A former Rockstar dev speaks on their hope for GTA 6, stating they’d love to see a smaller map in the long-anticipated title.
Grand Theft Auto 6 is one of the most anticipated games of all time, with fans hungry for any bit of information they can get. It’s for good reason too, as GTA V raised the bar for gaming, and Rockstar has been at work for ten years on the next entry.
Since GTA V was released, the gaming industry has seen a massive shift in open-world design philosophy, as studios have become enthralled in creating wildly large worlds. Plenty of titles have been released with large playable environments, although the execution has left much to be desired.
The debate around the size of GTA 6’s map rages on, this time with a former Rockstar developer claiming the game could benefit from a smaller map, one that focuses on density over sheer size.
Former Rockstar dev thinks GTA 6 should be smaller but denser
Tony Gowland is a former Rockstar developer, who previously worked on GTA: Liberty City Stories, Vice City Stories, Chinatown Wars, and Red Dead Redemption. In an interview with PCGamesN, he shared his thoughts on what he’d love to see.
““In terms of what I’m hoping for, I personally would like it to bring in a little bit in terms of size of the world,” Gowland said on GTA 6. Gowland went on to elaborate, “I think a smaller but more densely packed location would maybe bring back some of that memorable navigation that I loved from the original.”
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Tony Gowland’s words echo an interesting point, as games like Starfield have provided players with massive playable spaces. As incredible as it is to explore each new locale, the luster wore off once players found similar spaces.
Games with smaller playable spaces, such as the Yakuza series, match the sentiment Gowland is trying to convey. Creating a small yet dense space that players can become familiar with creates a very different open world, one that has room to evolve and shift noticeably as the player progresses.
Conversely, Rockstar has been known to create engaging worlds no matter their size. Red Dead Redemption 2 is the perfect example, as players enjoyed exploring its world and getting immersed in nature and Rockstar’s rendition of the wild west. The cowboy classic’s subreddit provided this observation recently, as fans lauded what Rockstar created.
Rockstar faces an interesting road ahead of them with GTA 6, as it’ll show what the studio’s learned in the past ten years. That said, it isn’t yet clear when we’ll get more news on it considering how much buzz there’s been around supposed reveal dates that have long since passed.
