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GTA 6’s Story Was Rejected Three Times, Causing Dan Houser to Step Down, It’s Claimed

It’s claimed that Take-Two Interactive wasn’t keen on the first three incarnations of the GTA 6 story. After the third idea was rejected, the enormity of the project and the rebooted work allegedly caused Dan Houser to step down from his position. We’ll explain why you shouldn’t put all your eggs into one basket with this, though.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is the biggest video game ever, and it’s not out for another year. But when it’s eventually released, it will be a landmark occasion. A story has suggested we might be lucky to be getting GTA 6 at all, as the game has been through a tricky development cycle.

GTA 6’s Story Was Rejected by Take-Two Multiple Times

lucia and jason hugging in gta 6
It could have been so different. Credit to Rockstar Games

Fravilys (through Medium) is an unproven source, which is why we’re somewhat hesitant to go full-board with this rumor. But their explanation of Rockstar’s behind-the-scenes work on GTA 6 is interesting to hear. The text is also translated, and we’ve done our best to communicate the information accurately, so bear with us if it’s not perfect.

The writer has claimed that there have been “three different versions of the GTA 6 script.”

Fravilys said the first pitch for the story was a “Detective story, worthy of a thriller, centered around three protagonists.” There was a lot of steam for this pitch, and it was “in development until the end of 2016.” Ultimately, Take-Two vetoed the project and cited it as “Too dark and did not meet their expectations.

Story two switched to two protagonists—a policewoman and a “Drug smuggler’s underling, as crazy as Trevor from GTA V.”

This version was in development for 18 months. Unfortunately, this too was eventually canned by Take-Two, it’s claimed. A third prototype was born in a similar vein to the second story pitch, only: “The grieving policewoman was replaced by an African-American man, a former soldier, released from prison and falling into the criminal underworld.”

This was canceled in March 2019. Dan Houser had a break from GTA 6 before deciding to “Step down and temporarily relinquish his duties as Vice President of Creative.”

A lot of this needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. But if it’s true, it explains why it’s taken so long for GTA 6 to see the light of day. It also links up with the Project Americas—the codename for GTA 6 at one point—suggesting that Rockstar wanted multiple protagonists and cities at first. But the vision eventually changed to two characters, including a Latina woman (we now know as Lucia).

Do you think GTA 6 will be worth the wait and live up to Take-Two’s reportedly sky-high expectations? Let us know via the Insider Gaming forum.


Read about Final Fantasy 16’s poor Xbox optimization and MindsEye already ending up in clearance sales.

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