Why Grand Theft Auto Will Stick to Familiar Ground, According to Ex-Rockstar Developer

Got your sights set on the Grand Theft Auto series bouncing across Colombia? Or maybe you’re dreaming of high-speed chases through Vienna? Well, it’s time to rein in those fantasies. Former Rockstar technical director Obbe Vermeij has some blunt words on the matter: it’s just not going to happen.

In a recent chat with GamesHub, Vermeij noted, “It doesn’t make sense to set it in some left-field location for novelty. GTA: Toronto? It just wouldn’t work.” With a franchise that racks in cash like GTA, the risk of straying too far from the familiar terrain seems to be a hard pass for Rockstar. “It’s just not realistic,” he continues. “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.”

He reminisces about past concepts that almost made it to the big screen: “We had ideas about GTA games in Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, and Istanbul. Tokyo almost actually happened,” Vermeij explains. It was at one point on the table for another studio in Japan to take Rockstar’s code and create GTA: Tokyo. But, as with so many dreams in development, it never materialized.

Moreover, Dan Houser, co-founder of Rockstar, shared similar sentiments—mentioning that the series rarely strays too far from its American roots. In fact, he noted that they only attempted GTA London once in 26 years because the series embodies “so much about America” that branching out wouldn’t resonate in the same way.

As for GTA 6, according to Vermeij, “this is just something that the internet has decided,” suggesting that it likely won’t break the $100 mark, all thanks to the success of GTA Online and its monetization strategies.

With such a monumental franchise, “it’s too easy to go let’s do what we know again,” Vermeij says. The golden sands of Vice City remain a reliable backdrop. “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.”

He adds a sobering thought: “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. 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.”

As the gaming world looks forward to the next installment, it seems we might be revisiting some familiar, iconic landscapes once again.