Earlier this week, a 47-second video swept across TikTok and Twitter, racking up over 8 million views in under 48 hours. The clip appeared to show a detailed bridge connecting two landmasses — supposedly a leak of GTA VI's map, specifically the bridge from Vice City to the game's rumored Florida Keys-inspired island chain. The internet, as it does, ran with it.
The Viral Video
The footage showed a drone-style camera flyover of a suspension bridge rendered in what looked like Rockstar's RAGE engine — weathered concrete textures, realistic lighting, and water reflections that had fans convinced it was authentic. The bridge connected what appeared to be a dense urban coastline to a series of smaller islands with lush tropical vegetation. Within hours, YouTube channels were publishing breakdowns, Reddit threads were dissecting every pixel, and the clip had been embedded into dozens of "GTA 6 LEAK CONFIRMED" articles.
There was just one problem — it was completely fake.
"I made it for a portfolio piece and posted it to my ArtStation. Someone ripped it, slapped a phone recording filter on it, and suddenly it's a 'leak.' I was as surprised as anyone." — Marcus Chen, Environment Artist
The Creator Steps Forward
The creator, Marcus Chen — a Vancouver-based environment artist with credits on several AA titles — published a response video that systematically debunked every "evidence" point circulating online. In a 12-minute breakdown posted to his YouTube channel, Chen demonstrated exactly how he built the bridge scene in Unreal Engine 5 using Megascans assets, custom materials, and the engine's Lumen lighting system.
Perhaps most impressively, Chen showed his project file timestamp — proving the entire scene was built in under three hours as part of a personal speed-challenge. He'd originally shared it on ArtStation with the description "Vice City-inspired bridge environment — UE5 practice." Someone downloaded the video, added film grain and shaky cam to mask the UE5 watermark, and the hoax was born.
Why People Fell for It
The fake's success reveals more about fan hunger than the creator's skill. With Rockstar releasing information at a glacial pace, the GTA VI community has become primed to latch onto anything that looks even remotely credible. Each gap between official announcements gets filled with speculation, and convincing fakes — no matter how easily debunked — spread faster than corrections ever could. The bridge video's 8 million views far exceed the 400,000 views Chen's debunk video has received.