In a surprising revelation, a former key developer at Rockstar North has disclosed that the creators of Grand Theft Auto once seriously planned spin-off titles set in major global cities outside the United States, including Tokyo, Moscow, and Rio de Janeiro.
The Global Ambitions That Never Were
According to Obbe Vermeij, the former technical director at Rockstar North, the studio actively considered delegating development of these international titles to local teams. "Tokyo almost actually happened," Vermeij stated in an interview with GamesHub. "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."
Vermeij, who has shared several behind-the-scenes stories from his tenure, confirmed that ideas were also in play for games based in Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, and Istanbul. This approach of using local developers contrasts with recent Western-published titles set in Japan, such as Ghost Of Yōtei and Forza Horizon 6, which are made by Western studios.
Why Grand Theft Auto Stays in America
Despite these past ambitions, Vermeij's comments reinforce the long-standing official stance from Rockstar's former narrative lead, Dan Houser: that the series' satire of American culture is fundamental to its identity. Vermeij elaborated on the commercial reasoning, noting that America serves as a familiar epicentre of Western culture for a global audience.
"America is basically the epicentre of Western culture, so everybody knows the cities, even people who haven't been there," he explained. With development budgets for flagship titles now reaching astronomical levels, the financial risk of setting a main game in an unfamiliar location is deemed too great. "It doesn't make sense to set it in some leftfield location for novelty," Vermeij added, dismissing possibilities like GTA: Bogotá or GTA: Toronto.
The Future: A Cycle of American Cities
Vermeij, who was privy to high-level discussions during his time at the company, predicts a limited rotation of US settings for the foreseeable future. "They'll revisit New York again. They'll go back to LA or maybe Las Vegas," he said. "I'm afraid we're stuck in this loop of about five American cities. Let's just get used to it."
He pointed out that the massive technological leaps between each instalment—now released roughly every 12 years—make revisiting cities a fresh experience for players, negating the need for geographical novelty.
This perspective aligns with the known plans for the next game in the series. GTA 6 is confirmed to return to Vice City, the franchise's version of Miami, with a current release date set for November 19, 2025, following several delays.
While the classic 2D-era expansions took players to 1960s London, it appears that for the big-budget, 3D-era series, the sun will continue to set only on American horizons.
