They speculated that the hotly-anticipated game will be at least partly set in Rio de Janeiro.
The map images, which surfaced last year, appear to share features with the bustling South American city, according to the Reddit thread.
“The bottom city is RIO DE JANEIRO in the leaked maps,” the original poster wrote on May 26. It’s the latest in a string of rumors and so-called leaks about the hotly-anticipated crime simulator from American developer Rockstar. An alleged GTA 6 map that previously leaked online earlier shares similar features Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA: V) came out way back in 2013, so gamers are desperate for a new entry to the series. But Take-Two and Rockstar are playing their cards close to their chest, keeping details of the yet-to-be-announced title a secret. The Reddit thread used an image purporting to reveal the in-game map of Grand Theft Auto 6 that recently emerged online.
The map, which was shared on 4Chan, features a section of what looks like a small island with a bustling city that gives way to rolling hills and forests. Other details include what appears to be an airport, as well as a string of roads that snake across the virtual location. Writing in response to the Reddit post, one user offered support for the shot-in-the-dark-theory. “I don’t know if [the map] is real. But if it is, the city is Rio,” they wrote.
Gamers are desperate for a new entry to the GTA series. They added that the leaked map features what could be Rio landmarks Sugar Loaf Mountain and Christ the Redeemer. “The lagoon and the Santos-Dumont Airport are also in place,” they added. Other commenters weren’t so sure. “No it’s not,” one user responded. “Wishful thinking but no.” Of course, there’s no way of knowing that the map image is legit, or whether it mirrors Rio, so take it with a huge pinch of salt for now.
Fake maps for upcoming Rockstar games have been posted online before, such as the “leaked” map for Bully 2 that went viral in 2019. We likely won’t know anything concrete on GTA 6 until Rockstar officially announces the game ahead of its rumored 2023 launch.
Grand Theft Auto games – a timeline
Here’s the full list…
Main series:
- 1997 – Grand Theft Auto
- 1999 – Grand Theft Auto 2
- 2001 – Grand Theft Auto 3
- 2002 – Grand Theft Auto Vice City
- 2004 – Grand Theft Auto San Andreas
- 2008 – Grand Theft Auto 4
- 2013 – Grand Theft Auto 5
Expansion packs:
- 1999 – Grand Theft Auto London 1969
- 1999 – Grand Theft Auto London 1961
- 2009 – Grand Theft Auto 4 The Lost and Damned
- 2009 – Grand Theft Auto The Ballad of Gay Tony
Handheld games:
- 2004 – Grand Theft Auto Advance
- 2005 – Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories
- 2006 – Grand Theft Auto Vice City Stories
- 2009 – Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars
Last year, alleged details about the game surfaced online.
A purported former employee of Rockstar leaked apparent info about the game, including the main characters’ names. In it, the anonymous poster claimed the hotly-anticipated game’s map will mirror the one in GTA San Andreas, with three cities and one smaller town. However, it will be larger than the maps of both GTA: V and Rockstar cowboy shooter Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2) combined. Players will follow four main characters through the game’s story mode, the poster said.
They include a driver called Walther Wallace, a man named Thomas Branigan with a smuggling plane called “the Raven” and a drug dealer named Marcus Burke. GTA fans recreate the San Andreas game with mind-blowing graphics that look like real-life An unnamed former Israeli IDF agent was also mentioned in the post. Missions in the game allegedly won’t be as linear as in GTA: V or RDR2. Gun mechanics and the hand-to-hand combat system will be more like RDR2’s, the poster claimed. The game will be set in the 1980s but will later jump to modern times – an unusual narrative choice for the franchise.
According to a lengthy post on Reddit, the new game is code-named Project Americas, and has been in development in some form since 2012, a year before GTA: V launched. It’s been on-and-off since then, the post says, first picking up properly in 2015 before being put on ice while all of Rockstar’s global studios focused on the final details of Red Dead Redemption 2.