GTA 6's Edge cover story: every new detail on the map, police, weather and NPCs

Edge's visit opens in the apartment Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos share. Playing as Jason, Nelson drinks a coffee (it boosts stamina) and a protein shake (it boosts health), then walks out onto the street.

A man walking a dog catches Jason staring at him. He squares up, unclips the leash and lets the dog loose. Jason runs until the dog gives up and trots back. He lights a cigarette from his inventory, spots two officers making an arrest, opens the trunk of their unattended police car, takes a shotgun and slings it on his back.

Edge notes that all of this took three minutes, and none of it was a mission. It is the clearest sign yet that GTA 6 is built on systems that react to you, not on scripted set pieces.

Edge reports that the map is roughly twice the size of GTA V's, and that Rockstar puts Leonida's total landmass, Vice City and the surrounding areas included, at nearly as large as the playable maps of GTA IV, GTA V and RDR2 combined.

That fits what Rockstar said before. In August, after its showcase, the studio said the map is three times Red Dead Redemption 2's and that Vice City alone is twice the size of Los Santos. In Game Informer's September cover story, Aaron Garbut put Leonida at around twice GTA V's map, split into six regions.

Rockstar still has not given an area in square miles or kilometres, so any exact figure you see is a fan estimate.

Size is not the point, density is

Interiors: Garbut told Edge the game has "an order of magnitude more interiors" than earlier GTAs, built in layers so homes look lived in, with family photos on the walls and mess on the tables.

Still finding places: after years of playing it, Garbut says he still walks into locations he has never seen.

The story won't show you everything: Rockstar has already said the campaign will not take you to every corner of Leonida, so a lot of it is left for you to find.

For the six regions and the cast, see everything we know about GTA 6.

See it on a map

Here is a size comparison to picture the scale. The biggest map, underneath, is GTA 6's Leonida. Laid on top are GTA V's Los Santos and Blaine County, GTA IV's Liberty City and Red Dead Redemption 2's map, and together they come close to filling it.

Rockstar set up a Los Angeles team of writers, directors and producers just for Leonida's population, and art-directed every NPC. Edge puts the animation count at around 600,000. Rockstar told The New York Times in August that Red Dead Redemption 2 had 300,000 and GTA V 55,000, so that is double RDR2.

Each pedestrian gets traits that decide how they react: temperament, aggression, where they are, what they have seen and how you have treated them. Districts have their own mix of people. Nelson described the process as asking who will be aggressive, how many will go for a weapon and how many will test you.

• Staring: looking at someone too long can be taken as a challenge, as the dog owner showed.
• Carrying a gun: walking around holding a shotgun can scare people even if you never aim it. A gun slung on your back draws a different reaction from one in your hands. Crowds edge away, and some people confront you.
• Some latitude: not every slip brings the police. You can drop the weapon, and the game allows some leeway before you get a wanted level.
• Smell: Rockstar first made a disgust reaction for one scene, then turned it into a system. In a trashed house nobody had scripted, Jason started grimacing and recoiling on his own.

GTA V had preset weather: sunny, rainy, overcast. Garbut says GTA 6 is "much more granular".

• Clouds: move on their own, shaped by wind, humidity, fog, time of day and season.
• Storms: you can see one forming in the distance, with lightning and falling rain, and drive into it gradually.
• After the rain: roads get wet, buildings drip, and surfaces dry at different rates.
• Wind: moves trees, clouds and waves. Islands and buildings shelter stretches of water, which changes how boats handle.
• Aircraft: storms buffet planes and helicopters, and staying in severe weather can cause light damage.
• People: pedestrians look for shelter when the weather turns.

Days and nights also last much longer than in GTA V, with sunsets that linger. Nelson says GTA V's timings made everything feel too fast at this level of detail. The wide roads and highways of GTA V have been narrowed to "a more believable size".

Criminal Profile

A new Criminal Profile tracks how Jason and Lucia behave on a scale from Professional to Irredeemable, shown with angel and devil icons. You can incapacitate enemies instead of killing them, or threaten and intimidate first. Shoot first and your profile turns violent. Rockstar says the profile influences how the story unfolds.

The relationship

Jason and Lucia's closeness is measured on a four-point scale. It grows the more time they spend together: walks on the beach, cycling, the gym (once they buy a membership) or just driving around, one at the wheel and the other on their phone. You can switch between them when the story allows, as in GTA V.

Can they get married? Nelson refused to confirm or deny it. What Edge does make clear is the limit: you choose what kind of criminal you are, not whether you are one, and the couple cannot walk away from each other.

The police now chase a description. A heat system tracks what they know: what you look like, whether you worked alone or with a partner, your clothes, whether CCTV caught you and which weapon you carried. Each detail shows as an icon at the top of the screen.

To lose them, you make yourself harder to recognise: split up if witnesses saw two people, change clothes, drop the weapon.

• Carjacking: some drivers panic and run, others are armed and fight back.
• Trackers: newer, expensive cars can carry a tracker that keeps broadcasting your position, and owners can report the theft.
• Getaways: you can hand the driving to your partner and switch to the passenger seat to shoot at pursuers.
• Spike strips and K9: in Edge's demo, police laid a stinger strip, the bike's tyre blew, and a police dog pinned Jason to the ground.
• Bystanders: a man you rob can attack when you turn your back, and a shopper can play hero during a gas station holdup.
• Street races: random drivers pull up and goad you into a race.

Some story missions now wait until you have the cash to set them up. You can raise it by holding up a gas station or a jewellery store, or by stealing a car a fence wants.

• WAINK app: lists the cars fences want, with each one's security and tracking. High-end cars ping the police, so you have to lose the tail before the drop-off, and the payout depends on the car's condition.
• Scooter Bros app: for a modest fee, someone delivers your car within seconds and rides away on a scooter.
• Weapons: your whole arsenal is stored in your car's trunk.
• Fuel and engine health: every vehicle has both readouts. Cars go a long way before running low, and refuelling is quick.
• Buses and trains: fully working, on routes. Phil Hooker, one of the game's three heads of development, says he has memorised the routes.

Garbut sums it up as a game where you can buy cigarettes and beer, ride the train for the day or go to a club: "You can have your life in the game."

Yes, by Rockstar's account. "It's ready," Nelson told Edge. Hooker says the team has "made what we wanted to make", and Garbut says he feels better about GTA 6 than anything he has worked on.

Edge also traces how it started: in 2015, while RDR2 was still in production, Nelson led a small team to Miami to research a return to Vice City. Rockstar settled on place first and held off on Jason and Lucia's story until RDR2 was done. Sam Houser is still involved in every major creative decision, Nelson says.

GTA 6 launches on November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Here is when it unlocks in your timezone, how to preload it, and why the delay rumors are not real.

For what Rockstar showed in August, read every gameplay detail from the Extended Look.

Shared on social media after the Edge story, but not in the feature as published. We will update this when Rockstar confirms more.

• "Leonida opens up early": some posts say you can explore the north freely without progressing the story. Edge's published feature does not say that. Rockstar has only said the story won't take you everywhere.
• "10x more interiors": Garbut's words were "an order of magnitude more interiors". That means roughly ten times, not an exact count.
• "Storms destroy aircraft": Edge says severe weather can cause light damage, not that it brings planes down.
• Exact map size: no official square mileage. Figures online are fan estimates.