Rockstar’s iconic GTA series had always been rooted in the imagery and iconography of Americana with all the fictional in-game cities such as Liberty City, San Andreas and Vice City being meticulous re-imaginings of New York, California, and Florida. What GTA as a series primarily embodies, from the chaotic lawlessness to the postmodern urban decadence, has always been entrenched in the themes and values of America in major ways however, as a former Rockstar dev has shared recently, a GTA title based on Tokyo was actually in the cards and “almost happened,” before eventually being scrapped for good.
In an interview with GamesHub, former Rockstar North technical director Obbe Vermeij, who worked on the likes of GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas, confirmed that a GTA title based on Tokyo was discussed at some point in the studio.
“We had ideas about GTA games in Rio de Janeiro, Moscow and Istanbul. Tokyo almost actually happened. Another studio in Japan was going to do it, take our code and do GTA: Tokyo. But then that didn’t happen in the end,” he stated.
However he also acknowledged that it was never really likely to happen:
“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 epicentre of Western culture, so everybody knows the cities, even people who haven’t been there. 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.”
And as of right now, GTA 6 probably has even more hype behind it than what it’s predecessor GTA 5 had when it came out over a decade ago, with both of it’s trailers breaking viewership records twice. This really suggests that upon release, GTA 6 could garner revenue that was previously unimaginable not just for a videogame but for any entertainment property in history.
GTA 6 is currently slated to launch for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on May 26, 2026.
