GTA 6 in LOVE Magazine: Lucia's Hometown Is Liberty City, Four New Screenshots, and the Day Rockstar Flew a Helicopter Over a Beyoncé Concert

A week after Game Informer's cover story went deep on GTA 6's map, weather and wildlife, the next magazine went after the characters. LOVE, the fashion and culture magazine, put Jason and Lucia on one of the six covers of Issue 27, which reached newsstands on October 5, with four new screenshots and a long interview with the people who wrote and built the game.

It is the closest look yet at who Jason and Lucia are. One of the game's writers casually names Liberty City as Lucia's hometown, Rockstar's narrative chief explains why Jason became a criminal, and Rockstar North's Aaron Garbut tells the story of a research helicopter that ended up hovering over a Beyoncé concert. Here is everything in it, and the new images.

What is in LOVE Issue 27

LOVE gave Grand Theft Auto VI one of six covers on an issue themed around luxury, which is a joke Rockstar's writers seem to enjoy: the couple on it, by their own account, would settle for a paid-off mortgage. The cover is new Rockstar artwork of Lucia in profile behind Jason in a leaf-print shirt, under the line "America's Most Wanted". LOVE sells it as a "GTA love story" about "two lovers on the run".

According to GTAVice's summary of the full piece, LOVE interviewed seven people from Rockstar: Rockstar North co-studio heads Rob Nelson and Aaron Garbut, senior vice president of narrative Rupert Humphries, vice president of art Michael Kane, writing director James Horton, and writers Elizabeth Gauvey-Kern and Alexa D'Agostino. The quotes below come from the excerpts LOVE released and from outlets that have read the issue, credited as we go.

The four new GTA 6 screenshots

Unlike Game Informer's set, LOVE's images are quiet character moments rather than action, and Rockstar shot them like a fashion editorial.

1. The diner. Lucia and Jason sit across a booth from each other, both holding pistols under the table, an empty duffel bag beside Lucia. GameSpot points out how closely the framing matches the opening of Pulp Fiction, where Pumpkin and Honey Bunny rob a diner. An empty bag and two guns suggest this breakfast does not end with a tip.
2. The motorcycle. Lucia walks past with a cigarette and a leather holdall while Jason, in a leather jacket and aviators, sits on a customised bike holding a pistol.
3. The pool hall. Jason in a "Steel Horse Motorcycles" tank top leans on a pool table under red lights, Lucia beside him with a cue.
4. The trailer. A black-and-white shot of Jason on a folding chair with a beer outside a trailer, Lucia in a leopard-print top and sunglasses.

Lucia: from Liberty City, and "perfectly imperfect"

The headline detail is a throwaway line. Describing how she wrote Lucia, D'Agostino said, as quoted by RockstarINTEL:

“When it came to writing Lucia, I thought of the women I know. My mother was an immigrant who grew up in Newark, New Jersey, close to Lucia's hometown of Liberty City. I thought about the way she raised me: rowdy, kind, but not to take any shit. I related a lot to Lucia and writing her came very naturally to me.”

Rockstar's official character bio already hinted at it: Lucia wants "the good life her mom has dreamed of since their days in Liberty City." D'Agostino's line goes further and calls Liberty City Lucia's hometown, the series' version of New York and the setting of GTA 4. Our Lucia explainer has the rest of her official backstory. It does not mean Liberty City is playable; nothing in the interview suggests that.

D'Agostino also set the bar high. The goal, she said, was a character who is "perfectly imperfect", with "clichés, but also undeniably real. That's how you get a woman that can stand tall next to the likes of Arthur Morgan and Niko Bellic." Gauvey-Kern credited the actress who plays Lucia, whom Rockstar still has not named, with bringing "a lot to the character", and added: "We wanted both protagonists to be vulnerable, tough, flawed, right sometimes, wrong sometimes, able to learn from each other. That's what we felt made them authentic, and a great team."

LOVE describes Lucia as the engine of the partnership and Jason as the brake, and Humphries broadly agrees, per GTAVice. "Lucia had to be someone who wanted a better life for herself, and wouldn't let the obstacles in the way of that life stop her from getting it."

Jason: the Army, and "material circumstances"

Jason's official bio says he spent "a stint in the Army trying to shake off his troubled teens" before working for drug runners in the Keys. LOVE asked whether that was meant as a story about class and failed social mobility. Humphries, as quoted by GamesRadar:

“We didn't want to make any kind of statement with Jason's backstory. It needs to be understood that he takes the measures he does, drug trafficking and becoming a bank robber, etc., because of his material circumstances. But a lot of this is up to the player to decide whether he needs to do that, or if it's a choice he makes because he's wired differently from other people.”

That is the plainest description yet of Jason's crimes in the story: drug trafficking and bank robbery. Our Jason explainer covers what Rockstar had said before.

Raul, the mentor who brings the heists

Raul Bautista, the veteran bank robber from Rockstar's character pages, finally has a clear job. Humphries explained that the Bonnie and Clyde premise depends on Jason and Lucia being young and naive: "There is something hopeful and naïve about going on the run and pushing a crime spree to its limit without worrying about the consequences." But GTA players expect big heists, and two amateurs would not know how to pull them off. So Rockstar wrote in "an older mentor character" who has the local and criminal knowledge they lack, and who embodies Vice City with what GTAVice quotes as a "knowing Miami-cool". Expect Raul to be the one who brings the big scores.

A smaller American dream

The theme Humphries keeps returning to is the American dream, which GTA 4 and GTA 5 both mocked. In GTA 6, it has shrunk:

“Maybe the American dream is more modest now. It's a house for your family and your loans paid off instead of wild success... Miami and southern Florida are a particular front line for this battle.”

He calls Leonida "a pressure cooker for all kinds of insanity", and that is where GTA 6's satire comes in. We cover what Rockstar said about politics, elections and culture wars in Leonida in a separate piece: Will GTA 6 make fun of real politicians?

"No one you meet is an extra"

The boldest claim in the issue is about the people you walk past. Rockstar started a new writing team in Los Angeles whose only job is pedestrian dialogue, alongside advertising and comedy writers in New York, Los Angeles and London. Writing director James Horton, as quoted by RockstarINTEL:

“It needs to wash over you when you're sprinting down the busiest street in the city, hearing snatches of a hundred different conversations as you go; and it needs to be totally convincing if you decide to stop and pay close attention to any one of those conversations.”

He went further, per GTAVice: "In a way, there is no 'background' in this game; there's just foreground that you're not paying attention to right now," and "No one you meet is an extra; they're not only full characters, everyone you meet is the main character in their own story." That is a big promise, and a hard one to check until November 19.

Cops, gang members and a Beyoncé concert

The research stories are the part of the interview that went viral. Aaron Garbut described Rockstar's first Florida trips as a small group driving from Miami through the surrounding towns and down the Keys to Key West, before bigger teams returned to go deeper. As quoted by Dexerto:

“We do go in-depth, we hang with locals and we hear lots of stories and learn as much as we can. We travel around with cops and with gang members.”

GTAVice's version continues: "Everyone is lovely. Some people are equally scary."

Then the helicopter. Garbut and several art directors spent a day filming from the air, flying low over the Everglades' mangrove inlets before swinging over downtown Miami and the beaches, and ended up hovering over a stadium in the middle of a Beyoncé concert. "I think we made the local news the next day," Garbut told LOVE. A fan on X has since matched the story to a Rockstar aerial filming permit from April 2016 and placed it at Marlins Park, now LoanDepot Park, according to GTA BOOM. That fits: Beyoncé opened her Formation World Tour there that month.

It adds to what Rockstar told Game Informer last week about night-time ride-alongs with ex-cops, strip clubs, the Everglades and the Keys. Our Disney World and theme parks piece covers what that research left out.

How Rockstar builds a GTA

Rob Nelson gave LOVE an unusually direct account of the process, per GTAVice: research the real place, decide which areas and people you want, decide what kind of protagonist can reach all of them, then plot the story's big beats against the map. After that the game is built in eight-week milestones, each one assembled, played and used to set the priorities for the next: "We work our way there, year after year, one obsessive day at a time, course-correcting as we go."

And on realism, as quoted by RockstarINTEL: "Sometimes you need things to feel realistic to help with immersion, and conversely, sometimes you need to forego realism in favour of what's convenient for the player." His closing line, per GTA BOOM: "We hope people will want to escape into these worlds and these characters, to get lost with them and in them."

FAQ

Is GTA 6 on the cover of LOVE magazine?

Yes. LOVE Issue 27, on sale from October 5, 2026, has six covers, and one is Rockstar artwork of Jason and Lucia headed "America's Most Wanted".

Is Lucia from Liberty City?

Yes. Rockstar writer Alexa D'Agostino calls Liberty City "Lucia's hometown" in LOVE, and Lucia's official bio mentions her family's "days in Liberty City". There is no sign that Liberty City is playable.

Who is Raul in GTA 6?

Raul Bautista is an older mentor who has the criminal and local knowledge Jason and Lucia lack, and introduces them to bigger heists, according to Rockstar's Rupert Humphries.

How many new GTA 6 screenshots are in LOVE magazine?

Four: Jason and Lucia in a diner, on a motorcycle, at a pool table, and in black and white outside a trailer, plus new cover artwork.

Did Rockstar really fly over a Beyoncé concert?

Yes, by Aaron Garbut's account in LOVE: a research helicopter filming over Miami ended up hovering over a stadium during a Beyoncé concert, and he thinks they "made the local news the next day."

Sources

• GTAVice - LOVE Magazine: New GTA 6 Details on Jason, Lucia, Raul, NPCs, Satire and the Making of Leonida
• RockstarINTEL - 4 New GTA 6 Screenshots Released Alongside Story Details
• RockstarINTEL - New GTA 6 Screenshot And Story, Open World Info Revealed In Magazine
• GamesRadar+ - GTA 6 story lead insists Rockstar "didn't want to make any kind of statement" with Jason's ex-military background
• Dexerto - Rockstar joined gang members and cops for GTA 6 research trips in Florida
• GTA BOOM - Rockstar Flew a Helicopter Over a Beyoncé Concert to Research GTA 6
• GTA BOOM - Rockstar Tells LOVE Magazine Jason and Lucia Just Want a Modest Life in GTA 6
• GameSpot - GTA 6 Screenshot Suggests It Won't Be Shy About Movie References
• LOVE magazine on Instagram
• Rockstar Games - Grand Theft Auto VI