Rockstar’s Fear of a Foreign Fiasco Kept Grand Theft Auto Games From Leaving America
According to a former Rockstar North technical director, “Grand Theft Auto” could have become a globetrotting franchise. Obbe spoke in a recent interview, where he revealed the company actively considered different settings in which the series would take place. These locations include Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, Istanbul, and, most notably, Tokyo for past entries. It was even rumored that another studio nearly took their code to create a standalone “GTA: Tokyo.” So, why did these international heists never materialize?
Grand Theft Auto’s Passport Was Never Stamped
Ultimately, Rockstar was steered toward safer, familiar ground due to its massive financial stakes. The team reasoned that fictionalized American cities were a universally understood cultural export, even for players who had never visited. Furthermore, the ballooning development timelines for each modern “GTA” also play a part in these potential new settings being cancelled.
Specifically, these risky location changes become seemingly impractical when a new game arrives only every decade or so. Who knows if a smaller studio can seize this abandoned opportunity to create a major crime epic set in Moscow or a futuristic metropolis? Vermeij suspects most companies are terrified of directly competing with the “GTA” juggernaut, even as other clones like Saints Row have faded away.
No Frequent Flyer Miles for This Franchise
Interestingly, the negative experience of developing “Grand Theft Auto 2” led the team to reject an alternative time period. Developers disliked reinventing everything for a futuristic setting, from weapons to societal rules, preferring to iterate on a recognizable modern world. It’s unclear whether this means players are forever locked into contemporary American-style cities. As Rockstick prioritizes technological leaps over geographical ones, this future seems more likely.
Rockstar gambling with radical change may not be the right move, as its formula is simply too successful and too expensive to come to fruition. “Grand Theft Auto” won’t be moving away from its American-inspired settings due to financial caution and cultural familiarity. Given that this creative conservatism leaves a market gap, other developers seeking to explore international crime sagas are impacted. However, the flagship series will continue perfecting its signature take on the American dream, and nightmare, for years to come.
