- In lieu of the distinctly American-set Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA 6 or GTA VI), sequels set in Tokyo, Moscow, Rio De Janeiro, and even Istanbul were once on the cards.
- “Tokyo almost actually happened – another studio in Japan were going to take our code and do GTA: Tokyo,” reveals Obbe Vermeij, former Rockstar Games technical director.
- Grand Theft Auto 6 now has a delayed release date of November 19th, 2026.
While the video game-playing world eagerly awaits the long-gestating Grand Theft Auto 6, set in the Florida-inspired fictional state of Leonida, you may be interested to learn that in an alternate timeline, the next franchise instalment could’ve ventured outside of North America.
“We had ideas about GTA games in Rio De Janeiro, Moscow and Istanbul. Tokyo almost actually happened – another studio in Japan were going to take our code and do GTA: Tokyo, but then that didn’t happen in the end,” Obbe Vermeij, former Rockstar Games technical director, told Gamehub.
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“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.’ Also, America is basically the epicentre of Western culture, so everybody knows the cities, even people who haven’t been there. They have a mental image of the cities.”
Vermeij continued on the US tangent: “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.”
“It’s unlikely it’s going to be in Bogota next time, especially since there’s just more and more money involved as the project gets bigger. It doesn’t make sense to set it in some leftfield location for novelty. GTA: Toronto? It just wouldn’t work.”
Previous to this, Grand Theft Auto writer Dan Houser poured cold water on any possibility of international variants such as the viral AI-generated Grand Theft Auto: London (not to be confused with the 1997 expansion pack from Rockstar Canada), despite all the online fervour generated by these fan-made projects.
“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,” he explained.
“You needed guns and you needed these larger-than-life characters. The game was so much about America that it wouldn’t really have worked in the same way elsewhere.”
Despite Take-Two’s earlier assurances that it wouldn’t be the case, the Grand Theft Auto 6 release date has once again been pushed back – this time to November 19th, 2026.
In the wake of the announcement, Rockstar Games issued the following statement:
We are sorry for adding additional time to what we realise has been a long wait, but these extra months will allow us to finish the game with the level of polish you have come to expect and deserve. We want to thank you again for your patience and support. While the wait is a little longer, we are incredibly excited for players to experience the sprawling state of Leonida and a return to modern-day Vice City.
And don’t be surprised if you find yourself forking out over $100 for the privilege at launch.
With an expansive open world like no other, cinematic graphics, and what promises to be a compelling Bonnie & Clyde-style storyline, the hotly anticipated title’s budget (which is believed to factor in marketing) has reportedly ballooned from earlier estimates of US$1 billion to approximately US$2 billion.
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For context, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa only ran the bill up to US$1.5 billion. Even more amusingly, construction on the world’s tallest skyscraper was completed in less than half the time it took GTA VI to release (six years versus 12 years). And for a less ridiculous reference, here’s what every other franchise instalment cost to develop (unadjusted for inflation):
- GTA (1997) – US$1-2 million
- GTA 2 (1999) – US$3-4 million
- GTA 3 (2001) – US$5 million
- GTA Vice City (2002) – US$5 million
- GTA San Andreas (2004) – US$10 million
- GTA 4 (2008) – US$100 million
- GTA 5 (2013) – US$250 million
Grand Theft Auto 6 Synopsis
Jason Duvall and Lucia Camino have always known the deck is stacked against them. But when an easy score goes wrong, they find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, in the middle of a criminal conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida – forced to rely on each other more than ever if they want to make it out alive.
