing. After the game's release in 2011, Team Bondi ran into serious financial trouble and was eventually placed into liquidation. Its assets were then taken over by Kennedy Miller Mitchell, with some of the developers joining that outfit. Rockstar Games, however, retained the rights to L.A. Noire. So it's the GTA studio that holds the licence today and could decide to give it a sequel, even if the team behind the original no longer exists in its initial form.
Strauss Zelnick just couldn't help himself
This rumour also chimes with far more recent comments from Strauss Zelnick, boss of Take-Two, Rockstar's parent company. During an interview, he was asked point-blank about the future of L.A. Noire. His first answer was a simple "Yes", before he immediately walked it back with a "You never know". Zelnick then explained that there was nothing to announce regarding L.A. Noire and that any announcement about a Rockstar franchise would come from the studio itself.
That exchange, which you can also watch on video, shows Strauss Zelnick struggling to contain his emotions and the urge to share the good news with the entire world. There's the hesitation, the body language — everything suggests L.A. Noire is among the priority franchises at Rockstar Games. That said, we'll need a genuine announcement from Rockstar before treating this sequel as a reality.
