Every Grand Theft Auto title has taken place somewhere in the United States, except for the London-themed expansions released back in 1999 for the original game.
Despite its global popularity, the franchise has largely stayed rooted in American soil, with locations such as Liberty City, Vice City, and Los Santos serving as its fictional stand-ins for real US cities.
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In a recent interview, Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser discussed why the series remains deeply rooted in its American backdrop, and why it's unlikely we'll ever see a GTA set beyond those borders.
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During his appearance on the Lex Fridman podcast, Dan Houser discussed a range of topics, including Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, and the much-anticipated GTA 6.
"We made a little thing in London 26 years ago, GTA London, for the top-down, for the PS1. That was pretty cute and fun, as the first mission pack ever for PlayStation 1," Houser said.
The Rockstar Games co-founder explained that the series draws deeply from American culture. He noted that setting a GTA instalment outside the United States would be a challenge, given how much the games rely on the country's distinctive themes, including the prevalence of guns.
“I think for a full GTA game, we always decided that 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. But you know, that was so much about what the thing was that it wouldn't really have worked in the same way elsewhere,” he added.
While most of the Grand Theft Auto series is set in fictionalised American cities such as Liberty City (based on New York), Vice City (Miami), and Los Santos (Los Angeles), there are notable exceptions like GTA 2 and the London expansion. For GTA 6, Rockstar has chosen to revisit Vice City, which is now depicted as a modern-day Florida city, within a broader region called Leonida.
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