While Rockstar has teased the size of GTA 6’s playable map a few times, the heads behind the next Grand Theft Auto outing also want you to know that it’s not all hollow space. Anywhere you go, there’s intentionality.
Speaking to Edge, Rockstar says GTA 6’s map is nearly as large as the combined efforts of Grand Theft Auto 4, 5, and Red Dead Redemption 2. But it doesn’t stop there. While you often see procedural generation to achieve sheer size, Rockstar leans on a human touch to ensure the map is dense with interest. Rockstar North co-studio lead Aaron Garbut says GTA 6 features “an order of magnitude more interiors” than what’s come before.
“Every back alley is as densely detailed and interesting as the others,” he says. “You can go anywhere, any random location, and so many people have thought about that location.”
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Such is the case; Garbut says he’s still finding new things despite having explored the game for many years during its development.
Rockstar’s ambition is the sort we’ve seen in the games industry for many years, as developers drum up excitement by teasing scale and interactivity we’ve never seen before. When marketing Skyrim, Bethesda boss Todd Howard famously said “that mountain is not just a backdrop; you can walk all the way to the top of that mountain.”
He isn’t the only one, of course – Randy Pitchford did something similar with Borderlands 4 just last year. Still, the sense that there’s something more to what’s in front of you than what’s come before is something I still enjoy. It speaks to an ambition to reach a new level in a way I find almost nostalgic.
And there’s plenty of that with GTA 6. Edge mentions that the homes of strangers you come across aren’t merely blank. There’s history on the walls, in the form of photographs, alongside the sort of clutter in living rooms and kitchens that gives off the vibe that someone lives here, making an entry into a house feel like trespassing.
On that, Garbut shares a story about walking into a home and finding pictures of the family pet, only to walk into the next room and find that very dog, and the consequences its owner is going to face for leaving them alone.
“The whole place was trashed,” he says. “There was shit in the corner, smeared around a bit.”
If that isn’t art, what is?
