Rockstar Games’ upcoming open-world action-adventure game, GTA VI, features significantly narrower roads and denser traffic than its predecessor, GTA V.
In his latest video, Bloomberg investigative journalist Jason Schreier talked about his recent visit to Rockstar North’s Edinburgh studio and interviews with several senior developers involved in the production of the highly anticipated title. Aaron Garbut, the art director and one of the heads of development on GTA VI, told him that the decision to make roads narrower and traffic denser than in GTA V was made early during development. Unlike the sprawling streets in the latter, which allow players to speed through traffic with relative ease, the upcoming entry aims to deliver a more realistic urban driving experience.
Schreier noted that GTA V’s wide roads often make driving feel more like a racing game than navigating a real city. GTA VI’s narrower streets and heavier traffic, meanwhile, aims to make traveling through its fictional version of Miami more challenging and immersive. Rockstar conducted extensive research trips to Miami, including police ride-alongs, to help build the game’s setting and atmosphere.
Garbut also explained that this design decision had major consequences for the game’s development. Narrower roads and denser traffic require more buildings and additional environmental detail, requiring a much different approach to building the open world. Some Rockstar artists have worked on GTA VI’s map since 2015, spending an extraordinary amount of time invested in its design.
Schreier also discussed how Rockstar’s development process evolved over the years. The studio initially diverted substantial resources towards Red Dead Redemption 2, using the experience and underlying systems developed to then work on GTA VI. However, the development team experienced a challenging period between 2019 and 2022 while deciding how much realism to carry over from Red Dead Redemption 2 without losing Grand Theft Auto’s more arcade-style gameplay.
Other details shared by Schreier included Rockstar’s experimentation with GTA VI’s weapon wheel UI. After spending a long time exploring alternatives to the traditional weapon wheel, the development team decided to return to the familiar system.
