Grand Theft Auto VI is just around the corner, barring any further delays, as the latest US-based installment in the game series, but a recent GamesHub interview with Rockstar’s former technical director, Obbe Vermeij, revealed that the series may have gone in a completely different direction. According to the former executive, Rockstar was seriously considering making GTA: Tokyo during his time at the game studio. That means the would-be game would have been published sometime between 1995 and 2009, although the former director seems to be convinced that an international version of the game franchise is less and less likely now that the franchise has grown so large.
GTA: Tokyo was supposedly in talks to be developed by an unspecified studio in Japan, which would have combined Rockstar code with its own story and game assets. Tokyo was seemingly the only one that came close to fruition, but Rockstar was also considering GTA games in Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, and Istanbul. Vermeij commented that the only reason Tokyo and other international versions of the franchise were not pursued is that “when you’ve got billions of dollars riding on it, it’s too easy to go let’s do what we know again.” He also says that the ubiquity and familiarity of American cities and culture were driving factors for abandoning the international versions. He goes so far as to say that it’s more likely that future GTA games will revisit previous cities before leaving America, thanks to the risk aversion that comes from such a valuable game series.
AloJapan.com