Ex-GTA dev reveals information on cut content and a scrapped zombie game, Rockstar promptly tells them to cut it out

23.11.2023 - 15:57 / gamesradar.com / Obbe Vermeij

An ex-Rockstar Games employee has revealed new details of cancelled games at the studio, before being contacted by Rockstar and prompted to shut the entire thing down.

Earlier this week, ex-Rockstar North technical director Obbe Vermeij grabbed headlines when he made a swathe of claims about his time at the studio. The ex-technical director published several articles on his personal blog, recounting his time at Rockstar North between 1996 and 2000 - beginning at the studio before it was even known as Rockstar North.

One of the more noteworthy details from Vermeij's blog was that a "basic death match" mode was in production for GTA 3. However, this ended up being ultimately scrapped due to the overwhelming presence of glitches, as well as the development team at Rockstar North just plain running out of time.

Vermeij then turned his attention to Agent, the secretive Rockstar project that was announced all the way back in 2009, before fading into obscurity and out of existence entirely. The ex-technical director says it was set during the Cold War, but only ever really existed as a demo encouraging other studios to experiment and utilize the GTA game engine.

Half of Rockstar North allegedly worked on Agent when it went into full production, with the other half working on GTA 4's DLC, and eventually GTA 5. The team felt under pressure to finish Agent before it was inevitably moved onto GTA 5's production by Rockstar's New York headquarters.

That's exactly what ended up happening - Rockstar North fully pivoted to GTA 5, and Agent was handed off to another internal team in an unfinished state. The game was never completed, however, which led to its stagnation and eventual cancellation years after it was announced.

But the secrets don't end there. Vermeij recalls that there was a zombie game simply known as 'Z' in production at one point, which was set on a "windswept foggy Scottish island." Work on the zombie game progressed for a few months, before it was deemed too "depressing," and was scrapped in favor of GTA 4.

Vermeij was set to reveal more details about Rockstar North's history, but has now called the entire thing off. "Apparently some of the OG's there are upset by my blog," his latest blog post reads. "I genuinely didn't think anyone would mind me talking about 20 year old games but I was wrong. Something about ruining the Rockstar mystique or something."

The veteran developer doesn't want to annoy anyone, so he's winding the entire thing down. "I would love for Rockstar to open up about development of the trilogy themselves, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon," he adds of the first three GTA games. "Maybe I'll try again in a decade or two," Vermeij concludes.

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