‘We’re Stuck in This Loop of 5 American Cities. Let’s Just Get Used to It’ — Former Rockstar Dev Reveals GTA: Tokyo ‘Almost Actually Happened’ but Fell by the Wayside

For years Grand Theft Auto fans have wondered whether Rockstar might take the franchise out of its traditional America setting into cities in other countries. But according to one former developer, that’s never going to happen — and fans just need to accept it.

In an interview with Gameshub, former Rockstar Games technical director Obbe Vermeij, who worked at the company from 1995 to 2009, said there were “ideas” about post-Liberty City, San Andreas, and Vice City GTA games set in Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, and Istanbul, but it was GTA: Tokyo that “almost actually happened.”

According to Vermeij, who left Rockstar just after finishing GTA 4, another studio in Japan was going to take Rockstar’s code and develop GTA: Tokyo (Vermeij didn’t say which studio). “But then that didn’t happen in the end.”

Why? It sounds like Rockstar came to the realization that American cities are the natural and best setting for GTA, and given it takes so long to release new games in the series, going international is too big of a risk.

“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,” Vermeij said. “They have a mental image of the cities.

“I think 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 left-field location for novelty. GTA: Toronto? It just wouldn’t work.”

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GTA 6 is of course set to return to Vice City, the GTA series’ fictionalized take on Miami, Florida. But then what? Will Rockstar ever take GTA international and set it across mainland Europe or in London?

“It’s just not realistic,” Vermeij countered. “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.

“You’re not going to set it in a new location. You don’t really need to either because the technology changes so much. Nobody is going to say that they’re not going to play GTA 6 because they’ve already played Vice City. That doesn’t make sense. It’s completely different.

“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.”

Vermeij’s comments here echo those of Rockstar co-founder and former boss Dan Houser, who recently explained why the Grand Theft Auto series won’t leave the United States in terms of its setting.

Speaking on the Lex Fridman podcast, Houser said that — GTA London apart — Grand Theft Auto remained firmly rooted in the United States because it leans so heavily on Americana.

“We made a little thing in London 26 years ago — GTA London — for the top-down for PS1. That was pretty cute and fun, as the first mission pack ever for PlayStation 1. 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.

“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.”

Every Rockstar Game Tier List

Every Rockstar Game Tier List

Indeed, such is GTA’s relationship with America, built up over the course of its many video games, that a University of Tennessee history professor will teach a GTA college history class early in 2026. Professor Tore Olsson recently told IGN: “Video games are great at conjuring fictional worlds, but they also impact players’ thinking about real-world times and places. And just as Red Dead Redemption 2 has shaped folks’ perception of the nineteenth-century American West or Ghost of Tsushima has informed their vision of feudal Japan, millions of people around the globe imagine contemporary America through the lens of the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Just think of how many GTA veterans have recognized landmarks in Los Angeles and New York thanks to their hours in Los Santos and Liberty City!”

Houser’s position on GTA is similar to that of the creators of post-apocalyptic role-playing game series Fallout, which has also remained in the United States. Last year, Bethesda development chief Todd Howard ruled out leaving the U.S. behind for a future Fallout video game, saying he’s a big fan of the “Americana naivete” that informs so much of Fallout’s tone.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.