GTA 6 fans desperate for an October reveal are convinced Rockstar are trolling them

A few weeks ago I wrote about Grand Theft Auto players describing the movement of planes in random GTA promotional art as evidence of a forthcoming GTA 6 reveal, timed to intersect with the waning gibbous moon. I thought that the furore might die down after GTA 6 failed to materialise in accordance with the lunar cycle, but it turns out this rabbit hole has no bottom.

Come now, gaze upon the above, just-posted Rockstar promotional image for a new Red Dead Online outfit. To my eye, that picture looks like a weird dude in a mask, gazing at you through piles of skulls. Standard Halloween gamer fare. But it turns out that when you draw lines on it using MS Paint, you end up with the below.

Case closed! And that's just the run-of-the-mill speculation, the tip of a vast and very complicated iceberg of gossip and conjecture. You've also got people out there posting wobbly handycam footage of supposed NDAs pointing to a 26th October trailer drop. You've got extensive written breakdowns of said trailer, which will feature the fine prog pop stylings of Genesis - absolutely the kind of band I can imagine gracing a GTA reveal, in fairness. You've got full-on, nigh-professional mock-ups that mix GTA Online footage with cheesy VA, and you've got somebody in Brazil claiming they have a dev build.

One question all this raises, of course, is to what degree people are taking the piss. It's obvious that some of the rumour-mongers are in it for the lulz, but the ratio of pranksters to true believers is hard to pin down. Perhaps everybody involved is having a laugh. Are Rockstar also having a laugh, trolling fans with suggestive negative space in promos, then soaking up the frenzy? It would certainly be on-brand, as a growing number of people are pointing out on Xitter and Resetera.

What stage of postmodernism is it, when there is no longer anyone left to be the butt of the joke? The answer, apparently, is: GTA 6. More as we don't get it.