VGC Describes a GTA 6 Map Twice GTA 5 as IGN Still Prints Three

You can stand under a clear Leonida sky while heavy rain falls a short distance away, and Video Games Chronicle on September 29, 2026 ties that sky to a GTA 6 map twice GTA 5. Twice on VGC, three times on IGN.

Twice on VGC, Three Times on IGN

Aaron Garbut, Rockstar head of development and co-studio head, is the name Video Games Chronicle credits for the size line, from a Game Informer preview. VGC describes him putting Leonida at twice GTA 5. Garbut's quoted words there are "by some degree," for the biggest map Rockstar has created. VGC's account of that passage is rooftops, alleys, and interiors, buildings that feel real inside and out.

Later the same day, IGN still writes that the map is three times larger than GTA 5's, treats that figure as something already known, and does not tie it to Garbut. VGC's headline calls the twice comparison official, and the body sources it to the magazine preview. The open read is whether twice means land you have to cross, the interiors in that passage, or both.

Heavy Clouds and Water Off the Roof

Owen Shepherd, vice president of art for lighting and rendering at Rockstar, carries the storm half in both writeups. VGC quotes him on weather rebuilt to be localized and persistent, with cloudscapes from Miami-winter clear skies to Floridian cumulonimbus and sporadic lightning.

We have re-engineered our weather system to make everything much more localized and persistent, and really wanted the world to feel dynamically solid and achieve a sense of scale we haven't felt before.

In GTA V, Los Santos and Blaine County sit under one weather state, and you wait it out or drive through it. Shepherd's picture lets you leave the shower. IGN, covering that Game Informer story via Marcus Stewart, adds rainbows in the right light and puddles that remain after the rain.

IGN says the game will simulate tropical storms and hurricanes, and quotes Shepherd on heavy clouds, strong winds, dense rain, dripping surfaces, and water gushing off roof edges and lampposts, with thunder and flashes in the clouds. VGC says Rockstar has not revealed how often major weather events occur or how they may influence gameplay. IGN writer Jackie Thomas notes no weather video and asks about flooding and knocked-down buildings and trees. Those questions sit outside the Shepherd quotes.

Water off the lamppost is the hurricane these pieces describe. Drive toward the cell if you want the show. Nothing in today's reporting makes that storm the thing that fails the score.

Earlier on GTA6Now: GTA 6 leak tracker and Leonida map.