Don’t Hold Your Breath For Grand Theft Auto: London

Grand Theft Auto will remain an American institution going forward, according to Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser

The Grand Theft Auto franchise will almost certainly not be returning to London according to Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser.

Houser, who confounded Rockstar in 1998 with his brother, Sam, and wrote for some of the most acclaimed games of the past few decades, including GTA, Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption 2, and Max Payne 3, laid out his reasons in a massive interview with Lex Fridman on the latter’s podcast. It comes down to two things: guns and culture.

“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, as the first mission pack ever for PlayStation,” Houser said.

“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. That was so much about what the thing was that it wouldn’t really have worked in the same way elsewhere.”

The “little thing in London” he’s referring to is, of course, Grand Theft Auto: London 1969, which was released in 1997 and has remained a fan fave ever since.

And he’s right – for all the vehicular mayhem and carnage, one of the key appeals of the entire Grand Theft Auto series is its merciless satire of crass American culture. There’s probably a way to thread the needle and bring GTA back to the Big Smoke, but its not an easy trick. At least we have GTA 6 to look forward to.