I think you are confusing the 3D Universe's lore with the HD's. The mention of real counterparts of GTA locations only happens in the 3D Universe, not in the HD.

Yeah I do think it’s weird. Talking about New York and California in RDR2 while it’s an entirely fictional America. It’s jarring, almost. Weird how they are in fictional states. It’s almost as if their America is larger than our own! Not that I actually think that’s cannon. More just it’s weird how they can’t decide if every place has a counterpart, or if every place is just in the game. It’s a very bizarre mix, I agree.

^^In GTA IV, one of the radio commercials mentions someone having a California accent, and the song New York Groove by Hello plays on Liberty Rock Radio.

@GeneralJ565 The songs are licensed. Rockstar can't change the lyrics just so they mention San Andreas. This argument is so weak that Idk how the guys over at GTA wiki consider it a valid point to make, it's erroneous.

@Gold Master308 It’s more of the fact that if they can’t change the lyrics to fit the games universe, why include it in the first place? It would beg the question of how that song would exist in the first place in the game’s universe. But besides that they still mention a lot of other real states like Utah and Texas.

Well I mean, they probably all just have made up names for them but say, new Hanover, is the popular one- it is strange to me too, because there’s literally a river named “ dakota river “- and they talk about Pennsylvania

Bro i cant believe Penelope Braithwaite predicted the ohio memes