The Epsilon Program made grown adults walk across a desert in a cyan robe for ten in-game days. We loved it. Now GTA 6 is heading to Leonida, a fictionalized Florida dripping with exactly the kind of sun-baked, wellness-cult energy that makes the Epsilon Program feel less like satire and more like a documentary. So yeah: is Kifflom coming home?
What the Epsilon Program actually was, and why it worked
If you somehow skipped this questline in GTA V, here’s the short version: Michael De Santa gets pulled into a Scientology-adjacent cult called the Epsilon Program, fronted by a guy named Cris Formage who speaks entirely in pseudo-spiritual word salad that sounds profound until you realize it means absolutely nothing. The missions escalate from mildly absurd to genuinely insane. You donate increasingly obscene sums of money. You wear the robe. You walk across the desert. At the end you can hand over $2.1 million to these lunatics or steal it back and trigger a surprisingly chaotic getaway.
It worked because Rockstar committed to the bit completely. The Epsilon website (which was a real, functioning site) had its own lore, its own scripture, its own taxonomy of nonsense. In-game radio ran Epsilon ads. This wasn’t just a side quest — it was a fully realized parody institution baked into the fabric of Los Santos. That kind of world-building depth is what Rockstar is known for, and it’s exactly the sort of thing you’d expect them to revisit in their biggest game ever. And expand on.
Florida is basically Epsilon Program HQ in real life
I don’t want to be rude to Florida residents, but — you know. The Sunshine State gave us Scientology’s global headquarters in Clearwater, actual Florida Man headlines that read like GTA mission briefings, and a peculiar convergence of wellness influencers, megachurch pastors, and get-rich-quick gurus under one very humid sky.
Rockstar couldn’t have picked a better backdrop for Epsilon’s return even if they’d tried. The real-world texture of Leonida — the gap between obscene coastal wealth and desperate poverty, the influencer culture, the retirement communities, the spring break chaos — is tailor-made for a cult that preys on the lost, the bored, and the conspicuously rich. If the Epsilon Program doesn’t show up in GTA 6, that’s a missed layup on a level that should genuinely concern us about the game’s writing ambitions.
Think about it structurally, too. GTA V’s Epsilon missions were locked to Michael, one of three protagonists. GTA 6 centers on dual protagonists, Jason and Lucia. A cult storyline woven through both their perspectives, each character approaching it differently? That’s a screenwriter’s dream, honestly.
What the trailers and leaks actually tell us
The first GTA 6 trailer was mostly Rockstar flexing their tech and establishing Leonida’s aesthetic — and what an aesthetic it is. But look past the pelicans and the twerking and the mugshot montage for a second. The trailer leans hard into social media culture, influencer content, and the performance of wealth. That’s the exact ecosystem the Epsilon Program thrives in. Cris Formage was essentially a proto-influencer before influencers existed — selling an identity and a lifestyle wrapped in deliberately vague spiritual language. In 2026, that playbook is more relevant than ever.
The 2022 Rockstar data breach — the one that leaked roughly 90 videos of early GTA 6 footage — didn’t show anything explicitly Epsilon-related, but that’s not really surprising. Early-development footage always prioritizes core mechanics over questline details. What it did confirm was the level of environmental storytelling Rockstar is going for: functional businesses, diverse NPC behaviors, a world that feels lived-in. That’s the infrastructure you need for something like the Epsilon Program to feel real rather than grafted on.
One more thing worth mentioning: the Epsilon Program’s in-game website was still technically active for years after GTA V launched. Rockstar doesn’t maintain dead IP. They let things go quiet until they don’t.
What form could it actually take?
Grounded speculation here — not the “GTA 6 will have 47 playable cities” nonsense that clogs up YouTube thumbnails.
The most obvious evolution is Epsilon going full social media cult. Cris Formage preaching to millions of followers via a thinly veiled Instagram-equivalent, monetizing the Kifflom lifestyle through merch drops and exclusive retreats, maybe running a podcast. That’s not satire anymore. That’s just Tuesday. And Rockstar has always been sharpest when the satire gets uncomfortably close to reality.
There’s also a strong case for Epsilon having a Leonida chapter distinct from Los Santos — a coastal compound somewhere between a luxury wellness retreat and a place you definitely can’t leave voluntarily. The Florida geography practically writes the mission design: airboat chases through the Everglades, helicopter extractions from private islands, desperate escapes through swamp terrain. Compare that to GTA V’s relatively contained desert missions and you start to see how much more the setting can offer.
One thing I’d push back on is the theory that Epsilon becomes a main story faction this time. Rockstar’s strength with the Program was always its optional, escalating weirdness — it rewarded curiosity rather than forcing the player through it. Mainlining it into the critical path would dilute exactly what makes it work. Keep it tucked away. Let people stumble onto it.
The case for, the case against
Rockstar isn’t contractually obligated to bring back every beloved element from GTA V, and frankly, some fan expectations for GTA 6 have reached a level of entitlement that’s genuinely embarrassing — people acting like if the game doesn’t include their specific feature wishlist it’s somehow a failure. The Epsilon Program returning isn’t guaranteed just because we want it.
The counter-argument that holds the most weight: Rockstar might want an entirely fresh cult parody rather than revisit Epsilon. New game, new city, new institutions. Florida has plenty of real-world source material to inspire something original — they don’t need to recycle Kifflom to tell that story.
But the Epsilon Program has thirteen years of fan attachment, an established lore, and a website Rockstar has periodically updated. That’s not nothing. IP that valuable doesn’t get retired because a new game ships. More likely, it evolves.
My actual take: the Epsilon Program returns in GTA 6, runs deeper than it did in GTA V, and at least one mission involves navigating a social media livestream as part of the cult’s public-facing recruitment strategy. That’s my prediction and I’m prepared to be wrong about it in the comments.
So — do you think Kifflom makes the trip from Los Santos to Leonida? And more importantly: would you put on the robe again? Drop your take below, because if Rockstar is watching fan discussions for this stuff — and let’s be honest, they are — the least we can do is be loud about what we actually want.
