Grand Theft Auto 6 is in ‘active development,’ Rockstar confirms

 Rockstar Games confirmed Friday that it’s currently working on the next game in the Grand Theft Auto series — presumably, but not yet officially, titled Grand Theft Auto 6 — saying that active development on its next-gen open-world crime spree game is “well underway.”

Confirmation of a new Grand Theft Auto came tucked away in a community update on all things GTA, including Grand Theft Auto 5 — originally released way back in 2013 — and the enduring Grand Theft Auto Online.

Here’s what Rockstar had to say about the next Grand Theft Auto game:

“With the unprecedented longevity of GTAV, we know many of you have been asking us about a new entry in the Grand Theft Auto series. With every new project we embark on, our goal is always to significantly move beyond what we have previously delivered — and we are pleased to confirm that active development for the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series is well underway. We look forward to sharing more as soon as we are ready, so please stay tuned to the Rockstar Newswire for official details.

“On behalf of our entire team, we thank you all for your support and cannot wait to step into the future with you!”

Rockstar did not offer any additional details on the next entry in the GTA franchise — release date, platforms, the game’s location, and gameplay specifics will have to wait until the developer sees fit to announce them. But with an audience of more than 155 million players on Grand Theft Auto 5 and an ever-growing world in GTA Online, expectations for GTA 6 are high.

Grand Theft Auto 5 will find an even larger audience next month, when the game is re-released in enhanced form for PlayStation 5 And Xbox Series X. Rockstar will bring GTA 5 to the latest consoles from Sony and Microsoft on March 15. Those versions of GTA 5 will feature updated visuals: up to 4K resolution, up to 60 frames per second, texture and draw distance upgrades, HDR options, and ray tracing. A stand-alone version of GTA Online will also arrive on March 15, which will be available for free for the first three months to PlayStation 5 players.

The Grand Theft Auto franchise turns 25 this year. The first game, Grand Theft Auto, was released on MS-DOS, PlayStation, and Windows PC in 1997. After two entries and spinoffs, Rockstar reinvented its action-crime series with 2001’s Grand Theft Auto 3, a 3D open-world action-adventure game that spawned two bestselling sequels: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Grand Theft Auto 4 followed in 2008.

Since Grand Theft Auto 5’s release in 2013, Rockstar has released just one brand-new game: Red Dead Redemption 2. Over the past eight years, much of Rockstar’s effort has been focused on supporting GTA Online (and Red Dead Online), and re-releasing portions of its back catalog. The studio shipped Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — The Definitive Edition, a remaster of GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas — to mixed response in November. The collection launched in a buggy state, leading the contrite developer to apologize, update, and overhaul the game.

Hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio warns the 2024 elections will lead to civil war

 Hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio has a jolting message for Americans: The U.S. is hurtling toward civil war. Yes, you read that right. 

The co–chief investment officer and chairman of Bridgewater Associates warned in a LinkedIn post on Thursday that large deficits, high taxes, and high inflation combined with widespread wealth inequality and unprecedented Washington partisanship will lead to civil war, “though these fights can be more or less violent,” he said. 

When foreign powers like China and Russia challenge a country dealing with high levels of disagreement, “it is an especially risky period,” wrote Dalio. “I believe we are in this period now.” 

An increase in populism and extremism, plus fights between the left and right, are classic indicators of future warlike conflict, he said. Political extremists see respecting the law as secondary to winning, and internal conflicts become self-reinforcing, added Dalio, alluding to Jan. 6, 2021, when supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the outcome of the presidential election, resulting in the deaths of five people and numerous injuries. 

Dalio, who is promoting his new book about economic histories and the rise and fall of nations, also laid out what he described as six stages of internal disorder and order. It begins with the creation of a new government followed by periods of peace and prosperity. Eventually, excess spending and the accumulation of wealth and power weigh on the system, leading to “bad financial conditions and intense conflict,” the stage we're in now, according to Dalio. The next step, he says, is civil war and revolution, which leads back to step one. 

“History shows that raising taxes and cutting spending when there are large wealth gaps and bad economic conditions, more than anything else, has been a leading indicator of civil wars or revolutions of some type,” he said. 

Dalio has long voiced concern about issues such as income equality and has called for higher tax rates for the wealthy. In the past, he's made campaign contributions to late Republican Sen. John McCain, but he has made no contributions in recent years.

In the 2022 midterm elections, Dalio predicts moderates will lose seats while extremists and populists in both parties will gain them. He also predicts that Supreme Court rulings will become more contentious, leading to big tests of power. By the 2024 presidential election, he said, there will be a “battle between the populists of the right and the populists of the left in which neither side will accept losing."

"Such a sequence of events will be consistent with the typical path that leads to civil war," he said.

And while Dalio says this civil war could look very different from previous ones, it’s not unfathomable that people will die, just as they did on Jan. 6. 

“The most obvious clear marker of going into a bad civil war is people dying,” he wrote. “History shows that when people start dying in conflicts—even just a few of them—that one expects much worse because then emotions and the need for retributions fuel more fighting.”

Cryptocurrency Prices Today: Bitcoin, Ethereum jump 9% each

 The global cryptocurrency market capitalisation rose to $1.87 trillion over the last 24 hours from $1.70 trillion, while the trading volumes climbed to $90.36 billion from $68.72 billion on February 4.

The decentralised finance (DeFi) accounted for 13.44 percent of the total cryptocurrency trading volume at $12.21 billion in the last 24 hours. On the other hand, stable coins accounted for 81.35 percent of the crypto market 24-hour volume at $73.92 billion.

Bitcoin's market dominance rose marginally to 41.65 percent and the virtual token was trading at $41,388.68 on February 5. The world's biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, is up 23.2% from the year's low of $32,950.72 on January 24.

In terms of INR, Bitcoin prices climbed over 9 percent to Rs 32,33,214, while Ethereum advanced 9.5 percent to Rs 2,34,199.9.

Cardano rose nearly 6 percent to Rs 88.73 and Avalanche jumped over 11 percent to Rs 6,096.60. Polkadot rose over 7 percent to Rs 1,617.09 and Litecoin was up 6.7 percent at Rs 9,320 in the last 24 hours.

Cryptocurrency will never be a legal tender, Indian Finance Secretary T V Somanathan had said on Thursday clearing the air on the legality of private digital currencies in the market. The 2022-23 Budget has given a clarity on taxation of virtual digital assets and proposed to impose a 30 percent tax on gains made on such trades, besides subjecting crypto transactions, beyond a threshold, to 1 percent TDS.

As of 8:25 am, these were the prices of various cryptocurrencies in the Indian market (Data from WazirX.com)

CRYPTOCURRENCY	PRICE (IN RS)	24-HOUR CHANGE (IN PERCENT)
Bitcoin	32,27,530	8.75
Ethereum	2,34,076.5	9.3
Cardano	88.89	6.08
Tether	78.19	-1.84
Solana	8,713.10	6.76
Avalanche	6,098.397	12.07
Litecoin	9,340.19	7.05
XRP	52.13	7.16
Axie	4,163.30	6.75