Ex-Rockstar Director Says GTA Is Stuck in a Loop of Five U.S. Cities, Dismisses Overseas Settings

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GTA 7 Expected To Take Place In New York!

Story Highlight
  • Former Rockstar director says that GTA won’t visit international locations or even other American cities aside from the existing ones.
  • He says there’s a big distance between each entry and that technology makes depiction different even of the same location.
  • Next GTA game likely to revisit Liberty City, LA, or Las Vegas.

One of the main reasons the GTA series is so successful is that it is a satirical recreation of America, and every aspect of the game mocks real-life events that have happened in the Land of the Free.

However, fans have wondered if Rockstar would ever consider visiting a location outside the U.S. While a Tokyo GTA game almost happened, a former Rockstar North director dismisses the prospect of an overseas setting, claiming the series is stuck in a loop of the same existing location.

Why it matters: A GTA game set outside of the U.S would lose its identity, and there aren’t many locations that are considered to be exciting or fitting for the series. 

GTA London
GTA London Was An Expansion Of The Original Game And The Only Time The Series Took Place Outside Of The U.S.

Obbe Vermeij worked for Rockstar North on GTA 3, Vice City, San Andreas, and GTA 4 in the early 2000s before departing the studio. Now working on smaller-scaled entries, Vermeij was interviewed regarding his thoughts on the series more than a decade after leaving Rockstar.

Regarding international settings or even in other cities within the U.S., Vermeij had the following to say:

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. 

With such a big gap between entries, the director argues that Rockstar won’t take a huge risk on a different setting, and because technology changes so much, the entire depiction of a location does too.

GTA 6
The Same Director Argues That GTA 6 Will Be A Regularly Priced Game

As an example, he said that nobody will skip out on GTA 6 just because they’ve played Vice City. Similarly, GTA San Andreas and GTA 5 were also completely different depictions of Los Santos.

For future entries, he thinks that GTA 7 will take place in Liberty City, LA, or maybe even Las Vegas, saying that people should get used to being stuck in the loop of the same cities.

What are your thoughts on this story? Would you want a GTA game set outside of America or even in a different city? Let us know in the comments below, or at the official Tech4Gamers Forums.

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