GTA 6 Game Informer Cover: Hurricanes and 170+ Animals

Game Informer’s Grand Theft Auto VI cover story went live in digital form on September 29, and it puts new details on the record from Rockstar developers: Leonida has more than 170 animal species, tropical storms and seasonal hurricanes, and, according to Rockstar North’s Aaron Garbut, a map twice as large as GTA 5’s. Here is what was said, who said it, and what is still missing.

Where this comes from

The 14 page story, written by senior associate editor Marcus Stewart, is built on interviews with Rockstar staff and comes with 12 new screenshots. The full feature, Welcome to Leonida, sits behind Game Informer’s paywall. The magazine published two free summaries the same day, one on wildlife and one on weather, and outlets that read the full piece, including VGC, Kotaku and GamesRadar+, reported on it in detail.

Everything below comes from those pages. These are Rockstar’s words in a magazine interview, not a Newswire announcement: none of it has appeared on Rockstar’s Newswire.

The map: twice GTA 5, by Rockstar’s own comparison

According to VGC, Aaron Garbut, Rockstar North’s co-studio head, called Leonida the biggest map Rockstar has ever made “by some degree” and described it as twice as large as GTA 5’s, with more detail. He also singled out interiors: the team built so many of them that the buildings start to feel real inside and out.

That is a second official yardstick. Until now the only size comparison on record came from the New York Times previews, three times the playable area of Red Dead Redemption 2, which our GTA 6 map size breakdown unpacks. Neither comparison is a measurement. Rockstar still has not given a figure in square miles or kilometres.

The story also restates the six regions: Vice City, the Leonida Keys, Grassrivers, Port Gellhorn, Ambrosia and Mount Kalaga National Park. The descriptions match what Rockstar’s own site already says. Our guide to the six regions of Leonida and the interactive GTA 6 map cover each one.

Weather: localized storms and hurricanes

Game Informer confirms dynamic cloudscapes rolling across the map, localized storms that you can watch from a dry, sunny area, puddles and wet surfaces that stay after the rain has passed, and rainbows under the right light. Tropical storms and seasonal hurricanes are in the game, as they are in real Florida.

Rockstar’s vice president of art for lighting and rendering told the magazine that the weather system was rebuilt to be more localized and persistent, according to VGC and Kotaku. In heavy storms, Kotaku reports, water pours off roof edges and lampposts while lightning lights up the clouds. Wind is simulated as well: offshore breezes after sunset, updrafts, and gusts that ripple the water and bend the grass in the swamps.

What Rockstar did not reveal, per Game Informer: how often the big storms hit, and whether they change missions or the story.

Wildlife: more than 170 species

Game Informer’s free summary lists more than 170 species across land, air and sea, several of them new to a Rockstar game. Native animals include flamingos, manatees, pelicans and alligators. Invasive ones include green iguanas, cane toads, feral cats and rhesus macaque monkeys. VGC and Kotaku add the breakdown from the full story: more than 60 types of birds, more than 30 land mammals, and sea life such as sharks, whales and jellyfish.

The rendering builds on the Red Dead Redemption games, with iridescence, bioluminescence, translucency, detailed feathers and new fur systems. Some animals are classed as Rare, Discoverable or Legendary and can be tracked. Which ones are Legendary is being kept secret.

Activities, research and what is not in Leonida

VGC lists the activities named in the story: base jumping, billiards, gyms, kayaking, mini golf, scuba diving, street and off-road racing, zoos, airboating and jet skiing.

On research, Rupert Humphries, Rockstar’s senior vice president of narrative, told the magazine the team rode around at night with former police officers, visited strip clubs and nightclubs, and spent time on the beaches, in the Everglades and in the Keys, as reported by GamesRadar+.

Asked about Disney World, Orlando and Cape Canaveral, Paul MacPherson, senior vice president of environment art, said the game may not have those exact locations but aims for the full Florida experience, according to Kotaku.

What is still missing

The release date has not moved: November 19, 2026, on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, as our GTA 6 release date guide tracks. There is still no Trailer 3, no square mile figure and no list of radio stations. For the album and the Vice City collector’s box announced earlier this month, see our September roundup.