A former Rockstar Games dev has revealed that a Grand Theft Auto game set in Tokyo was once discussed, alongside plans to take the series far beyond the United States.
Speaking in a new interview with GamesHub, Obbe Vermeij, a former technical director at Rockstar North, said multiple international locations were being discussed following the releases of GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas. Among them was Tokyo, which came closer to becoming reality than fans might expect.
Vermeij, who worked on GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas, explained that ideas were explored for games set in Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, and Istanbul.
GTA: Tokyo nearly happened
According to Vermeij, another studio in Japan was set to take Rockstar’s existing codebase and develop a standalone project titled GTA: Tokyo.
The plan would have marked the franchise’s first major departure from its US-centric settings. Ultimately, the project never moved forward.
“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,” said Vermeiji.
“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.”
The comments arrive as Rockstar prepares for the long-awaited launch of Grand Theft Auto 6, which returns the series to Vice City, Rockstar’s fictional take on Miami. GTA 6 was officially delayed earlier this year, with the studio confirming it will now release on November 19, 2026.
Set in the modern-day state of Leonida, GTA 6 promises to be Rockstar’s largest and most detailed open world yet, but it continues the series’ tradition of staying rooted in the US.
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