GTA 6 Map: How different will it be from GTA 5's Map?

One of the gaming community's favourite pastime before a game's release is to speculate and form theories. The games in the GTA franchise are some of the most hotly-anticipated titles of the year and have a lot of buzz surrounding them before their release.

Fans on the internet have been buzzing since the release of GTA 5 and have already discussed the possibilities of GTA 6, which was reported to be in early development as of April 2020.

Rockstar Games, as a studio, have always strived to become bigger and better with each AAA release. 2018's Red Dead Redemption 2 was bigger- in every sense of the word- when compared to their last release: GTA 5.

The map of each game is a great indicator of the scale and scope of the game. As GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 both have very huge maps, expectations are high for GTA 6.

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How different will GTA 6's map be from GTA 5?

GTA 6 Concept Map (Reddit) A fan render of the GTA 6 Map combining areas from previous games

The biggest source of information regarding GTA 6 has been a Kotaku report that was a result of an investigation into Rockstar's work culture.

Reportedly, the game was being developed under the title of "Project AMERICAS", and it has been suggested that the map is far larger than the one in GTA 5.

Scale and Size

It is fair to assume that Rockstar will go for a larger map, as has been the case with every instalment, although they could go the CD Projekt Red route and deliver a more dense but smaller map.

However, that has never been Rockstar's style as they have always looked to go beyond cities and develop a full-sized state.

With reports of the game being set in Vice City, it will be safe to assume that GTA 6 will feature a larger, extended version of the map of the city from GTA: Vice City.

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Multiple Playable Locations

Possible Rio-inspired city in GTA VI

Another rumour that has gained traction due to the report from Kotaku is that the player will have more than one open-world area in the game to explore.

A Southern-American city inspired by Rio de Janeiro has been the one getting the most attention from the fans. This means that the player will be able to travel large distances by planes and switch back and forth between two or more open worlds.

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Cities from previous games

A fan render of the GTA VI map with locations from previous games (picture credits: the leaker)

It has long been the ambition of Rockstar to integrate cities from all their games into one giant map. With the next-gen consoles boasting of impressive hardware, perhaps GTA 6 will be the game where locations from previous games will be integrated into one.

However, that is an extremely tough balancing act as larger maps are simply not interesting. Maps must be engaging and should help serve the game thematically as well as functionally.