Rob Nelson Won’t Rule Out Grand Theft Auto Leaving America
Nelson says Rockstar still has plenty to do in GTA's fictional America, while the series' history includes a London expansion and a 2003 Tokyo plan.
Rob Nelson has left open the possibility of a Grand Theft Auto game set outside the United States, but he did not announce one. Asked about the idea in a Guardian interview, Rockstar North co-studio head and Grand Theft Auto VI lead Nelson said, “Never say never, but there’s still so much to do in America.”
Nelson described Rockstar’s version of America as a place nobody, including its real-world residents, can experience in full. “I think we’re all outsiders to this version of America. It doesn’t matter where you live … no one experiences the America that we’re portraying here in its fullness.”
Rob Nelson was asked if GTA would ever go beyond America
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The series’ fictional versions of New York, Los Angeles and Miami are more than backdrops. Billboards, radio ads and invented companies help satirize American excess. Grand Theft Auto IV sets Niko Bellic’s attempt to start over in Liberty City against the promise of the American Dream.
Grand Theft Auto VI continues the U.S. setting in Leonida, including Vice City, as covered in the game’s Leonida setting details.
The series has visited London before. Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 was an expansion for the 1997 original, released for Windows PC and the original PlayStation in April 1999. A free prequel mission set in 1961 also came out that year.
Rockstar also had plans for a Tokyo-set Grand Theft Auto in 2003. Nelson did not name a destination or timeframe for any future game.
Which city outside the United States would you most want a future GTA to visit? Follow the conversation about the series’ settings and its portrait of America on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.
