Rockstar North co-studio head Rob Nelson walked through GTA 6's weapon carry system in a Q&A with YouTuber TGG published September 7. The rules are specific: 'You can always have two concealed handguns on you whenever you want. You can carry two long guns and they will be visible on your back and in your hand.' Four weapons at most, with the visibility of each one shaping how the world responds. A long gun slung on the player's back passes without much incident. Walking around with one drawn does not.
The NPC behavior shifts around that distinction. Nelson's line on the split: if you just have a long gun on your back you should be fine, but if you have one in your hand, people do not like it and start moving away from you. His summary: 'People will react to you if you are rolling around like that.' Nelson did not detail how police specifically respond to an openly carried long gun, and no preview coverage has spelled that out yet.
'In GTA 5, you can pull out a shotgun from nowhere in front of people and they don't react. That doesn't work here,' Nelson said. The reasoning behind the change, in his own words: 'We don't feel that works any longer at this resolution with the behavioural sophistication we need from our population now.' IBTimes UK, GamesRadar, and Dexerto all reported the exchange on September 7. The Q&A is part of ongoing post-August 27 disclosure from preview attendees who were at Rockstar North's Edinburgh headquarters in July. GTA 6 launches November 19 on PS5 and Xbox Series X and S.