Grand Theft Auto VI Leaks Cite Modern Vice City Setting, Evolving Map

A number of Grand Theft Auto VI details seem to have emerged from established leaker Tom Henderson. Henderson spoke on what he has heard in a video uploaded to his channel late last month. As a disclaimer, he clarified that he is not necessarily known for Grand Theft Auto-related leaks but still wanted to pass along the information that has been shared with him.

Henderson claims that Grand Theft Auto VI will take place in a modern version of Vice City. Developer Rockstar Games supposedly wants to stick with a modern setting in order to give its developers freedom to create DLC for the game’s Grand Theft Auto Online component. While Vice City will allegedly start out smaller than fans expect, Henderson says this DLC would aid in Rockstar’s plan to expand and evolve the map, comparing the strategy to Epic Games’ dynamic Fortnite approach. Grand Theft Auto VI will also adopt the multiple protagonist gameplay seen in Grand Theft Auto V, with one playable character being a “bright” female protagonist with hacking abilities.

Other gameplay-related details are scarce, however, as Henderson predicts the game won’t be out until sometime between 2024 and 2025. This is because Grand Theft Auto VI development is still very much a work in progress, and Rockstar is newly committed to avoiding a crunch-dependent work environment. Another factor in the launch plans involves the studio’s desire to launch solely on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S. Millions of players are still struggling to get their hands on Sony and Microsoft’s new consoles, but as hardware availability (ideally) increases over time, Rockstar is hoping the later launch date will allow Grand Theft Auto VI to release to a larger pool of players. There is also the fact that Grand Theft Auto V is still generating truckloads of cash. Although, this release date projection is only an unverified estimate.

Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier corroborated Henderson’s information in a tweet, saying “everything” matches up. VGC also corroborated the same information today. Rockstar released its last major open-world playground in 2018 with Red Dead Redemption II. The company has not officially announced Grand Theft Auto VI yet.