GTA 6 map leak debunked, but there's still hope for "Project Americas"
There's still hope for the return of Vice City.
Grand Theft Auto fans eagerly awaiting the arrival of GTA VI have received a surge of hopeful news in October, and even though there's new evidence to suggest that one of the biggest supposed leaks is false, there's still reason to hope that the long-running "Project Americas" leaks remain accurate.
An unverified image believed to be a prototype of the GTA 6 world map (or a part of it) began circulating online. The ensuing flood of fan speculation grappled with several theories about the real-life locations the Rockstar game could be based on.
All of that culminated in an October 18 Reddit post where user MrBurpAlot posted a screenshot of what they claimed to be GTA 5 screenshots that directly reference the allegedly leaked GTA 6 map that first game to light in 2018. MrBurpAlot's image shows two postcards of a beach that track with the tropical theme of the rumored GTA 6 map.
Now, the so-called "Project Americas" leaks claim the game will be set in Vice City and different places in South America and the Caribbean. Unfortunately, this latest claim has been proven false — but that doesn't mean all of the recent GTA 6 chatter has been completely bogus.
The debunked Reddit post claiming to show that the 2018 image of 'GTA 6's allegedly leaked map was teased in 'GTA 5.'
GTAForums user Gridl0k debunked MrBurpAlot's image with their own post on October 25.
Both postcards were in fact publicly available stock images that were edited onto a GTA 5 screenshot to stir up fake excitement in the fan community.
Gamers are no strangers to false rumors and wild claims from anonymous posters claiming to have an uncle that works for a big developer. But the GTA franchise is one of the most notorious for a constant flow of phony leaks because of how secretive Rockstar has been about GTA 5's follow up.
The two stock images used in MrPurpAlot's debunked 'GTA 6' post.
The company hasn't said a word about GTA 6 and is preparing a next-gen port of the seven-year-old GTA 5 on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
Fans are ravenous for the next chapter of the open-world adventure, but the most reliable detail they've received is a report from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier revealing that GTA 6 is in "early development."
That thirst for information leads many fans to hopefully embrace any rumor they stumble upon and internet trolls are more than happy to sow chaos among the community. But there's still some hope that the original image of GTA 6's allegedly leaked map might actually be legitimate.
The originally posted image claiming to be a leaked prototype of the 'GTA 6' world map.
The Inverse analysis — There won't be any concrete proof that these posted map images are actually from Rockstar's vault up until the company reveals what it has planned for the future of GTA. But Rockstar's early designs for the Red Dead Redemption 2 map leaked ahead of the Western's release in 2018, which is why fans don't want to rule out the possibility of the supposed GTA 6 mockup.
To top it off, an image of an island was posted anonymously to 4chan claiming to be an updated portion of the original 2018 map leak. Fans have investigated the image and found that its design isn't just a copy and paste job done using Google Maps. Plus they discovered many of the distinguishable details of the original map to be in line with the scaling Rockstar used for GTA 5's map.
The leaked 'RDR2' map that turned out to be accurate.
So while MrBurpAlot's image proved to be false, there's still reason to believe that GTA 6 might be the monumental return of Vice City.
GTA 6 is reportedly in early development.
