Will GTA 6’s Leonida Connect To Red Dead Redemption 2’s Map?

Grand Theft Auto 6 could finally unite Rockstar’s two biggest properties by officially connecting with Red Dead Redemption 2‘s map. Rumors about the size of GTA 6‘s map have been circulating since practically 2013, with the most absurd being that it would include the entire continental United States. While that’s pretty much out of the question at this point, GTA 6‘s map already looks pretty impressive, and could have some interesting ties to RDR2‘s.

The first trailer for GTA 6 revealed its setting: Vice City, a recurring location from the fourth mainline game in the series. Vice City is heavily based on the city of Miami, and the state it’s located within, Leonida, is a fictionalized version of real-world Florida. While GTA 6‘s map probably isn’t as big as the wildest rumors suggest, there’s actually potential for the two games’ settings to intersect.

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GTA 6’s Leonida Could Come Close To RDR2’s Lemoyne

GTA 6 Is Set In Florida, And RDR2 Includes Parts Of Louisiana

It may be a stretch, but it’s not totally out of the realm of possibility that GTA 6 might cross paths with RDR2. Of course, GTA 6 is centered on the Vice City/Miami area, which puts most of its action firmly in South Florida. But there’s some indication that it’ll expand further into the surrounding areas than the original Vice City.

For one thing, that’s usually what a sequel set in the same location does, especially when it comes out three console generations later. GTA 5, which is set in Los Santos like GTA: San Andreas, has a significantly larger map – and those two games only came out nine years apart, compared to Vice City and GTA 6‘s 23. But there are also several clues in the first GTA 6 trailer that point to larger parts of Florida being adapted into the game. Areas resembling the Everglades National Park and the Florida Keys make appearances.

So, the rumor going around is that GTA 6‘s map will take up the entire state of Leonida/Florida. While it’s a more reasonable proposition than the entire continental United States, it’s still highly unlikely, and there’s been no official indication from Rockstar to indicate that’s the case. Even so, it could include a compressed version of it, or a very large part of it, which could put it pretty close to RDR2‘s borders. Red Dead Redemption 2 includes the state of Lemoyne, which is closely based on Louisiana. Of course, its main feature is the city of Saint Denis, a fictionalized version of New Orleans.

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New Orleans itself is fairly close to the northwestern tip of the Florida panhandle, which could mean that the two maps might intersect. Of course, that’d mean GTA 6 would have to include bits of states other than Leonida, but that’s not totally out of the question. GTA 4 included parts of Alderney, based on New Jersey, just over the river from its depiction of New York City. With the inclusion of some adjacent areas, it’s not too much of a stretch to think that GTA 6 might cross into Lemoyne.

RDR2’s Compressed Map Could Make A GTA 6 Crossover Possible

Simply comparing RDR2‘s map to the US state by state, its square mileage is downright incredible. It stretches as far east as New Orleans, as far north as British Columbia, as far west as Southern California, and as far south as Mexico’s northern border. But actually projecting it onto a real US map, things start to get a little fishy. Huge swathes of territory are missing, demonstrating that RDR2 left a lot of America out in order to make the game work.

It only makes sense: a one-to-one scale map that blankets roughly three-quarters of the continental United States would be difficult to develop, and downright impossible to run on most modern platforms. That’s not even to mention how boring it’d be to get around, especially in a game with limited fast travel like RDR2. But GTA has done a similar thing, albeit on a smaller scale, and it’s that sort of area compression that makes a crossover possible. In real life, parts of southern Mississippi and Alabama separate New Orleans from Florida. It’s entirely possible that GTA 6 will shrink or almost completely eliminate those regions to merge with Red Dead.

There’s Evidence To Suggest That GTA And RDR Take Place In A Shared Universe

And of course, there are plenty of nods in GTA to suggest it’s connected to Red Dead. For one thing, in GTA 5, Franklin has a book in his apartment called Red Dead, written by one J. Marston. There’s also a car rental service at the Los Santos International Airport named Escalera, after a town in RDR1. A company named New Austin Capital, much like the state of New Austin in Red Dead, is mentioned offhand in GTA Online. El Rubio, the main antagonist of GTA Online‘s Cayo Perico Heist, points out a picture of his grandfather who’s very clearly Andreas, a minor character from RDR2.

The evidence here is pretty damning, but at the same time, there’s also the possibility that these are just Easter eggs for the observant Rockstar fan. Historically, the two continuities don’t always line up. RDR2 refers to the state of New York by name, where GTA 4 calls it Liberty. While it’s not out of the realm of possibility, the truth may not be as simple as the two universes being one and the same; they may diverge at some certain point.

Will GTA 6 finally make the series’ connections with Red Dead explicit? It could go either way, but it might be nice to see such a widespread fan theory confirmed. Grand Theft Auto 6 seems to have the best opportunity of any game in the series to make a connection with Red Dead Redemption 2 – but it’s impossible to say for sure until the game is out.