A big new report revealed more details about Rockstar's long-awaited GTA 6, including how the game's scope was originally much bigger and that the game could have released years sooner.
Bloomberg reported that when a small team from Rockstar traveled to Miami in 2015 to begin planning GTA 6, they envisioned the game spanning "big swaths of land across both North and South America." It was in development under the codename Project Americas at this time.
The report went on to say that Rockstar would pare down GTA 6's scope to include Miami and its surrounding areas instead of the original ambition. It's not a small world, though, as GTA 6's map is 3X bigger than the map in Rockstar's last game, 2018's Red Dead Redemption II. In addition to GTA 6's version of Miami with Vice City, the game takes players to a range of other locations in greater Leonida, which is a stand-in for Florida.
The confirmed major locations in GTA 6 so far include:
- Vice City
- Leonida Keys
- Grassrivers
- Port Gellhorn
- Ambrosia
- Mount Kalaga
The report also digs into how Rockstar originally planned to develop GTA 6 concurrently with Red Dead Redemption II, which would have helped GTA 6 come to market sooner. However, as the scope for Red Dead Redemption II grew, Rockstar's Rob Nelson came to realize he needed to assign more staff at Rockstar's network of studios to help get the Western out the door in 2018.
According to Bloomberg, this meant GTA 6 would be delayed "several years," but one silver lining was how the work that went into Red Dead Redemption II would "pay off when we get to the game [GTA 6]."
Nelson pointed out that Rockstar, at one point in time, developed multiple games concurrently across offices, but now, Rockstar's network of teams work on one project together before moving on to the next.
Also in the report, Rockstar denied the rumor that GTA 6 cost $1.5 billion to develop, but did not provide any specifics on the actual cost. The game has reportedly generated $600 million in revenue through pre-sales and that number could rise to $2 billion before the game even releases.
GTA 6 was originally set to launch in 2025 before getting delayed to May 2026 and then again to November 2026. When Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick heard about the second delay, he said to Rockstar, "Please tell me you're kidding."
GTA 6 launches on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, unless it is delayed again, which Rockstar has not ruled out.