(Image credit: Rockstar Games)
I knew Grand Theft Auto 6's map was going to be big, but I hadn't expected Rockstar to proclaim that it is, in fact, almost as big as the maps from its last three games combined. An absolute whopper of a feature in the latest Edge magazine revealed a little bit about the sheer scale of Leonida, and hoo-boy, is it a big one.
Vice City and its surrounding areas are said to be almost as big as Grand Theft Auto 4, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Red Dead Redemption 2 combined. Which, considering the size of the latter two, is saying something.
But as we all know, quantity does not necessarily mean quality, and boasts about the size of a videogame world are sometimes followed by empty, unexciting expanses. Rockstar seems keen to express that GTA 6's map is not just sprawling, but also dense.
Co-studio head Aaron Garbut told Edge that Grand Theft Auto 6 contains "an order of magnitude more interiors" than the developer's previous games, for a start. That's something I'm pretty excited about personally, as someone who delights in interior design and absolutely hates running head-first into fake doors like Wile E. Coyote barrelling into painted tunnels.
It's not just interiors that have been given a lot of love, though. "Every back alley is as densely detailed and interesting as the others," Garbut says. "You can go anywhere, any random location, and so many people have thought about that location."
The tepid reception to the scarce stretches of Grand Theft Auto 5's northern areas like Senora Desert informed the creation of Leonida's outer reaches, too, which gives me hope that even Leonida's more barren biomes will have plenty to offer.
Image 1 of 8
Garbut says that even after years of development, there are still areas he's yet to explore. That sense of minute detail within such a vast landmass is the thing that has me most excited to poke around this fictional Florida—from soaking in every tongue-in-cheek parodied brand plastered across billboards, to the pockets of life that'll undoubtedly populate street corners and back alleys. If Leonida is as rich as Garbut describes, then I imagine I'll be spending an awful lot of time making note of every little touch.
As for when we can do that on PC, there's still no official word—only a rumor that the wait won't be long. We're not placing any bets at this point. A seven month gap between console and PC is typical for Rockstar, and GTA 5 took a year-and-a-half to make the jump.
