Rockstar’s legendary franchise could have been set in many cities we wouldn’t have thought of at first.
Grand Theft Auto is known for taking place in fictional versions of U.S. cities. For example, Liberty City is Rockstar’s version of New York City, Vice City is Miami, and Los Santos is Los Angeles. The series has always focused on parodying American culture, which partly explains why the games have remained in the United States. However, according to a former Rockstar developer, we almost saw a completely different version of the Grand Theft Auto games.
Several different versions of the Grand Theft Auto games were in the works, including ones set in Tokyo, Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro, and Moscow. Former technical director of Rockstar and of Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and Grand Theft Auto VI, Obbe Vermeij revealed all this in an interview with GamesHub. When asked if Rockstar’s development team had ever considered setting games outside the United States, Vermeij replied:
“There were desires, yeah, but it’s like talking about alternative projects at Rockstar when you really start thinking about it. We had ideas about Grand Theft Auto 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 create Grand Theft Auto: Tokyo. But then that didn’t happen in the end. People love having these wild ideas, but when billions of dollars are at stake, it’s easy to fall back on what we know. Also, America is basically the epicenter of Western culture, so everyone knows the cities, even people who haven’t been there. They have a mental image of them. I think it’s unlikely it’ll be in Bogotá next time, especially since more and more money is involved as the project grows. It doesn’t make sense to set it in a random location just for novelty’s sake. Grand Theft Auto: Toronto? It just wouldn’t work,” said Vermeij.
When asked about the possibility of Grand Theft Auto games being released in Europe, Vermeij replied: “It’s just not realistic. I would love it. If games still took a year to make, then sure, you could have a little fun. But you’re not going to get that when there’s a Grand Theft Auto game released every 12 years. You’re not going to set it in a new location. You don’t really need to, though, because technology changes so much. No one is going to say they won’t play Grand Theft Auto VI just because they’ve already played Vice City. That doesn’t make sense. It’s completely different. They’ll revisit New York again. They’ll revisit Los Angeles, or maybe Las Vegas. Unfortunately, we’re stuck in a loop of about five American cities. Let’s just get used to it.”
Grand Theft Auto VI will return to Vice City and be released on November 19 for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series.
