Rockstar Could've Made a GTA Game Set in Japan But Didn't

Insider information about the potential GTA games was published recently, featuring mentions of GTAs set in Japan, Los Angeles, and Bogota.

In 2003, Take-Two Interactive filed ten trademarks related to GTA, including titles GTA Tokyo, GTA Sin City, and GTA Bogota. Mentions of GTA Tokyo were also found in the leaked information related to GTA 5 that occurred last December. However, these games didn't see the light of day, and the developer opted for fictional cities as settings for the games.

The former Rockstar developer, who stayed anonymous, confirmed that Tokyo, indeed, was considered as a possible location for the game. According to the developer, Sam Houser, the Rockstar co-founder, traveled a lot to Tokyo then to promote the newly released GTA 3. However, the developers had to reject that idea due to logistics issues. According to the insider, "getting the research team out there long enough to map the city and just the cultural satire in terms of what could possibly work in a fitting narrative way in that city. Making those things connect was a little tough, and we thought it was just cooler to stick with the cities that were introduced in Grand Theft Auto I."

The former developer also noted that back in 2003, when those trademarks were filed, the Internet wasn't the same, and the company felt safer to work on the possible ideas without instantly sparking discussions. "We were considering what cities to do, sometimes we’d file a trademark with a different understanding of how the internet worked let’s say then versus today. You felt you could file it. You wouldn’t have the same internet sleuths who would jump in and say ‘Hey, look what they just did," explained the insider. "However, those were mostly just to protect from domain squatters," the developer added.

Before, another former Rockstar developer, Obbe Vermeij, also noted that the Internet always waits for any piece of news shared by big companies such as Rockstar, and everything they say gets analyzed by many and is often spun negatively. Vermeij also has been sharing behind-the-scenes moments of developing the GTA franchise, for example, how the game's mirrors were made or why, unlike in GTA 3, there was no litter on the streets of the game's San Andreas. As for the highly anticipated GTA 6, Obbe said that it may not be too different from the previous installment.

GTA 6 is scheduled for fall 2025, as shared by Take-Two's CEO, Strauss Zelnick, while some fans believe that Rockstar hinted at a specific release date in one of the game's trailers. 

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