So far, GTA London 1969 remains the only installment in the franchise to take place outside of the United States. Fans have long wondered if Rockstar would ever return to London or perhaps even bring the series elsewhere in the world.
However, based on the statement relayed by Dan Houser (who wrote all the games in the series save for the upcoming sixth), that seems unlikely. Speaking to the Lex Fridman podcast, he explained that the franchise is intrinsically linked to American culture.
We made a little thing in London 26 years ago, GTA London, for the top-down for the PS1. That was pretty cute and fun, as the first mission pack ever for PlayStation. 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.
Of course, Houser left Rockstar Games in early 2020, so it isn't really up to him anymore. That said, having worked there for twenty-two years, he certainly has a sound inkling as to the way the studio thinks about its prized IP.
Elsewhere in the interview, Dan Houser mentioned that his favorite character in the series was GTA IV's Niko Bellic, as the most earnest and nicest of all, although he also mentioned CJ from San Andreas and Michael De Santa from GTA V as standout, partly due to the respective voice actors doing a great job at bringing them to life.
Houser then said he isn't worried about generative-trained large language models taking the jobs of writers because he reckons that LLMs can only create cheap, decent stuff, but are unable to come out with new, interesting ideas, which is where 'magic' comes from in writing.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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