NEW YORK — The first bits of information about GTA VI are finally coming out. While many may have been hoping the hotly anticipated game to take us back to Vice City, it turns out we’ll remain in Los Santos, but now with Sky Islands and an underground network to explore.
This may not be the news many GTA fans were hoping for but Rockstar President Sam Houser assures that it will be a worthy follow-up.
“Obviously people have been waiting a long time for this game so they might be wanting a new location but that’s a lot of work,” said Houser. “This game cost a billion dollars to make, we need to ensure it sells and we know people already love Los Santos. But we didn’t want to give them the exact same map so the new Sky Islands and Underworld area will add a ton to the experience.”
Houser says that these new areas will provide new opportunities for exploration and discovery that will give players a profoundly different experience than GTA V.
“You’ll not only be able to visit all your favorite places and do your favorite activities in Los Santos but now you can hop in a plane or helicopter and your struggle with the controls will mean something because you can travel to the Sky Islands,” Houser explained.
“On the islands will be the exact same types of activities as there are on the ground but now they’re in the sky so it’s different. And if you get sick of that you can go explore the underground which is essentially an all new map the same size as Los Santos. There’s nothing to do down there and you can’t see anything but it’s cool.”
Rockstar gameplay designer Andrew Becker explained how they came to this decision.
“Honestly we spent so much time working on the soundtrack that we didn’t have time to make a new map. So we just threw these cool Islands together, made an underground and worked around that. We know people will buy it anyway.”
As of press time Rockstar is currently figuring out ways to monetize these new areas in the online mode.
Contributing writing by Colton B Casey.
