While millions of players are waiting for Grand Theft Auto VI, a resurfaced rumor claims Rockstar Games may already have another familiar franchise in mind for what comes next — L.A. Noire.
According to an unverified leak that has recently resurfaced within the GTA community, Rockstar is reportedly considering a sequel to its acclaimed detective game, with the project potentially taking players to San Francisco and building its story around the infamous Zodiac Killer case.
The same rumor claims the game could be targeting a release around 2030, although there is currently no official confirmation from either Rockstar Games or parent company Take-Two Interactive.
The information originally appeared as part of a series of anonymous claims posted on 4chan in 2023 and later shared on GTAForums. It has attracted renewed attention because some of the source's earlier comments about Grand Theft Auto VI appear to line up with details Rockstar has since discussed publicly.
Among them was the idea that Rockstar had considered having four protagonists in GTA VI before ultimately settling on Jason and Lucia. Rockstar North co-studio head Rob Nelson recently confirmed that the development team had indeed explored the possibility of increasing the number of playable characters before deciding that four protagonists would dilute the player's connection with each of them.
That does not confirm anything about an L.A. Noire sequel, but it has been enough to bring the old rumor back into the spotlight.
San Francisco, the Zodiac Killer and a new generation of facial animation
According to the leak, a potential L.A. Noire sequel would leave 1940s Los Angeles behind and move north to San Francisco.
The story would reportedly revolve around the Zodiac Killer, the unidentified serial killer connected to a series of murders and cryptic letters in Northern California during the late 1960s.
Such a setting would represent a major change from the original game while still fitting naturally within L.A. Noire's focus on detective work, investigations and morally complicated crimes.
The rumor also suggests that Rockstar wants to significantly advance one of the original game's most distinctive technologies: facial performance capture.
L.A. Noire became famous in 2011 for its use of MotionScan, a facial capture system that recorded actors from multiple angles and reproduced subtle expressions in-game. Those performances were not merely visual decoration, as reading a suspect's facial reactions played an important role during interrogations.
According to the resurfaced claim, Rockstar is exploring a far more advanced version of that concept for the sequel, with the ambition of making the game a new visual benchmark for the industry.
Again, none of these details have been officially confirmed.
Take-Two has already acknowledged L.A. Noire's future potential
Although the current sequel claims remain firmly in rumor territory, there are legitimate signs that Take-Two has not forgotten about the franchise.
Earlier this year, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick was asked directly whether the company intended to do more with L.A. Noire.
While he stopped short of announcing a new project, Zelnick said Take-Two continues to evaluate opportunities across all of its intellectual property and confirmed there was nothing specific to announce regarding L.A. Noire.
Rockstar itself has also previously said that a sequel was possible, although the company has historically avoided committing to follow-ups simply because a previous game was successful.
Perhaps even more interesting is Rockstar's growing presence in Australia.
In 2025, Rockstar acquired Sydney-based developer Video Games Deluxe and renamed it Rockstar Australia.
The studio was founded by Brendan McNamara, the director of the original L.A. Noire and founder of its original developer, Team Bondi. Video Games Deluxe had already worked with Rockstar for years, including on the 2017 re-release of L.A. Noire and L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files.
Team Bondi itself was never acquired by Rockstar. The studio entered administration and was eventually liquidated following the release of L.A. Noire in 2011, with its assets moving elsewhere.
Still, Rockstar bringing McNamara's newer studio directly into the company naturally makes any renewed speculation surrounding L.A. Noire more interesting.
What about the mysterious L.A. Noire Part Two music?
This is also not the first time fans have suspected that something related to L.A. Noire might be happening behind the scenes.
Back in 2020, an automatically generated YouTube music listing appeared under the title The Music of L.A. Noire Part Two.
The listing quickly attracted attention because its metadata appeared to reference Take-Two Interactive, while several tracks and a fictional radio station presentation seemed to suggest some connection to the franchise.
The content was later removed, but nothing official ever came from it, meaning the listing should not be treated as confirmation that a sequel was — or remains — in development.
For now, the situation surrounding L.A. Noire remains much the same as it has for years: Rockstar owns a highly regarded franchise that fans have repeatedly asked to see return, Take-Two has publicly acknowledged that its legacy IP remains under consideration, and Rockstar now owns an Australian studio with unusually strong connections to the original game.
Whether that eventually leads to a new L.A. Noire set in San Francisco and centered on the Zodiac Killer remains entirely unconfirmed.
But if the resurfaced leak proves accurate, Rockstar's first major post-GTA VI project could look very different from the massive modern open worlds the studio has become known for.
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