The Grand Theft Auto series is known for always being set in a fictional version of cities in the United States. Liberty City is Rockstar’s version of New York, Vice City is Miami, Los Santos is Los Angeles, and so on. At the core of the series has always been its parody of US culture, which is part of why each game has remained in the US. That said, according to a former Rockstar developer, we were close to seeing an entirely different version of the GTA games we’ve come to know.
In fact, we were close to seeing several different versions of GTA games, with one intended to be set in Tokyo, another in Istanbul, another in Rio de Janeiro, and another in Moscow. This all comes from Obbe Vermeij, a former technical director at Rockstar and the technical director for GTA III, GTA Vice City, San Andreas, and GTA VI, in an interview with GamesHub.
When asked if the development team at Rockstar ever considered taking the GTA games out of the US, Vermeij said, “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 GTA games in Rio de Janeiro, Moscow and Istanbul. Tokyo almost actually happened. Another studio in Japan were going to do it, take our code and do GTA: Tokyo. But then that didn’t happen in the end. 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.”
“I think 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 left-field location for novelty. GTA: Toronto? It just wouldn’t work.”
When asked about the prospect of Grand Theft Auto games moving to Europe, Vermeij continued, “It’s just not realistic. I would love it, and 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.”
“You’re not going to set it in a new location. You don’t really need to either because the technology changes so much. Nobody is going to say that they’re not going to play GTA VI because they’ve already played Vice City. That doesn’t make sense. It’s completely different. 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.”
Grand Theft Auto VI is returning to Vice City and is due to release on November 19, 2026. It’s been over a decade since the release of GTA V, and considering how long it is taking to get GTA VI out the door, it’ll be years before we even start to hear rumours about where the series could go next.
In other Rockstar news, while everyone continues to wait for GTA VI, the studio is currently being accused of union-busting for the firing of 34 workers across Rockstar offices in the UK and Canada. While Rockstar claims the employees were leaking confidential information, the 31 workers fired across the UK and three workers fired at Rockstar Toronto deny those allegations.
The dismissals have resulted in Rockstar employees and union supporters protesting outside of Rockstar’s offices in Edinburgh, Paris, New York, and, most recently, Toronto. Wccftech was able to attend the protest in Toronto and speak with those protesting and get a first-hand account of Rockstar’s refusal to speak with those at its office in Oakville, Ontario, that day.
Wccftech also spoke with one of the workers who was fired from Rockstar Toronto, who told us, “Every single one of us was talented; we wouldn’t have gotten into Rockstar if we weren’t talented, if they didn’t see our potential, if they didn’t see how talented and how good we are at what we do, we wouldn’t have gotten in in the first place. We just want to get back to work on the game. We poured our heart and soul into it, and to be let go just for discussing our working conditions amongst ourselves and wanting the company to be better, it’s heartbreaking.”
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AloJapan.com