rockstar confirms gta 6 was originally project americas and way bigger in scope

Caught the Eurogamer piece where Rockstar actually sat down and talked about crunch, delays, and the leaks. Buried in there is a detail I haven't seen before: GTA 6's original codename was Project Americas.
The original plan was for the map to cover large areas in both the north and south of the country. Not just Vice City and the Leonida stuff we've been staring at for months. They wanted big swaths of land up top and down bottom.
That's a wild scope to even attempt. Imagine trying to make that work on current gen consoles with the level of detail Rockstar puts into every street corner. It probably got scaled back hard when they settled on Leonida.
The interview also touches on crunch and delays and the leak situation, which Rockstar almost never does publicly. So this whole thing feels like a bit of a shift for them.
I'm not surprised they cut it down. A map that size would have been a nightmare to fill with meaningful content. But I'd love to see some of that early concept work someday.
Source: Eurogamer · Curated content.
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