GTA 6 Originally Planned to Include North and South America

Rockstar Games originally envisioned Grand Theft Auto VI as a much larger open-world game featuring locations inspired by both North and South America, according to new details about the project's development.

The ambitious concept, internally known as Project Americas, was eventually scaled back to focus on Vice City and the surrounding state of Leonida.

In a new Bloomberg investigation by Jason Schreier, Rockstar development director Rob Nelson discussed the game's early planning and how its scope changed over time.

The project began taking shape in 2015, when members of Rockstar's development team traveled to Miami to research the real-world locations that would inspire the game's environment.

At that stage, the studio considered creating a much broader setting that would include regions across two continents.

However, the scale of the proposed world presented considerable production challenges. Rockstar ultimately decided to concentrate its resources on developing a more focused environment centered around its fictional version of Miami.

The decision does not mean that GTA 6's final map will be small. Leonida includes several distinct locations, ranging from the urban streets of Vice City to rural communities, wetlands, and mountainous regions.

Importantly, the original Project Americas concept does not confirm that Rockstar completed playable versions of South American locations before removing them. The report describes an early development vision rather than finished content.

Although the studio abandoned its original geographical ambitions, the revised setting remains one of the central elements of GTA 6's development.

Grand Theft Auto VI is scheduled for release on November 19, 2026, for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.