TheGrand Theft Autofranchise has visited numerous fictional cities inspired by real-world locations over the years.GTA 3and4took players to Liberty City, a region loosely inspired by cities on the East Coast of the United States, such as New York City and Baltimore.GTA: San AndreasandGTA 5, on the other hand, were set in San Andreas, a state located in southwestern America that’s highly reminiscent of California and, more specifically, Los Angeles. As forGTA: Vice Cityand the upcomingGTA 6, they unsurprisingly take place in the titular Vice City, which resembles the Floridian city of Miami. So far, the only real-life city aGrand Theft Autogame has ever visited is London, as it was the setting of the fittingly-named 1999 installmentGTA: London 1969.
At one point, however, series developer Rockstar Games may have considered expanding theGTAfranchise to other real-world locations besides London. Recent rumors have suggested that, prior to the release ofGTA: San Andreas,Rockstar was exploring a variety of non-fictional settings for the sequel toGrand Theft Auto 3, such as Las Vegas, Nevada and Bogota, Colombia. The company also reportedly considered making aGrand Theft Autogame set in Tokyo. This was corroborated by datamined evidence from December 2023’sGTA 5source code leak. Assuming these reports are true, it’s a shame that none of these plannedGTAtitles have ever seen the light of day. Rockstar still has the opportunity to bring these locations back forGrand Theft Auto 6in some shape or form, but it would be especially great if it reconsidered Tokyo as a setting.
Rockstar Could Bring the Setting of Tokyo Back in Grand Theft Auto 6
GTA: Tokyo Was a Successor to Grand Theft Auto 3 That Never Saw the Light of Day
Sometime after the launch ofGrand Theft Auto 3,Rockstar was allegedly planning for a newinstallment in theGTAfranchisecalledGTA: Tokyo.This title would’ve been the secondGTAgame, followingGTA: London 1969,to take place in a city outside of the United States.GTA: Tokyo, as TimeExtension recently reported, was first considered at Rockstar Games after the studio’s co-founder, Sam Hauser, made numerous trips to Japan to promote the then-upcoming title,Grand Theft Auto 3. While Houser did find the idea of aGTAgame set in Japan exciting at the time,GTA: Tokyoultimately never made it past the pitching phase, in large part due to the difficulty Rockstar faced with incorporating Japanese culture into its trademark satirical approach.
It is understandable why Rockstar decided to scrapGTA: Tokyoat the time, but it’s still disappointing nonetheless. There are very fewopen-world crime games that take place in Japan, if any, that have the same tone and snarky social commentary as aGTAgame. TheYakuzagames are the closest that gamers have gotten to experiencing aGTAtitle set in Tokyo so far, but the popular Sega franchise doesn’t have much in common with Rockstar’sGTAbesides some surface-level similarities.
Rockstar Should Make a Standalone, Tokyo-Themed Expansion for GTA 6
AlthoughGTA: Tokyowas ultimately canceled, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the premise of the game can’t be revisited in the future. One way Rockstar can do this is by making a standalonesingleplayer expansion forGrand Theft Auto 6that’s set in Tokyo. ConsideringGTA 6takes place in the fictional, Florida-inspired state of Leonida, which is obviously nowhere near Japan or East Asia, this may initially seem like a strange idea. However, this wouldn’t be the first time theGTAseries has done something like this. After all,GTA:London 1969was essentially an expansion for the originalGrand Theft Auto, which itself was set in a fictionalized version of the United States. Some might be disappointed ifGTA: Tokyowas a standalone DLC forGTA 6instead of its own, full-length game, but this strategy would at least make it easier for Rockstar to release a Tokyo-based installment in theGrand Theft Autofranchise far faster.
Grand Theft Auto 6
WHERE TO PLAY
Grand Theft Auto VI heads to the state of Leonida, home to the neon-soaked streets of Vice City and beyond in the biggest, most immersive evolution of the Grand Theft Auto series yet.Jason and Lucia have always known the deck is stacked against them. But when an easy score goes wrong, they find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, in the middle of a criminal conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida — forced to rely on each other more than ever if they want to make it out alive.
