Rockstar Games has been around for more than two decades and has shipped a remarkable number of games for a studio of its reputation. Grand Theft Auto III and the trilogy that followed, Red Dead Redemption and its sequel, Bully. L.A. Noire, and Max Payne 3, among others. However, if you take a close look at the calendar, you'll see that the mainline Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead games are doing almost all the work. Everything else came from elsewhere in the corporate family or arrived during narrow windows when the flagship studio had the room to make it.
Apparently, there's a reason for this, and it isn't as obvious as you might think.
Obbe Vermeij, the former Rockstar North technical director who worked on GTA III through Grand Theft Auto IV, addressed this directly in an exclusive interview. The studio tried actually multiple times to run a second game in parallel with a mainline GTA. Unfortunately, the only one that ever shipped is arguably the only Rockstar title more controversial than GTA.
"There were many attempts at developing a second game next to GTA," Vermeij said. "The only successful one was Manhunt. It worked because both games were started at the same time. The Manhunt team came on the main team during San Andreas and from that point on it was just one big team."
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Manhunt shipped in November 2003, sandwiched between Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and the moment it was done, the team folded back into the GTA machine. Rockstar North didn't keep two separate teams running. It absorbed Manhunt's developers and kept building open worlds.
It explains why there hasn't been a new Bully since 2006, even though the original is widely considered one of Rockstar's best games. It explains why the Manhunt sequel was developed by a different Rockstar studio entirely. It explains why every time fans expect Rockstar North to announce a side project, it doesn't happen. The team isn't lazy or indifferent. They know there's demand for "other" titles. They just don't have the capacity for it. The flagship just eats everything.
For what it's worth, other Rockstar studios have shipped plenty over the years. L.A. Noire came from Team Bondi with Rockstar publishing. Max Payne 3 was developed by Rockstar Vancouver. Red Dead Redemption 2 was a company-wide effort spanning multiple studios. It's just that, Rockstar North specifically, the studio that builds the mainline GTA, has shipped only exactly two non-GTA games in the modern era, and it isn't about to change anytime soon.
Grand Theft Auto 5 launched in 2013. Grand Theft Auto Online became standalone in March 2022. Grand Theft Auto 6 is set for November 19. For thirteen years, Rockstar North has focused on one project. The flagship grew so large that it stopped leaving room for anything else.
The silver lining here is that Take-Two Interactive has confirmed plans for titles outside GTA 6 after it comes out.
Unfortunately, we still can't say for sure if this means Rockstar North will finally get a chance to flex its creative muscles on anything other than GTA.
