Rockstar allegedly planned GTA Tokyo, Rio, Moscow, and Istanbul, according to former employee

Former technical director at Rockstar North, Obbe Vermeij, recently revealed that the company had plans for GTA Tokyo, Rio, Moscow, and even Istanbul. Ever since the company developed the first Grand Theft Auto, it has always been set in North America. Though there were two mission packs for the first GTA set in London, the developers quickly returned to the west and never made the IP set in a different country.

In a recent interview with Games Hub, Vermeij was asked whether there were plans for GTA to be based in any other country apart from America. He explained that Rockstar had ideas to set the IP in other cities like Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Moscow in Russia, and Istanbul in Turkey. He added that GTA Tokyo, a game set in Japan, almost went into development.

Here's what the former Rockstar technical director said:

"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."

Vermeij then explained the financial risk of making a Grand Theft Auto title in another setting altogether. Another reason for not taking this risk was that most people around the globe have some idea of what America looks and feels like, even though they have not visited the West.

He added:

"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."

As of now, Grand Theft Auto has been set in Liberty City (New York), Los Santos (Los Angeles), and Vice City (Miami), all of which are popular cities in North America.

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Rockstar co-founder explains why GTA was never set in other countries

A few months ago, Rockstar co-founder and former GTA lead writer Dan Houser also explained why the IP was always set in North America.

While appearing on the Lex Fridman podcast, Houser explained that since the game series was heavily tied to the western culture from the start, the company always thought of making sequels in America.

Here's what he said:

"I think for a full GTA game, we always decided there was so much Americana inherent in the IP, it would be really hard to make it work in London or anywhere else," Houser said. [1:02:24]

GTA was always known for its gunfights, loud personalities, parody of consumerism, etc., which Houser believes was perfectly showcased through a parody world based on America.

"You know, you needed guns, you needed these larger-than-life characters. It just felt like the game was so much about America, possibly from an outsider's perspective. But that was so much about what the thing was that it wouldn't really have worked in the same way elsewhere," he added.

GTA 6, Rockstar's next massive title, is set to release on November 19, 2026. As always, it will once again be set in America, returning to Vice City and the state of Leonida (Florida).

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Edited by Akshat Kabra