GTA 6 originally aimed to include large areas of both North and South America before Rockstar cut that plan down to Miami and its surroundings, according to Bloomberg's reporting on the game's development. The abandoned version was known internally as Project Americas.
That was an earlier vision for the game, not a newly announced reduction to the Leonida map Rockstar has shown players. Rockstar Report's account of the developer interviews describes years spent bringing the project into focus before it became the return to modern-day Vice City now approaching release.
Rockstar's official GTA 6 page places Jason and Lucia in a criminal conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida. Vice City is the headline location, but the story extends beyond the city itself. The earlier two-continent plan should not be read as a promise of additional launch locations.
Red Dead Redemption 2 interrupted the early work
The timeline also separates initial research from sustained production. As GamesRadar reports from the Bloomberg interviews, development lead Rob Nelson and other Rockstar staff travelled to Miami for an initial research trip in 2015.
The original intention was for Rockstar North to work on GTA 6 while Rockstar San Diego developed Red Dead Redemption 2. As the western grew, it needed help from across Rockstar, pushing GTA 6's work back for several years. Those early plans therefore do not describe an uninterrupted production run from 2015 to release.
The interviews explain decisions made during development, without announcing another delay. Rockstar's November 2025 delay statement said the extra months were needed to finish the game at the expected level of polish. Its current website still lists November 19, 2026 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, with no PC release listed.