Asked whether Grand Theft Auto could ever leave the United States, Rockstar North's Rob Nelson told The Guardian: "Never say never, but there's still so much to do in America." The interview was published on November 11.
Nelson runs design, narrative and animation on GTA 6, so this is not a tease of a new setting. It is the view of someone who has just finished a game about a fictional Florida. His case for staying put rests on distance rather than familiarity:
"I think we're all outsiders to this version of America. No one experiences the America that we're portraying here in its fullness."
Insider Gaming points out that the development team is largely made up of people from outside the US. For Rockstar, America is a place it studies from the outside each time, and Nelson sees room for future games in that.
The series has left the US only once. The original GTA received two expansions set in England, London 1969 and London 1961, and no mainline entry has been set outside its fictional America. Insider Gaming also notes that a Tokyo-based GTA was discussed in 2003, though it never materialised.
Senior executive Jennifer Kolbe also took part in the interview, and according to GTA BOOM a longer Guardian feature on GTA 6 is due this weekend. Until then, players have the map of Leonida to think about, not London. Nelson deliberately said neither yes nor no about where the series goes after it.
Source: The Guardian, Insider Gaming, GTA BOOM
