A GTA VI research helicopter shoot ended up over a Beyoncé concert

One of the stories from GTA VI’s field research is a helicopter flyover that ended up above a Beyoncé concert. Aaron Garbut, head of development at Rockstar North, tells it in the LOVE Magazine interview, according to ShanetheGamer and GTA BOOM (October 5 and 6, 2026).

What Garbut says

According to ShanetheGamer, during one shoot a handful of developers spent the day flying low and fast over mangrove inlets in the Everglades. GTA BOOM adds that they were art directors and that they then passed over downtown and the beach. The flight ended hovering above a stadium while Beyoncé played inside. Garbut’s memory of the aftermath was brief: “I think we made the local news.”

What the research is for

Garbut says the material from these trips “finds its way into the game in surprising ways”. Per ShanetheGamer, Rockstar pointed to pedestrian dialogue, radio shows and advertisements as places it can surface, and the studio does not treat them as secondary content because it expects players to spend hundreds of hours in Leonida. For the rest of the trips, which included police officers and gang members, see the Florida field research.

What is missing

We have not read the full LOVE interview; the story comes from ShanetheGamer and GTA BOOM, so the level is medio-verificado. GTA BOOM cites an X user who places the flight in 2016 from a film permit; that is a fan connection, not confirmed by Rockstar, and we do not treat it as valid.