It's only been a few days since some interesting
GTA VI gameplay was leaked. The leak, which was authenticated by Rockstar Games, confirmed the location to be Vice City, and that there would be male and female protagonists. Some eagle-eyed viewers noticed something about
GTA Online, though. What they found was an art asset that seemed quite familiar. A texture asset specifically.
Those viewers of the leak video noticed a Vice City Metro sticker in the
Arena War update for
Grand Theft Auto Online that hit a while back.
Art Asset from Grand Theft Auto Online showing the Vice City Metro Mule Logo
The
original tweet no longer displays the side by side imagery, unfortunately. The
Arena War Update for
Grand Theft Auto Online was release four years ago after all. While this is interesting, it is not uncommon for developers to re-use assets, especially if there isn't a significant change to the artwork. Asset re-use can shorten development time in most cases and it is not limited to video games. Many people are familiar with the "Pixar Easter Eggs" in that film studio's pieces. It's an excellent way to not waste development cycles on things like debris and common texture work that is repeated throughout the virtual worlds -- whether in games or movies.
It is also not uncommon for Rockstar to hide Easter eggs in their games that may reference other games in the same series, or different titles altogether.
Bully even included a
Grand Theft Auto vehicle asset in its shop class. Sometimes the developers just throw in things to drive community interest, such as the inclusion of Bigfoot in a later patch of GTA V. Another fun Easter egg is known as the "
Mount Chiliad Mystery." When it was found, players suspected it meant there was a jetpack somewhere in GTA V -- there wasn't -- but one eventually appeared in a GTA Online Mission
T-Shirts from the GTA Online Arena War Update
It's definitely an interesting inclusion, but it's certainly not the only reference to Vice City within
GTA V and
GTA Online. There's an entire wiki article on
Vice City related Easter eggs on the fan wiki for
Grand Theft Auto. Still, this particular metro logo was not seen until
GTA Online, and now in the unauthorized leak, so in a way, players had confirmation Vice City would be used in GTA VI, if they were paying attention and connected the dots.
