Grand Theft Auto 3 Sequel Set In Tokyo Was Reportedly In Consideration At Rockstar Games

Rockstar Games at one point considered making a follow-up to Grand Theft Auto III set in Tokyo, but ultimately decide to stick with Vice City and San Andreas for future locations.

That’s according to TimeExtension, who quizzed an ex-Rockstar employee about GTA Tokyo references that were unearthed in the GTA 5 source code leak back in December 2023. The unnamed source confirmed that the developer was indeed thinking about setting a new GTA game in Tokyo, with Sam Houser having visited Japan extensively during promotional campaigns for GTA 3.

Here’s what TimeExtension’s source had to say on the matter:

He had just released GTA 3 back then and they were doing a lot of travel to Tokyo back then to promote the game. It seemed like a cool, interesting city to do it in, but at the end of the day, it just came down to logistics. 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 1.

Grand Theft Auto III was released for the PS2 in 2001 and was a huge milestone for the crime franchise, as it was not only the first game to release for Sony’s then-new console, but also took the series into the realm of 3D for the first time. GTA III went on to sell over 14.5 million copies by March 2008, and has been ported numerous times, most recently being included in the Grand Theft Auto – The Trilogy: The Definitive Edition in 2021.

[Source – TimeExtension]

Source link