GTA 6 began as Project Americas, spanning North and South America, Eurogamer reports from Bloomberg
On October 14, 2026, Eurogamer reported, from a Bloomberg interview with Rockstar, that GTA 6 started life as Project Americas, meant to cover big areas of North and South America before it was cut back to Miami and the land around it.
By GTA 6 Everything Editorial · · 1 min read
On October 14, 2026, Eurogamer reported that GTA 6 was originally known inside Rockstar as Project Americas, citing a wide-ranging Bloomberg interview with the studio. Eurogamer said the game was meant to cover large areas in both North and South America. Bloomberg's feature is behind a paywall and we could not open it, so everything here comes through Eurogamer's account of it.
According to Eurogamer, Bloomberg learned that the game's first research trip came in 2015, when Rob Nelson, co-studio head at Rockstar North, led a group of staff to Miami. In Bloomberg's words, as quoted by Eurogamer, Project Americas "aimed to feature big swaths of land across both North and South America". The plan was later cut back to Miami and the land around it.
The first idea was to build the game alongside Red Dead Redemption 2. As the western got bigger and more ambitious, Eurogamer wrote, Project Americas slipped by several years.
A lot changed after Red Dead Redemption 2 came out. Eurogamer said Bloomberg's article noted that Rockstar nearly doubled in size, from 2,441 staff to 4,711 in 12 offices. Co-founder Dan Houser, the writer behind many earlier GTA games, left the company, and Nelson, Aaron Garbut and Phil Hooker were promoted into head of development roles. By 2019, Eurogamer wrote, Rockstar had the bones of GTA 6 and its central pairing of Jason and Lucia.
The finer details and mechanics took longer, Eurogamer said, especially once the Covid-19 pandemic sent staff home to work. "Trying to keep a team together through that is really challenging," Nelson said. Looking further ahead, Hooker said the engine, tools and team built during the project would let Rockstar move faster, so the next game should not take another eight years.
Eurogamer's summary does not say which South American places were once planned, and Rockstar has not published its own account of Project Americas. GTA 6 was due on November 19, 2026, on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
More official images
The Grassrivers wetlands, with a seaplane by a wooden dock and the Vice City skyline in the distance
Sources and verification
- GTA 6 was originally Project Americas and covered "big swaths" of country's north and south, Rockstar reveals, in interview tackling crunch, delays, and leaks, Eurogamer (14 October 2026)
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