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

IbizaPocholo

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

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).
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Interesting, but i think GTA VI is well on it's way and will be good despite the many changes in it's Development.
Also this rumour sounds suspect.
 
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amigastar said:
Interesting, but i think GTA VI is well on it's way and will be good despite the many changes in it's Development.
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The vast majority of work on GTA 6 has nothing to do with the story. Rockstar always knew it was set in Vice City. Changes in story are pretty minimal in the context of a world of this scope
 
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coachmcguirk91 said:
The vast majority of work on GTA 6 has nothing to do with the story. Rockstar always knew it was set in Vice City. Changes in story are pretty minimal in the context of a world of this scope
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But doesn't the story set the tone for the whole feeling and mission structure in the game especially considering there were 3 protagonists planned?
But yeah the city isn't affected by this.
 
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Not really buying it. There's no way executives at Take Two would veto writing choices by the Houser brothers? Like who exactly at the Publisher has the creative authority to doubt the duo that made the best selling AAA video game in human history???
 
coachmcguirk91 said:
The vast majority of work on GTA 6 has nothing to do with the story. Rockstar always knew it was set in Vice City. Changes in story are pretty minimal in the context of a world of this scope
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That's exactly it.
They could change the story 100 times and it still wouldn't change the development of the city.
 
All three of them sound very un-GTA like. The fact that a cop story was pitched in any capacity for a GTA game just sounds pretty unlikely.
 
if it's true, it explains why it's taken so long for GTA 6 to see the light of day.
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Yeah of course. If they hadn't changed their minds about the story, GTA6 would have been done ages ago. The story is the hardest part of making a game like GTA6. Obviously.

This article is dumb and there is no reason to believe a word of it.
 
Two ways I look at this:
-Whatever they finally went with must be really good if prior stuff wasn't landing.
-Skipping the "too dark" first version makes me wonder if R* coming off of RDR2 wanted to make something more grounded rather than goofy like GTA5. I could see this being shot down because they want to keep GTA silly and Red Dead more serious.

Either way all of this is likely horse shit anyway. I'd prefer a story more like red dead 2 though.
 
The stories described in this seem like they would have been a better fit for an LA Noire sequel, which I would not have been opposed to.
 
Yoda said:
Not really buying it. There's no way executives at Take Two would veto writing choices by the Houser brothers? Like who exactly at the Publisher has the creative authority to doubt the duo that made the best selling AAA video game in human history???
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When the game is expected to cost as much as GTA VI there might be push back as it could almost tank the publisher if it were to fail… maybe not kill it, but cause the current board to be cleared out and the company to be in serious trouble.
 
Barakov said:
All three of them sound very un-GTA like. The fact that a cop story was pitched in any capacity for a GTA game just sounds pretty unlikely.
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I think it could work in GTA if the cop is corrupt af (basically a criminal with a badge), like in The Shield. I agree that a regular cop story probably isn't a great fit.

Interesting related factoid: the first game was originally envisioned as cops (the player) chasing criminals. I guess flipping it turned out to be a pretty good decision.
 
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."
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This one should be salvaged into a new Rockstar I.P.

Since True Crime/Sleeping Dogs is dead there is room for a new one of these to exist.
 
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Should have gone with a bent copper angle Vic Macky style. Would have been great playing both sides.

Imagine having a 5 star wanted level with the gangs chasing you down as bad lutenant
 
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March Climber said:
This one should be salvaged into a new Rockstar I.P.

Since True Crime/Sleeping Dogs is dead there is room for a new one of these to exist.
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I would love to see another IP or a spiritual successor to LA Noire from Rockstar taking this approach. Throughly enjoyed GTA4's more mature tone and would be cool to see them go further. They can pull it off easily.
 
Not sure I'm buying this. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if Dan Houser did actually leave due to some creative friction between him, Zelnick and the c-suite, and the Take2 creative commitee. His Absurdventure projects doesn't strike me as something modern Take2 would be interested in take on doing. The story premise for GTA VI sounds kinda "tame" compared to prior GTA games though ...

To people who think these stories sounds "awful"; these are pitches, the eventual fully formed idea might've panned out better than they sound.
 
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The fact GTA has a story in the first place is a bigger surprise. Pretty much the same story over and over with different people. Awesome game though...
 
Vice City still has the best story out of all GTAs ...and that's essentially just a remix of Scarface. I found GTA 5's story to be the weakest one of any R* game to date. (Can't say anything about RDR2, since I never bothered to finish the game).
San Andreas had the best-written characters and dialog, though. Eternal respect for my homie Woozie.
 
Mozza said:
The fact GTA has a story in the first place is a bigger surprise. Pretty much the same story over and over with different people.
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While San Andreas and GTA 4 share some similarities about a character trying very hard to change their output in life, I'd argue that 3 and Vice City went through vastly different escalations.

Tommy Vercetti's rise to being a literal kingpin is very different than other 3D GTAs, but one of the reasons I really resonated with GTA 3 over the other 3D GTAs, even though it came first, is because Claude's story matches the concept of GTA better than any other protagonist.

Claude is a Mr. Fix-it. A Hitman for hire. And he gets the job done no matter how or when. He was never in it to rule the city (like Tommy from Vice City) or somehow ambitiously reach a dream of another life (like C.J. and Niko). Claude was simply good at his job and got paid, no questions asked, as long as someone was needing a favor and could pay what was owed.

Yes, there was simplicty to this story, but it worked. It used the characters around him to progress the plot and your actions only added gasoline to a fire that was already lit. However, that's not Claude's problem, it's theirs. The moment it became his problem, he fixed it.

He endures a slight moment of betrayal in the end that ends in gunfire. Then he realizes the person he 'saved' in the end is worth too much trouble, so as they're both leaving the screen cuts to black mid conversation with a gunshot sound, solidifying for not only him, but also the person playing the game, that for Claude the job came first...never get too close, never get involved, and don't fully trust anyone.

He is a killer, a mr. fix-it, a man for hire, but again, this completely lines up with the gameplay loop of Grand Theft Auto.
 
This could be the last great gta/ rockstar game. Hell Rdr2 could be the last. Don't get me wrong, it's gonna sale well cause of the hype of rockstar /gta games. But it could be the moment where there games start having declines and start sellling less and less for each new one
 
March Climber said:
While San Andreas and GTA 4 share some similarities about a character trying very hard to change their output in life, I'd argue that 3 and Vice City went through vastly different escalations.

Tommy Vercetti's rise to being a literal kingpin is very different than other 3D GTAs, but one of the reasons I really resonated with GTA 3 over the other 3D GTAs, even though it came first, is because Claude's story matches the concept of GTA better than any other protagonist.

Claude is a Mr. Fix-it. A Hitman for hire. And he gets the job done no matter how or when. He was never in it to rule the city (like Tommy from Vice City) or somehow ambitiously reach a dream of another life (like C.J. and Niko). Claude was simply good at his job and got paid, no questions asked, as long as someone was needing a favor and could pay what was owed.

Yes, there was simplicty to this story, but it worked. It used the characters around him to progress the plot and your actions only added gasoline to a fire that was already lit. However, that's not Claude's problem, it's theirs. The moment it became his problem, he fixed it.

He endures a slight moment of betrayal in the end that ends in gunfire. Then he realizes the person he 'saved' in the end is worth too much trouble, so as they're both leaving the screen cuts to black mid conversation with a gunshot sound, solidifying for not only him, but also the person playing the game, that for Claude the job came first...never get too close, never get involved, and don't fully trust anyone.

He is a killer, a mr. fix-it, a man for hire, but again, this completely lines up with the gameplay loop of Grand Theft Auto.
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So basically very simplistic plots not to get in the way of the game. That are all very similar.
 
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Mozza said:
So basically very simplistic plots not to get in the way of the game. That are all very similar.
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You either read my post way too fast or didn't get the differences between the games I just described.

Regardless, the only GTA game's story that actually clashed on multiple levels with it's gameplay is GTA 4.
 
March Climber said:
You either read my post way too fast or didn't get the differences between the games I just described.

Regardless, the only GTA game's story that actually clashed on multiple levels with it's gameplay is GTA 4.
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Or you do not understand the concept of very similar simplistic plots...
 
Mozza said:
Or you do not understand the concept of very similar simplistic plots...
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Potential bait, but I'll reply.

I understand the point of simplistic plots, but that was not your original statement, this was:

Mozza said:
Pretty much the same story over and over with different people.
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This is verifiably not true.

Now, if you had said this...
Mozza said:
Pretty much simplistic crime stories over and over with different people.
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I would have easily agreed with you.
 
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"It's claimed"
Meaning it's time to sum up this 'article' and forum topic with this gif.

Old Timey Baseball Waiting GIF by Team Coco
 
March Climber said:
Potential bait, but I'll reply.

I understand the potential of simplistic plots, but that was not your original statement, this was:


This is verifiably not true.

Now, if you had said this...

I would have easily agreed with you.
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You said the exact same thing as I did only in a slightly different way. Not sure what your endgame is with all this though??.. ;)
 
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I really want a good detective game where I can have my own scruffy office, an old leather couch I sleep on and an endless supply of whiskey in the bottom drawer of the desk. The air should be smokey and the weather should be 6 days of rain and 1 day when it's just cloudy.

Now, this might not be what Houser had in mind, but I implore him to make this possible in a future game.
 
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peish said:
I still can't believe rockstar is one game per generation studio.

How do they even survive?
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Y'all live in a bubble. GTA V / Online alone made them more money than all previous GTA titles put together.

There's also the case where they have the best selling videogam that released in the PS era /GTAV) and the best selling game released in the PS4 era (RDR2). That will help their case.
 
Barakov said:
All three of them sound very un-GTA like. The fact that a cop story was pitched in any capacity for a GTA game just sounds pretty unlikely.
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I can see a Departed style story where you play as both characters and both are actually as bad as each other.
 
when the rumor starts off with many warnings that the source is unrealiable. You can best ignore it.
But the timelines of development and the actual leaks we did have doesn't really add up, Rockstar and the Housers were all in on RDR2, if anything it was just a script that was penned that was rejected, but the rumor makes it sound like there's been 3 versions of GTA6 which i'm going to call BS on.
 
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Trilobit said:
I really want a good detective game where I can have my own scruffy office, an old leather couch I sleep on and an endless supply of whiskey in the bottom drawer of the desk. The air should be smokey and the weather should be 6 days of rain and 1 day when it's just cloudy.

Now, this might not be what Houser had in mind, but I implore him to make this possible in a future game.
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the judgement games have that.
 
I can guarantee you no matter which of the 3 stories they went with it'd be amazing.

It's a shame though because back I'm the PS2 era we'd have gotten all 3.
 
Dan Houser leaving due to creative differences would not surprise me. I thought the man just wanted some rest but after he created his new company relatively shortly afterwards leaving it doesn't bode well for how he felt at Rockstar I think. But in no way I believe it was T2 that put the hammer down and made him leave.
Hell, just look at Ken Levine and the shitshow that is Judas, that game was supposed to come out this year, so far we know nothing about it and yet T2 still keeps supporting that dude and his endeavors because of his pedigree. No way they'd fuck with Rockstar which never failed to deliver.

Probably just creative differences between Dan and the rest of the writing team, or even between the Houser brothers themselves.
 
Dan Houser is what Rockstar turned on

Of course he can make mistakes. Of course this can be fake. It's all possibilities, but not a single proof

Let's see how the finished product turns out and judge from our wallets
 
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