GTA 6 Bloomberg 2022 report: what it predicted versus what came true
Bloomberg's July 2022 GTA 6 report promised a female lead, Vice City and a map that grows after launch. Here's what came true and what's still open.
Confirmed. Rockstar Games or Take-Two said this on the record.
Four years on, most of the big claims in Jason Schreier's July 27, 2022 Bloomberg report have held up. GTA 6 launches on November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S with Lucia as the series' first female protagonist, alongside Jason, in a Vice City-anchored state called Leonida. The one big idea still unproven is a map that keeps growing after launch.
Before Bloomberg: the 2021 groundwork
The story begins a year earlier. In July 2021, YouTuber Tom Henderson claimed GTA 6 would be set in a modern Vice City, with a map that would change and expand over time in a Fortnite-like way, and that the game might not arrive until 2025. Schreier backed him up on Twitter, saying that everything Henderson had said "matches up with what I've heard" and describing a game that was "still early in development" with "an evolving/expanding map," as GamesRadar+ reported. At that stage it was a leaker's claim with a reporter's backing, and GamesRadar+ rightly told readers to stay sceptical.
What the July 2022 report said
On July 27, 2022, Bloomberg published its feature, built on interviews with anonymous current and former Rockstar developers. Its main GTA 6 claims, as summarised by GamesRadar+ and TechRadar:
- A Latina woman would be the first playable female lead in modern Rockstar history, as one half of a duo inspired by Bonnie and Clyde.
- The game would be set in a fictional Miami and its surroundings, cut back from an earlier plan to model large parts of North and South America.
- Rockstar planned to add new missions and cities "on a regular basis" after release, though the launch map would still be large and include more interiors than earlier games.
- Development was running slower than expected, partly because of the pandemic and partly because Rockstar was moving away from crunch.
The report also said Rockstar had shelved a GTA Online mode called Cops 'n' Crooks after George Floyd's killing in 2020, and had removed transphobic jokes from a GTA 5 re-release. Rockstar did not confirm any of it at the time. TechRadar noted it usually avoided anonymously sourced stories but made an exception because of Schreier's track record.
September 2022: the leak backs up the basics
Less than two months later, a hacker leaked about an hour of early development footage. Rockstar confirmed it was genuine and said it came from a "network intrusion," PC Gamer reported. The clips showed two playable characters, a woman named Lucia and a man named Jason, plus a train marked "Vice City Metro." That lined up with Bloomberg on both the female lead and the setting. Rockstar co-studio head Aaron Garbut has since said the hack felt deeply invasive.
What came true
The female lead. Confirmed. Lucia is one of the game's two protagonists, and Rockstar has built features around both her and Jason. For the full trail of protagonist claims, see our Lucia and Jason rumour explainer. Bloomberg described her as Latina, and the leaked footage seemed to fit. None of our sources includes a Rockstar statement on her background, though.
The duo. Confirmed. In its Game Informer cover story, Rockstar described some activities as dates the two can go on as a couple, according to Vice. That fits the Bonnie and Clyde comparison, though the specific inspiration is Bloomberg's framing. (GamesRadar+'s 2022 write-up described a pair of female stars. The duo turned out to be a man and a woman.)
Vice City and its surroundings. Confirmed. Rockstar's state of Leonida has six regions: Vice City, Leonida Keys, Port Gellhorn, Ambrosia, Grassrivers and Mount Kalaga National Park.
The scaled-back Americas plan. Confirmed. Schreier's October 14, 2026 Bloomberg feature, written after a day with Rockstar's leadership, gave the original codename as Project Americas: a map covering large parts of North and South America, later cut back to Miami and its surroundings. Our setting rumour timeline covers that history in full.
Slower development. Confirmed on the record. Rockstar had the Jason and Lucia setup in place by 2019, and Covid-19 slowed the work after that. Head of publishing Jennifer Kolbe said the studio chose not to repeat the crunch of Red Dead Redemption 2.
What was off
The "smaller launch map" shorthand. Fans often remember the report as promising a small map that would grow later. The coverage actually said the launch map would still be large, and Rockstar now calls Leonida its biggest map yet, roughly twice the size of GTA 5's. Whatever happens after launch, you won't be starting on a cut-down map. Our map size explainer compares the estimates.
Timing. Bloomberg didn't give a date, and GamesRadar+ guessed the game was at least two years out. It took more than four. Henderson's 2021 suggestion of 2025 was also too early: GTA 6 later slipped past a May 2026 date before landing on November 19.
Still unconfirmed
New cities and missions after launch. This is the big open question. Rockstar has not announced any plan to add regions or cities to Leonida after November 19, and none of its official material describes the map as one that will grow. Until Rockstar says otherwise, treat it as a 2022 plan that may or may not have survived.
More interiors. Rockstar told Game Informer it paid special attention to buildings and interiors. Whether there really are more of them than in past games is something players will judge after launch.
Cops 'n' Crooks and the GTA 5 edits. These were reported by Bloomberg and never addressed by Rockstar in our sources.
The verdict
As leaks and reports go, this one held up well. The headline claims (a female co-lead, a duo, Vice City and a scaled-back world) are now official, and the 2026 Bloomberg feature, built on on-the-record interviews, filled in the background. The live-service, ever-expanding map is the part to watch once the game is out.
