GTA VI Developers Spent Years Traveling Across Florida — From Strip Clubs to Night Patrols With Former Cops

Rockstar Games has revealed new details about the preparation that went into Grand Theft Auto VI. While building the fictional state of Leonida, the developers made repeated trips to Florida over several years, studying the region from the inside — from beaches and swamps to nightclubs and rides with former police officers.

Rockstar representatives described the scale of that work in a lengthy Game Informer cover story about the world of GTA VI.

Rupert Humphries, Rockstar’s senior vice president of narrative, explained that the team tried to get as well-rounded an experience as possible. The developers drove through different neighborhoods at night with former police officers, visited strip clubs and regular nightclubs, spent time on beaches, and explored the Everglades and the Florida Keys.

There were several such research trips over the years of development.

Rockstar wanted to capture more than Florida’s looks

The main goal was not just to collect photos of buildings and natural locations. The developers studied how people behave, local communities, the culture of different neighborhoods and the contrasts between them, so that Leonida would feel like a full-fledged state rather than an enlarged copy of Miami.

According to Humphries, Rockstar won’t be able to take the player through literally every location, but it wants to give them a chance to feel the region’s different cultures and atmosphere.

Social contrasts get particular attention. Wealthy neighborhoods can sit next to poor ones, tourist centers can neighbor swamps and small towns, and crime and corruption tie many of the stories in GTA VI’s world together.

At the same time, claims that Rockstar employees were supposedly “forced to go to strip clubs for years” oversimplify what happened. Visits to such venues were only one part of extensive field work across Florida, which also included natural areas, beaches, cities and trips with people who know local life well.

Leonida will be much bigger than Vice City

On the official GTA VI website, Rockstar has already shown several large regions of Leonida.

Alongside the familiar Vice City, the game will feature the Leonida Keys, swampy areas and other locations inspired by South Florida. The studio aims to reproduce not only the architecture but also the climate, wildlife and character of different parts of the state.

Other Game Informer coverage focuses on the same theme: Rockstar said the game will have more than 170 animal species, and GTA VI’s weather system will model the tropical storms and other natural phenomena typical of Florida.

Grand Theft Auto VI launches on November 19, 2026, on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. A PC version has not been officially announced at this time.