Dan Houser says Rockstar Games only attempted GTA London once in 26 years because the series is “so much about America” that “it wouldn’t really have worked in the same way elsewhere”

Rockstar Games has only ventured out and transported its successful crime franchise overseas once with a mostly-overlooked PS1 GTA London mission expansion, and that’s due to the series being deeply entrenched in Americana, American parody, and, well, firearms, as stated by studio co-founder and previous lead writer Dan Houser.

“We created a small project in London 26 years ago, GTA London, for the top-down version for the PS1,” Houser reminisced in a conversation with Lex Fridman. “That was rather charming and enjoyable.”

However, when queried about why the franchise never returned to London or explored another locale outside the USA, Houser mentioned the studio “consistently believed that there was so much Americana embedded in the IP that it would be exceedingly difficult to adapt it to London or any other location.” Naturally, “you required firearms, you required these extraordinary characters” — which could be easily discovered in the series’ exaggerated portrayals of New York or Miami.

“The game was largely focused on America, potentially from an outsider’s viewpoint,” he continued. “That was fundamentally what [the series] was, making it unlikely to function in the same fashion elsewhere.”

GTA has often delved into American politics, corruption, co