S&S News: Rockstar doesn’t see another Grand Theft Auto taking place in London, is interested in next-gen tech

Rockstar’s Dan Houser has said the team is very interested in next gen tech, and also that when the next GTA releases, don't expect it to take place in London.  

Speaking with the Guardian, Houser said that while GTA London was “cool for a time,” but limited as well.

“These days I think we would love to set a game in the UK, set in London, whatever, but I don’t know if it would be a GTA game,” he said. “I think there are plenty of great stories we could tell about the UK, great environments to showcase, great gameplay mechanics that could have a UK bent to them – I just don’t think it would be a GTA necessarily.

“There are so many games we’d like to make that we just don’t have the bandwidth to make at the moment. But we always think, well the future is long and varied, and that’s what the future’s for. Speaking for myself – and normally I’d be as militant about saying ‘we’ as much as possible, because it certainly isn’t only me at all, thank god – but my own personal feeling is that GTA is America.

“With this game, I think, we’re very happy with the location. It let us do something iconic.”

Plus, with GTA 5 releasing at the end of a console cycle, the team is already thinking about what it plans to do next, but it’s not thinking about what the next iteration of the franchise will look like on the new systems.

“Of course we’re interested, but no, not in terms of GTA, because we’re always working on the current game,” Houser said. “e look at the tech at a more practical level: what will be ready for which game that we’re working on further down the line. We don’t have another GTA in development, we don’t work on three of these games at a time. That would be phenomenally depressing.

“So, in terms of GTA, no. We get pitched by the hardware manufacturers on what they’re planning to do and our tech guys come up with ideas on how that could be used. Does this influence design decisions? Of course. But we’re not sat there fantasizing about 10 years down the line. We’re so busy with what we’re doing right now.”