How Rockstar researched Florida for GTA VI: ex-cops, beaches and the Everglades

Building Leonida took more than photographs of buildings. Rupert Humphries, Rockstar’s senior vice president of narrative, explains in the Game Informer cover story that the team made numerous research trips to Florida during development. GamesRadar reports specific examples of those visits.

“We go and try to experience everything,” Humphries says, from driving around areas at night with ex-cops to visiting strip clubs and nightclubs, spending time on beaches, in the Everglades and down in the Keys. This describes research work, not an announcement of new playable activities.

Beyond the Miami postcard

The itinerary brings together urban spaces, nightlife and natural environments. That mix helps explain Leonida’s six regions: Vice City is its urban center, but the state also includes wetlands, islands, industrial areas and rural stretches.

In the same interview, Humphries says the story aims to take players through many of those places and cultures. He also points to rich and poor people living close to one another, with crime and corruption connecting their lives. These are setting and narrative themes, not a confirmed mission list.

GTAVice reproduces the same account of the research trips. The sources do not provide a complete itinerary or name individual venues. They also do not establish that every place visited has an accessible replica in the game: the documented detail is Rockstar’s approach to field research.