Game Informer Cover Story Reveals GTA 6 Map Size, 170 Animal Species, Dynamic Weather

The game's world consists of six primary regions: Vice City, the Leonida Keys, Grassrivers, Port Gellhorn, Ambrosia, and Mount Kalaha National Park. Rockstar North co-studio head Aaron Garbut told Game Informer that the open world is the largest Rockstar Games has created "by some degree," and TechRadar reported that it is twice as big as GTA 5's world, with more density, population, and interactivity. "This new world is different," Garbut said. "We obsessed about every part – the rooftops, the alleys, the internals and everything in between to the point we hit a critical mass with the numbers of our interiors, and you start to feel the buildings are more real inside and out. This world is a cohesive whole with the density of content and a hand-crafted quality to every bit."

GTA 6 will also feature a re-engineered weather system that Rockstar describes as more localized and persistent. Players will encounter hot, sunny weather, rain showers, lightning storms and other conditions. Puddles will remain after rain, realistic rainbows will appear, and lighting will change depending on the situation. Owen Shepherd, Rockstar's vice president of art for lighting and rendering, said the team wanted the world to "feel dynamically solid" and achieve a sense of scale. "The world features new fully dynamic cloudscapes that roll across the map; these give us a broad spectrum of weather from the clear blue skies of a Miami winter to the vertiginous cumulonimbus clouds with sporadic lighting that you see most afternoons in the Floridian summer and autumn," Shepherd said.

The game includes 170 animal species, with many native to Leonida and never before seen in a Rockstar title. The count includes more than 60 bird types and more than 30 land mammals, as well as fish and reptiles. Players can pet dogs, and Rockstar vice president of dynamic art Michael Kane said creatures such as flamingos, pelicans and alligators will appear. "Florida has a diverse animal ecosystem that we wanted to faithfully include across the different biomes in Leonida – urban and rural environs, aquatic life both inland and ocean, and the wetland habitats like the swamps and Everglades," Kane said. He added that the animal art and population teams researched the animals and worked on movement and animation.

Rockstar has also focused on non-player characters. The game features over 600,000 combined animations for handcrafted NPCs, and Rockstar has previously confirmed it established a Los Angeles-based team of writers, directors and producers to focus solely on NPCs. Kane described the effort as "huge artist-driven" and aimed at making characters "authentic and representative" for both story requirements and the broader Leonida map. NPCs will have different heights, skin and body types, and individual features. Kane said Rockstar paid close attention to culturally correct tattoo styles, hair and fashion, creating the biggest range of garments and accessories it has made, with materials, colors, patterns and branding tied to location and context.

TechRadar's report also listed robberies and the wanted system among the topics covered by Game Informer's cover story. The excerpt did not include further details on those systems.

Editor's Summary

Game Informer's cover story has revealed new GTA 6 details, including a map twice the size of GTA 5's, 170 animal species, a localized weather system, and expanded NPC detail. TechRadar reported the information ahead of the game's launch, citing Rockstar developers. The disclosures add to expectations for the scale and simulation systems in one of the industry's most anticipated releases.