Besides stealing cars and wreaking havoc, there's one thing that connects the Grand Theft Auto franchise, and that's the United States. The series has never shied away from parodying and commenting on the country's culture and socio-political structure. While we've seen other games do the same for other countries, none of them have hit quite like Rockstar's creations.
So when the question of a GTA game set in another country comes up, we can't help but feel that it will be missing one of the most crucial elements. Perhaps that's why the studio never went ahead with its plans to expand the series outside of the US. A former Rockstar developer has revealed that the studio almost moved on with GTA games in other popular locations.
GTA almost went to Japan
Speaking to GamesHub (via Insider), former Rockstar North CTO Obbe Vermeij, who worked on GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas, revealed that the studio was planning to create a GTA game in Tokyo. Unfortunately, the plans never came to fruition, but there was talk of creating games for several major cities.
“We had ideas about GTA games in Rio de Janeiro, Moscow and Istanbul. Tokyo almost actually happened. Another studio in Japan was going to do it, take our code and make GTA: Tokyo. But in the end it didn't happen,” says Vermeij. However, GTA has cemented its American setting since then, and featuring other countries no longer seems possible.
What GTA 6's delay means for the gaming industry
The entire release calendar moves every time GTA 6 does, so how will the latest delay affect everything else?
“People love to have these wild ideas, but then when you have billions of dollars riding on it, it's too easy to go, let's do what we know again, and also America is basically the epicenter of Western culture, so everybody knows the cities, even people who haven't been there. They have a mental picture of the cities.
“I think it's unlikely it'll be in Bogota next time, especially since there's just more and more money involved as the project gets bigger. It doesn't make sense to put it somewhere in left field for novelty. GTA: Toronto? It just wouldn't work.”
