For Obbe Vermeij, the turning point wasn’t controversy. It wasn’t creative conflict. It wasn’t even burnout. It was scale.
In Part 1 of our exclusive interview, Vermeij revealed that Grand Theft Auto III began development before it was formally approved. In Part 2, he explained how subtle technical illusions - drifting litter, artificial headlights, a barely perceptible sun dim - made early GTA cities feel alive.
This final installment turns to something more personal: why he left Rockstar after GTA IV and why he chose to build something radically different.
Vermeij’s last Rockstar title was Grand Theft Auto IV. He left shortly after it shipped in 2009. There was no public dispute, no dramatic exit. The reason, he says, was structural rather than personal.
The team kept growing and everybody's slice of the pie became smaller. During GTA III I could work on something and see it in the game. By GTA IV there were so many people that it was harder to have that kind of impact.
In the early days, a developer could prototype an idea and feel its presence in the finished product. By the time GTA IV rolled around, Rockstar North had become a vastly larger operation. That scale allowed for unprecedented fidelity and ambition, but it also changed the daily rhythm of development.
I wasn't unhappy. It was more that the thing I enjoyed most about the job was becoming less and less possible. When you go from a team of 30 to a team of hundreds, the nature of the work changes. You spend more time in meetings and less time actually making things.
For Vermeij, the most rewarding part of development was direct impact. In the early GTA days, a single developer could prototype a feature and see it reflected almost immediately in the game world. As the teams grew, responsibilities narrowed and specialization increased. That shift is common across large-scale productions, but for someone who thrived on broad technical ownership, it marked a turning point.
