Former Rockstar Dev Wants Grand Theft Auto 6 To Have A Smaller Map

Highlights

• A former Rockstar dev suggests that Grand Theft Auto 6 should have a smaller and more focused map for improved navigation and memorable gameplay.
• Speculation surrounding Grand Theft Auto 6 includes the possibility of two playable protagonists, a female character, and a return to Vice City as the game's setting.
• Despite leaks and rumors, official announcements about Grand Theft Auto 6 have yet to be made, and it may be a while before fans get a more official look at the highly-anticipated game.

Many fans are hoping that Grand Theft Auto 6 will be bigger than its already legendary predecessors, but one former Rockstar developer thinks that the next entry’s map should be more scaled down instead. Grand Theft Auto is one of the biggest franchises in gaming, and players have been eagerly awaiting the announcement of Grand Theft Auto 6 for almost ten years. While Rockstar itself hasn’t made any official announcements yet, there have been plenty of leaks and rumors, including a massive data breach last September that contained early Grand Theft Auto 6 video footage.

Since then, there has been plenty of speculation about Grand Theft Auto 6’s plot and setting. Unconfirmed reports suggest that GTA 6 could feature two playable protagonists inspired by real-life criminal duo Bonnie and Clyde, with one of them being the Grand Theft Auto series’ first female player character. Meanwhile, it is believed that GTA 6 could return players to Vice City, the fictional Florida metropolis that served as the setting for the beloved Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories spin-off games.

Large, urban open-world landscapes have been a staple of GTA since the PlayStation 2 era, and players suspect that Grand Theft Auto 6 will provide an even larger sandbox of crime than ever before. However, former Rockstar Games developer Tony Gowland has a different idea, telling PCGamesN that he hopes Grand Theft Auto 6 will have a somewhat smaller and more focused game map than past entries. “I think a smaller but more densely packed location would maybe bring back some of that memorable navigation that I loved from the original [Grand Theft Auto games].”

While he currently works at Dungeon Golf studio Ant Workshop, Tony Gowland is more widely known for his tenure at Rockstar, where he helped develop acclaimed Grand Theft Auto titles like Liberty City Stories, Vice City Stories, and Chinatown Wars in addition to the first Red Dead Redemption. He says he is excited at the idea of Grand Theft Auto 6 returning to the Miami-inspired Vice City, but he regrets that fans got their first look at the upcoming sequel through the infamous data leak from last year.

It will likely be a long time before Rockstar is ready to give eager gamers a more official look at Grand Theft Auto 6, despite recent claims that the game could launch as early as 2025. Expectations for the next installment in the legendary and at times controversial Grand Theft Auto series are very high, and former Rockstar alumni Tony Gowland feels that a smaller, more intimate game map could be the way to go should Grand Theft Auto 6 return to Vice City.