Former Grand Theft Auto leader Obbe Vermeij has revealed games set in Tokyo, Moscow and Rio De Janeiro almost happened.
Vermeij was technical director at Rockstar between 1995 and 2009, working on Grand Theft Auto 3, 4, Vice City and San Andreas. In a new interview, he’s revealed that international versions of Grand Theft Auto almost went ahead.
“We had ideas about GTA games in Rio De Janeiro, Moscow and Istanbul. Tokyo almost actually happened – another studio in Japan were going to take our code and do GTA: Tokyo but then that didn’t happen in the end,” he told Gamehub.
“People love having these wild ideas but then when you’ve got billions of dollars riding on it, it’s too easy to go ‘let’s do what we know again’. 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 image of the cities,” he added.
GTAV’s source code has revealed multiple games that were cancelled or shelved and might come after GTA 6 including:
– Bully 2.
– Agent.
– Midnight Club 5.
– GTA Tokyo for PlayStation 2 (cancelled). pic.twitter.com/yotcrFPWJJ— GTA 6 Countdown
(@GTAVI_Countdown) December 26, 2023
The upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6 will return to the Florida-inspired Vice City and Vermeij doesn’t think the series will ever leave North America. “They’ll revisit New York again. They’ll go back to LA or maybe Las Vegas. I’m afraid we’re stuck in this loop of about five American cities. Let’s just get used to it,” he said. “It’s unlikely it’s going to 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 set it in some leftfield location for novelty. GTA: Toronto? It just wouldn’t work.”
Last year, Grand Theft Auto writer Dan Houser explained why Grand Theft Auto: London would never happen, despite several fan-made projects. “We always decided there was so much Americana inherent in the IP, it would be really hard to make it work in London or anywhere else. You needed guns and you needed these larger-than-life characters. The game was so much about America that it wouldn’t really have worked in the same way elsewhere.”
Last month, Grand Theft Auto fans were fooled by an AI-generated video “leak” that saw new protagonist Lucia exploring the updated Vice City. The clip racked up more than 8million views in 24 hours before the creator took it down, claiming they just wanted to “spark discussion” within the community.
In other news, ambitious new James Bond game 007: First Light has been delayed by two months and will now launch in May 2026.
The post ‘Grand Theft Auto’ games set in Tokyo, Moscow and Rio De Janeiro once planned appeared first on NME.