Grand Theft Auto VI is 46 days away, and Rockstar has finally started explaining how its world works. On 29 September Game Informer published issue 382 with GTA 6 on the cover: 14 pages, 12 new screenshots and interviews with Rockstar's lead designers. The full story is for subscribers, but the magazine put two pieces online for free, one on the weather and one on the wildlife. Meanwhile the New Zealand PlayStation Store has listed the game's age rating along with a detailed list of reasons.
Weather: rain a few blocks away, puddles and hurricanes
According to Game Informer, clouds roll across Leonida on their own, and the weather ranges from clear skies to overcast days. Rain is local: you can stand in the sun and watch a downpour somewhere else. Drive over once it has passed and you can tell it rained, because puddles and wet surfaces stick around. With the right light, you can even catch a rainbow after a shower.
As in Florida, which Leonida is modelled on, the game has tropical storms and seasonal hurricanes. How often they hit and how they affect gameplay and the story, Rockstar is not saying yet.
More than 170 animal species, from manatees to monkeys
Leonida will have more than 170 animal species on land, in the air and in the sea, and some of them have never appeared in a Rockstar game before. Native Florida species such as flamingos, manatees, pelicans and, of course, alligators share the state with invasive ones: green iguanas, cane toads, feral cats and even rhesus macaques. That last one is not made up; Florida really does have monkeys.
Rockstar is building on its Red Dead Redemption work here: animals show iridescence, bioluminescence and translucency, there are different feather types, and hair and fur run on a new system. Some animals can be tracked, split into Rare, Discoverable and Legendary. Which creatures make those lists is being kept secret.
An R18 rating and midnight on 19 November
On the New Zealand PlayStation Store, GTA 6 is rated R18 with these descriptors: drug use, graphic violence, nudity, offensive language and sex scenes. The listing also gives a time: 11:00 UTC on 18 November, which is exactly midnight on 19 November in New Zealand. Above is the official An Extended Look video Rockstar showed on 27 August; the studio says it was captured entirely in-game on PlayStation 5.
The date, prices, pre-load and everything known about a PC version are in our earlier story on the GTA 6 launch and what happens to GTA Online.
Sources
Game Informer on GTA 6 weather, 29.09.2026. Game Informer on the wildlife, 29.09.2026. Game Informer's GTA 6 issue. GTA 6 on the New Zealand PlayStation Store. Rockstar on An Extended Look. Screenshots from official Rockstar material.
