Former Grand Theft Auto writer Dan Houser has explained why a game set in London will never happen, despite several fan-made projects.
READ MORE: The best games to play while you wait for ‘Grand Theft Auto 6’
The original Grand Theft Auto had a pair of mission packs that took the violence to 1960s London. Since then, fans have been asking for a full Grand Theft Auto: London game and earlier this summer, a fan-made trailer went viral across social media.
However in a new interview, original Rockstar writer Dan Houser has said the series will never leave America. “We made a little thing in London 26 years ago, GTA: London, for the top-down game for the PS1. That was pretty cute and fun. 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,” he said (via VGC).
“It just felt like the game was so much about America, possibly from an outsider’s perspective. That was so much about what the thing was that it wouldn’t really have worked in the same way elsewhere.”
The upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6 will see the series return to the Miami-inspired Vice City. “There’s a melting pot aspect to [cities like] LA. There’s glitz, glamour, underbelly, immigrants, enormous wealth in all of them. I think those are what are really fun – not just GTA but anything where you want a slice of life,” Houser added.
Houser left Rockstar in 2020 and launched his new media company Absurd Ventures last year.
Speaking about creating the trailer for GTA: London, 3D artist Carlos Rico admitted that the city probably isn’t the best setting for a game. “The pothole-riddled roads aren’t exactly fun to speed down, and a sweaty Central line trip doesn’t sound that great either,” he told The Face. “I’d probably blow all my in-game cash on congestion charges alone. That said, I’d still happily pay an absurd amount for Rockstar to make a modern GTA: London.”
Grand Theft Auto 6 is due to launch May 26, 2026 and, according to the boss of publishers Take Two, will not be delayed again. Fans are also expecting Trailer 3 to be released at some point this month.
In other news, it looks like Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is set to leave Xbox Game Pass this month, exactly one year after it first launched, and fans are furious.
The post ‘Grand Theft Auto’ writer explains why ‘GTA: London’ will never happen appeared first on NME.
