20 years ago we released Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas. The original plan was for the 3 cities to be on separate maps. The player would travel between the cities using trains and planes. (Gta 1 and 2 also had three cities on separate maps) Memory was very tight on the ps2 and with separate maps, the other cities’ skyline models wouldn’t have to be in memory. It would also make it easier to have different police/ambulance/firetrucks for each city. Different pickups, weather types etc. It would also be easier to contain the player until it was time for the next city. It would also make it easier to organize the models on the DVD city-by-city which would help the streaming. Just before the artists started working on the three maps, we had a final meeting at R* North in which we changed our minds and decided to go for a big map after all. We still ended up doing city-specific pickups, police cars and weather. Happy birthday San Andreas. You turned out all right.