Forget GTA 6 - Ex Rockstar Games Director Leaks Plans for a Different GTA in Every Country

Are you still waiting for GTA 6 to drop? Well, this surprising world of video games is no stranger to that kind of anticipation, but few titles have ever created as much prolonged excitement and ironic frustration as Grand Theft Auto 6. Literally years in the making, the next mainline entry in Rockstar Games' most famous franchise has been repeatedly postponed, pushing fans' patience to the limit.

Now, while gamers fixate on every tiny development update, a former Rockstar technical director has shockingly revealed that the company once flirted with the idea of creating multiple GTA games set completely outside the familiar cityscapes of the United States. But there is a big reason we never saw these GTA games, and possibly now that we might never see them in the future.

Delays and Growing Frustration Over GTA 6

It seems like a lifetime ago when Rockstar Games first teased Grand Theft Auto 6. Excitement is a subtle word to describe what happened throughout the gaming community. The franchise's previous mainline entry, Grand Theft Auto V, was released in 2013, becoming one of the best selling games ever. Obviously, its successor was expected to carry that momentum, if not exceed it, but development setbacks have lengthened the wait to an almost previously unseen degree.

Moreover, the game was initially set for release in late 2025 after its announcement in 2023, but Rockstar confirmed a delay to May 26, 2026 to ensure the game met quality standards and player expectations. Then it got worse as the release window slipped again to November 19, 2026, which, as per sources, was to give the development team extra time to polish the massive open world and complex systems the series is known for. These repeated postponements have not gone down well with long suffering fans.

Furthermore, social media platforms and gaming forums have become like therapeutic venting areas for frustrated players. Some fans have taken their annoyance further, literally travelling to Rockstar's headquarters in person to confront developers over the silence and delays. As per reports, a viral video documented a TikToker flying to the company's offices to demand updates.

That is not all as industry reaction to the delays has also been just as extreme. The absence of GTA 6 from the 2025 release calendar is projected to cost the gaming market billions in lost revenue, as per sources, with missing hardware and software sales expected to impact console vendors and developers, not just angry gamers.

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New Revelation About GTA Games of Different Countries

Now, after all the noise around GTA 6, a shocking abandoned plan has been revealed from a very important person in Rockstar's past. Obbe Vermeij, who was a former technical director at Rockstar North, has said that the company once seriously considered creating separate GTA titles set in international locales.

According to Vermeij, ideas for games set in cities such as Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, Moscow and Istanbul were on the table at many stages of Grand Theft Auto's development. These games would have been a full and surprising change from the franchise's long standing focus on American cities and themes.

Out of these, GTA: Tokyo came closest to fruition, as per sources. There was even talk of a partnership with a Japanese studio that would have used Rockstar's code base to build a standalone entry. Ultimately, such ideas were trashed in favour of sticking with the familiar cultural scenes of the United States, where Rockstar's take on American life has been a main pillar of the series since its earliest days. This is what Vermeji said,

'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.'

So, if that is the reason, it's not changing anytime soon, a GTA: Tokyo or any other GTA based on a different country seems unlikely, especially seeing how slow Rockstar has been with GTA 6.