Alderney

Updated 28 October 2026 · Fan site. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive.

Alderney is a fictional US state based on New Jersey, across the river west of Liberty City. It first appeared in Grand Theft Auto IV (2008) and also features in The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony. Chinatown Wars leaves it out. Its main city, Alderney City, is part of the Liberty City metro area.

Is Alderney part of Liberty City?

Officially no, in practice partly. Alderney is a separate state with its own State Police, whose uniforms resemble New Jersey's state troopers. But Alderney City and the towns around it belong to the Liberty City metro area, the way Newark and Jersey City sit next to New York. GTA IV's own website summed it up as industrial wasteland meeting suburban hell.

Alderney's roots in the 2D and 3D eras

Alderney is an HD-era invention, but the idea is older. The 1997 Grand Theft Auto put a New Jersey parody called New Guernsey in the northwest corner of its Liberty City map. In GTA III (2001), New Jersey suburbs fed into Shoreside Vale, the third island.

Alderney in the HD era (2008 to 2009)

Grand Theft Auto IV launched on 29 April 2008. Alderney sits west of Algonquin, the game's Manhattan, across the West River. The Booth Tunnel, modelled on the Lincoln Tunnel, and the Hickey Bridge cross the river. The elevated Plumbers Skyway copies the Pulaski Skyway. Like the rest of the map, Alderney is closed at first. GTA Wiki says it opens to Niko Bellic after the mission Three Leaf Clover.

GTA Wiki notes that Alderney follows its real model more closely than Liberty City does. Most of it is based on Hudson County, with Leftwood drawn from Bergen County and Tudor from Union County. Areas range from Alderney City's downtown and Koreatown to the gang-hit streets of Acter, the docks of Port Tudor and the mansions of Westdyke. Landmarks include the Alderney State Correctional Facility next to Acter Industrial Park and an abandoned casino at Westdyke's northern tip.

Crime here is as common as in the city. GTA Wiki lists the Pegorino family, the Korean mob and Liberty City Mafia families such as the Ancelottis and Pavanos. Alderney also matters in The Lost and Damned. Its biker gang, The Lost MC, with Johnny Klebitz, has a chapter in Alderney that GTA Wiki says breaks apart in 2008 after an internal war. The Ballad of Gay Tony and Luis Lopez use the same map.

Why is Alderney not in Chinatown Wars?

Chinatown Wars (2009) uses a scaled-down version of GTA IV's Liberty City but drops Alderney, says Wikipedia. GTA Wiki, citing an IGN preview, gives the reason. The Triads, the gang at the centre of Huang Lee's story, have no presence in Alderney, so it had no part in the plot.

Is Alderney in GTA V?

Only by name. GTA V and GTA Online mention the state, but you cannot go there. In-game, GTA IV's TV history of Liberty City claims Alderney was named after a man called Phillip D. Alderney.