GTA developer Rockstar has been working on the upcoming sixth installment in the series for at least eight years. Long enough that some of the real-world buildings featured in the game no longer exist.
The development time for modern video games has steadily increased in recent years. While AAA titles in the early 2000s often took only two to three years to reach final release, it is not uncommon today for them to take over five years—even though development teams have grown significantly and studios frequently have several hundred employees working on a single project.
By comparison: GTA San Andreas was programmed over a period of about two years by a team of 75 people. Rockstar is now working on the latest installment in the series, GTA 6—eagerly awaited by many fans—with several thousand developers—and has been doing so for over eight years.
Since development on GTA 6 officially began in 2018, a lot has changed in the world. Back then, Angela Merkel was still Chancellor, there was no war in Europe, and most people only knew Corona as a beer brand. And in Miami, the real-life inspiration for Vice City in GTA 6, a lot has happened since then as well. New buildings were erected, old ones were torn down.
In a Reddit post, useranli2132, who apparently knows Miami well, has now provided three specific examples of such locations that no longer exist:
A motel that also appears in the game was reportedly demolished in 2021 following a fire. A beachfront villa with a pool was also torn down to make way for new buildings. And a water tower was dismantled in 2025 despite its status as a historic landmark, as it was no longer needed.& nbsp;In a sense, GTA 6 is a real-life time capsule.
In the comments under the thread,another fanpoints out new skyscrapers that have since been built in Miami and have changed the city’s skyline. Others in the comments section, however, are more concerned that the jokes and pop culture references in the game will be completely outdated if the world is still stuck in 2018… back when it was still cool to dab. And nobody really needs that back.
We’ll probably find out if that’s the case by November at the latest. GTA 6 is set to release on November 19, 2026, for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. You can find more news and articles about the game in the link box above.
