EDINBURGH, Nov. 10 -- Grand Theft Auto VI will ask players to follow another criminal conspiracy, but its harder task may be persuading them to care about everything that happens outside it. The series has built its appeal not only through missions and violence, but through the ordinary-looking streets, music and interruptions that make a fictional city worth inhabiting.

Rockstar Games lists November 19 as the release date for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Its official description places protagonists Jason and Lucia inside a conspiracy stretching across Leonida, with their survival dependent on each other after an easy score goes wrong.

That is the advertised story. Whether players remember the finished game for that plot, or for a...