In a recent interview, Dan Houser, one of the founders of Rockstar Games, revealed why the United States has always been the setting for Grand Theft Auto, save for a brief outing to London in 1999. It’s a similar reason why Fallout, a famed post-apocalyptic franchise, won’t ever leave the United States.
In Houser’s words, there’s too much ‘Americana’ in the DNA of Grand Theft Auto for it to work in any other country. The stint in London in 1999 with a top-down classic on the PS1 was an experiment more than anything, and Houser dubbed it ‘cute and fun’.
GTA and Fallout, Forever in America
During the Summer Game Fest showcase, we sat down with Bethesda Game Studios to learn about a recent update and the future of the franchise. One of the questions we had was regarding the ongoing setting of the United States being the base formula for the post-apocalyptic series.
I was told that Fallout ‘probably won’t’ ever leave the United States, and that’s because it needs everything that happened in the USA in the franchise’s universe to succeed. It’s deeply rooted in Americana and the post-war, atom-mad landscape that kind of existed in real life.
Similarly, Dan Houser recently explained on the Lex Fridman podcast that Grand Theft Auto can’t leave the United States:
We made a little thing in London 26 years ago, GTA London, for the top-down one for the PS1. That was pretty cute and fun.
There was so much Americana inherent in the IP, it would be really hard to make it work in London or anywhere else. You needed guns, you needed these larger-than-life characters.
The game was so much about America, possibly from an outsider’s perspective. That was so much about what the series was that it wouldn’t really have worked in the same way elsewhere.
(Thanks to GamesRadar for the quote)
Historically, Grand Theft Auto has taken players from fictional renditions of Miami to Los Angeles, and from New York to a minuscule foray into North Dakota. There are few places outside of the United States that could serve as a strong enough canvas for the art that Rockstar Games needs to create what it does best.
That’s the same with Fallout, of course. In 2024, Todd Howard backed up the sentiment that Fallout can’t exist outside the United States:
My view is, part of the Fallout schtick is on the American naivete and part of that. And so, for us right now, it’s okay to acknowledge some of those other areas, but our plans are to predominately keep it in the US. It’s okay to leave mystery or questions, ‘What’s happening in Europe, what’s happening here’. The worst thing you can do to mysterious lands is to remove the mystery.
Do you think Grand Theft Auto or Fallout could work outside the United States? Let me know what you’re thinking on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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