Source: Rockstar Games
What this means
- Police chases will play differently: less room to weave, more traffic to dodge — expect harder, messier getaways.
- Tighter streets should make Vice City feel denser and more urban than Los Santos' wide boulevards.
- The added art cost ("more buildings, more detail") hints at just how dense Leonida's world is.
Key facts
- Date: October 20, 2026 — Aaron Garbut, Rockstar North head of development and co-studio head
- Claim: GTA 6 roads "significantly narrower" than GTA 5's, with denser traffic
- Corroboration: IGN's Simon Nelson independently described "narrower, more realistic streets" from the same studio visit
- Scope: only Garbut's road comments are new here — weapon wheel tests, 2015 map planning and the 65-artist team were covered in earlier reports
Driving through GTA 6's Leonida will feel very different from tearing around GTA 5's Los Santos. Aaron Garbut, Rockstar North's head of development and co-studio head, said the roads in GTA 6 are "significantly narrower" than GTA 5's, with denser traffic packed into the streets.
That's a deliberate break from GTA 5, whose wide streets made driving feel almost like a racing game, with plenty of room to weave at high speed. In GTA 6, tighter streets packed with traffic should make police chases and getaways harder and messier.
The choice came with a cost. Narrower roads mean buildings sit closer together, so Rockstar's artists had to fill the world with even more buildings and more detail. Garbut said decisions like this tend to "come back to bite you later."
The detail comes from coverage of a recent visit to Rockstar North. IGN's Simon Nelson independently described "narrower, more realistic streets" in his own reporting on the studio visit — consistent with Garbut's comments.
The same visit also revealed that Rockstar spent months, possibly years, testing replacements for the weapon wheel before keeping it, and that full development started around 2018 after map planning began in 2015.
Sources
- talkwithtech — GTA 6 behind the scenes: an 11-year map, tighter roads
- TwistedVoxel — GTA VI Has Significantly Narrower Roads, Denser Traffic Than GTA V
Named source (Rockstar North's Aaron Garbut) quoted from the studio visit; IGN's Simon Nelson corroborates with "narrower, more realistic streets".
