Why Rockstar Games Adding Liberty City To GTA 6?

We've all repeatedly spotted Liberty City license plates, those iconic blue and white tags peeking out from behind trucks, cars, and scenery in the trailers and promotional materials for Grand Theft Auto VI. Though these aren't just Easter eggs for longtime players, they're part of a growing stack of clues that suggest Liberty City may play a much bigger role in GTA 6 than most people initially expected.

Officially, Lucia, one of the game's protagonists, has a clear connection to Liberty City. Her bio on Rockstar's own website confirms that both she and her mother originally come from the notorious metropolis. That alone sets off alarm bells.

Rockstar rarely includes random details in official character backstories, and they've never been the type to name-drop an iconic city without a reason. Given how carefully curated their reveals tend to be, this bit of lore might be the first of many signs that Liberty City is more than just a passing reference.

When revisiting the GTA 6 trailer, Liberty City license plates appear more than once. One is notably attached to a delivery truck in a scene where Lucia jumps onto the back. Of course, it's easy to dismiss this as just world-building—after all, Florida is a major tourist hub. 

The game also features plates resembling those from Arizona and a fictional state called Gloriana, Rockstar's stand-in for Georgia. But the repeated Liberty City references start to feel less like a coincidence and more like a deliberate setup.

It wouldn't be the first time Rockstar pulled a surprise like this. Grand Theft Auto V introduced players to North Yankton, a snowy prologue location that players only visited once, but that still came with its own detailed map segment. Similarly, San Andreas briefly allowed players to visit Liberty City during a mission. 

Even more recently, GTA Online added the island of Cayo Perico—an entirely new area unlocked as part of a heist update. Rockstar has made a habit of expanding their game worlds in unexpected ways, often long after release.

Adding Liberty City to GTA 6 wouldn't be as outrageous as it sounds, even considering the real-world distance between Liberty City (based on New York) and Vice City (Rockstar's take on Miami). Rockstar's games have never stuck to realistic geography. In San Andreas, players could freely fly between major cities. Fast travel between distinct areas is also a staple of the franchise and the modding community. 

The Liberty City Preservation Project mod for GTA V, for example, allowed seamless travel between Liberty City, Los Santos, North Yankton, and Cayo Perico using airports. Rockstar could easily replicate that system if Liberty City appears either in the main story or as post-launch content.

There's another clue that's hard to ignore. Rockstar recently issued a takedown request for the aforementioned Liberty City mod just days after its release. The mod featured a fully functional Liberty City map, complete with vehicles and pedestrians, all ported into GTA V. Rockstar has historically tolerated fan projects unless they plan to use similar content themselves. 

A similar pattern emerged in the lead-up to the GTA Trilogy release, when several high-profile mods were suddenly taken offline. These takedowns tend to signal that Rockstar is preparing something similar internally.

All of this supports the broader rumor that GTA 6 was originally developed under the codename Project Americas. Early leaks described a massive, multi-region map spanning both North and South America, with Vice City as a key location. 

The premise allegedly involved players traveling between the U.S. and South America for drug-trafficking missions, inspired by the real-world cocaine pipeline between Colombia and Miami during the 1980s and 1990s. While the final game may have scaled back that ambition, it's possible Rockstar is saving that expansion for future updates.

Notably, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, who correctly predicted GTA 6's first trailer drop, has reported that Rockstar's current strategy involves gradually adding new cities and missions over time. The idea behind this approach is to make creation less stressful and keep adding content to the game, turning it into a long-term platform instead of a one-time release. 

What has been shown so far fits exactly with that description. Rockstar could be setting up GTA 6 as a persistent, evolving world that continues to grow with updates, much like GTA Online, but with more handcrafted content and fewer repetitive grind mechanics.

The idea isn't new. Rockstar's own Leslie Benzies once expressed a desire to create a game with one massive world containing all the franchise's cities, allowing players to revisit them as they choose. That vision may finally be coming to life with GTA 6, beginning in Vice City and potentially expanding to include Liberty City, San Andreas, or even entirely new regions.

Some fans have even speculated on character connections. Lucia, being from Liberty City, has drawn comparisons to Luis Lopez from GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony. Both characters are street-smart, tough, and go by the nickname "Lou." 

Luis also had an older brother who supposedly moved away to start a family, prompting fans to wonder if Lucia could be his niece. However, Lucia's last name is listed as Kaminos, not Lopez, and Rockstar typically makes familial connections much more obvious. For now, this remains pure speculation.

Another intriguing detail comes from Raul Bautista, a figure seen in one of the official screenshots wearing a dark brown leather jacket and black gloves that look a lot like Niko Bellic, the main character of GTA IV. This could just be a mistake or a nod to fans, but it makes it seem like Rockstar is trying to make people miss Liberty City on purpose.

But what if none of this means that Liberty City will be in GTA 6? There is still a good alternative: Rockstar may be planning to bring Liberty City back through a remake or port of GTA IV. A Rockstar insider named Tez2 recently said that a new version of GTA IV has been in the works for about a year and could be out soon. This could also explain the sudden takedown of the Liberty City mod; Rockstar may not want fan projects competing with their own official content.

A remastered GTA IV wouldn't be out of the question. Rockstar had a similar project in the works years ago, but it was shelved after backlash to the poorly received GTA Trilogy remasters. Since then, the studio has taken more control over its projects and improved the performance of the trilogy significantly. 

A clean port of GTA IV, even without major visual upgrades, would be a massive win, especially given the technical issues that plague the current PC version.  As it's known, stability, accessibility and modern console support would breathe new life into one of the most beloved entries in the series.

Whether Liberty City arrives as part of GTA VI, in a separate port of GTA IV, or in future DLC expansions, one thing is clear: Rockstar isn't done with the city. The signs are too many, the clues too calculated, and the timing too perfect. 

With GTA 6 shaping up to be more than just a single release and instead a long-term platform for storytelling and exploration, Liberty City will likely return in some form, perhaps sooner than expected.