GTA VI's Leonida will open up early in the story, Edge preview says

GTA VI will open up the state of Leonida relatively early in the game, so story progress will not hold back exploration. That is according to a new Edge magazine preview, as relayed by the podcast GTA VI O'Clock and reported by IGN.

IGN describes the preview as containing a large batch of new details confirmed by Rockstar Games. Map access is one of the more practical ones for players planning their first hours.

What we know

• Leonida opens relatively early. Per Edge's preview, the map becomes available fairly soon after the game starts. IGN expects some opening story segments to introduce characters and mechanics first. After that, players who want to drive straight to the northern end of the map should be able to.
• No story-gated regions have been described. IGN contrasts this with GTA IV, where police blockades on Liberty City's bridges kept areas closed until Niko's story advanced. GTA V, by comparison, let players roam freely once its tutorials were done. GTA VI appears to follow the GTA V model. In IGN's words, players "won't be chained to Vice City for the first 10 hours" unless they choose to stay.
• The developers are still finding new places. Rockstar North co-studio head Aaron Garbut told Edge that he is still discovering new locations in Leonida.
• Interiors are a big part of that density. Garbut said the game has "an order of magnitude more interiors" than other Rockstar titles. IGN reports that all of them were built by hand with a high level of detail.
• Release date. IGN restates that GTA VI launches on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

IGN also points to Rockstar's other open worlds for comparison. Red Dead Redemption 2 let players roam most of its map but held back the area carried over from the first Red Dead Redemption until the end of the game. Players who tried to enter it early were shot by snipers. The original Red Dead Redemption likewise kept Mexico closed until John Marston's story took him there.

What isn't confirmed yet

• How much of the opening must be played before the map opens. "Relatively early" is the preview's framing, and IGN's mention of introductory story sections is its own expectation rather than a stated detail.
• Whether any area is held back until late in the game, as happened in Red Dead Redemption 2. The reports neither confirm nor rule this out.
• The original Edge text was not available to us. These details come from IGN's account of the podcast's summary of the preview.