Grand Theft Auto (GTA) is a video game series deeply rooted in American culture, both in its themes and settings. The series has stepped outside the U.S. once before, with a game set in London, but it has mostly stayed in America.
However, it has recently been revealed that a game titled “GTA Tokyo” was almost developed, though not by Rockstar Games itself.
Why GTA Tokyo Never Happened
Obbe Vermeij, former Technical Director at Rockstar Games, spoke to GamesHub and shed light on this project.
“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 do GTA: Tokyo. But then that didn’t happen in the end,” Vermeij explained (via PCGamesN).
According to him, the main reason the project didn’t move forward was money.
He explained, “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.’ 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 image of the cities.”
Vermeij also pointed out that players shouldn’t expect major changes in setting anytime soon, as game development takes far too long these days.
“If games still took a year to make then yeah, sure, you can have a little fun, but you’re not going to get that when there’s a GTA every 12 years,” he says. “You’re not going to set it in a new location.”
He added that even new North American cities are unlikely to be chosen. According to him, Rockstar will probably continue rotating between its well-known fictional U.S. cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. “GTA: Toronto? It just wouldn’t work,” Vermeij said.
In other GTA news, Take-Two Interactive Boss has dismissed the idea that artificial intelligence could create a real competitor to the GTA franchise, saying that “human genius” remains the key element in making successful games.
The actual Grand Theft Auto game we’re getting next year is GTA 6, which is due for release in November 19 on the PS5, Xbox Series X|S.
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AloJapan.com