When Aaron Garbut said the GTA 6 map is about twice the size of GTA 5's in Game Informer Issue 382, that figure instantly overrode three years of fan triangulation. It is worth understanding why. Garbut is not a spokesperson relaying a number from a spreadsheet. He is the person who has art-directed essentially every Grand Theft Auto world since the series went 3D, and he has been at the studio for thirty years.
The timeline
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| June 1996 | Joins DMA Design as an artist |
| 2000 | Promoted to art director |
| 2001 to 2013 | Art director on the 3D and HD era GTA titles |
| January 2016 | Becomes co-studio head of Rockstar North |
| 2026 | Gives the official GTA 6 map scale figure |
Garbut joined DMA Design, the Dundee studio that made the original top-down Grand Theft Auto, in 1996. He contributed additional artwork to that first game and carries a thank-you credit in GTA 2. DMA became Rockstar North, and Garbut stayed through every transition.
He has been art director on every 3D and HD Universe GTA with one exception, the handheld GTA Advance. That is GTA III, Vice City, San Andreas, GTA IV, GTA V and the expansions in between, plus Red Dead Redemption 2. Very few people in the industry have a credit list that continuous on a single franchise.
In January 2016, following Leslie Benzies's departure, Garbut became co-studio head of Rockstar North, a role he shares with Rob Nelson. Nelson is the name most fans learned during the Extended Look, since he narrated much of the scale and systems detail there. Our profile of him is in the Rob Nelson piece.
Why his job title matters for the map claim
The co-studio head structure at Rockstar North splits roughly along art and animation lines, with Garbut's background on the world-building and visual side and Nelson's on animation and gameplay. That division is exactly why Garbut is the right person to be quoted on map scale, density and interiors.
An art director does not just decide what a game looks like. On an open-world project the role effectively owns how much world exists: the block-out of districts, the density of buildings, the ratio of enterable interiors to facades, the sightlines that make a skyline read from across a bay. When Garbut says the team "obsessed about every part, the rooftops, the alleys, the interiors and everything in between," he is describing his own department's brief.
It also explains the shape of his statement. He gave a ratio, not an area, and immediately pivoted to density: "denser, more detailed, and more interactive, with a lot more interiors." That is an art director's framing. Square mileage is a marketing number. Interiors per block is a production number. Our breakdown of why that distinction matters is in density versus scale and the figure itself in the official map size piece.
The pattern across his career
Look at his credit list and a consistent philosophy emerges. Garbut has overseen maps that went down in size as well as up.
- San Andreas (2004) was enormous: three cities plus countryside, unprecedented for its hardware.
- GTA IV (2008) was deliberately smaller, trading footprint for interiors, pedestrian density, traffic behaviour and vertical detail. It remains the series' most concentrated city.
- GTA V (2013) grew again but concentrated its detail in Los Santos, with Blaine County as sparser hinterland.
- RDR2 (2018) went largest by area with the lowest density, because the setting demanded emptiness.
Each map was sized to what the game needed rather than to beat the previous number. That history is the best available context for reading "about twice GTA 5, with a lot more interiors" as a considered choice rather than a limitation. Our full comparison of that lineage is in GTA 6 versus GTA 4.
What he has not said
Worth stating plainly, because a named developer quote tends to get stretched:
- Garbut gave a ratio. He did not give square mileage, square kilometres, or a land-versus-water split.
- He did not comment on PC, GTA Online, frame rate, performance modes or going gold. None of those are his brief and none appeared in Issue 382.
- He did not confirm relative sizes of the six regions.
- He has not, in this feature or anywhere, given a release-date opinion. The date remains November 19, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Aaron Garbut?
Aaron Garbut is co-studio head of Rockstar North, alongside Rob Nelson. He joined DMA Design as an artist in 1996, became art director in 2000, and has been art director on every 3D and HD era Grand Theft Auto except GTA Advance.
What did Aaron Garbut say about the GTA 6 map?
He said Leonida is about twice the size of GTA 5's map, that it is Rockstar's biggest to date, and that it is denser, more detailed and more interactive with considerably more interiors.
Is Aaron Garbut the director of GTA 6?
Rockstar has not published a single directorial credit for GTA 6. Garbut is co-studio head of Rockstar North and has historically held the art director role on the series.
Who else at Rockstar was quoted in Game Informer Issue 382?
Coverage attributes wildlife detail to Michael Kane, described as VP of dynamic art, and weather and storm detail to Owen Shepherd, described as a VP. Titles should be treated as reported.
The Bottom Line
Garbut's thirty years and his specific role are why "about twice the size" ended a three-year argument in one sentence. He is the person whose department decides how much world there is, his career shows a consistent willingness to make maps smaller when the game is better for it, and his instinct to talk about interiors instead of acreage is the most revealing thing in the quote.