One of the Rockstar Games’ co-founders dashed all hopes of a specific location in Grand Theft Auto 7. GTA 6 isn’t even out yet, but that doesn’t mean players aren’t looking forward to whatever comes next. Still, what arrives won’t please everyone in the gaming community. The GTA franchise has long been beloved for its massive maps, which tend to increase by orders of magnitude with each release. GTA 6’s massive map will be roughly 2.7 times larger than GTA V, and you can expect more of the same in GTA 7, but one requested locale isn’t on the table, dashing fans’ hopes of expanding the franchise.
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In an interview with Lex Friedman, Dan Houser, one of the co-founders of Rockstar Games, revealed that London, England, won’t be a location in GTA 7. Fans of the franchise likely recall that GTA hasn’t always been locked into the United States, as it previously toured London. Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 was a mission pack for the original Grand Theft Auto, released on the PlayStation 1 and PC in 1997. A shorter, free PC-only game called London 1961 soon followed. Unfortunately, according to Houser, the seventh mainline Grand Theft Auto game won’t be returning to England.
The GTA Franchise Isn’t Returning to London Anytime Soon
Houser produced and wrote the Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 mission pack, so if anyone knows about creating a rendered open-world city, it’s him. Houser pointed to what makes a city work for the franchise, saying that it needs to be a melting pot with “glitz, glamour, underbelly, immigrants, [and] enormous wealth in all of them.” Miami, Los Angeles, and New York are ideal for this kind of setting. Regarding London, Houser feels that the franchise is, at its core, American. He added, “We made a little thing in London 26 years ago, GTA London, for the top-down game for the PS1. That was pretty cute and fun, as the first mission pack ever for PlayStation.”
Keeping the mainline franchise situated in the United States is something that Houser strongly believes in. One of the primary reasons is the presence of guns. England has some of the strictest firearms laws in the world, and not even the police can carry them under normal conditions. This would leave a serious gap in what the game allows players to do, as running around and beating people up with a 2×4 is only fun for a while. GTA and firearms go together like peas and carrots. If you know anything about gun laws in the States, it makes sense to keep the franchise locked to the country.
While it would be fun to return to London in a modern, 3-D rendered open-world setting, Houser’s comments make a lot of sense. Sure, Rockstar could “forget” about the United Kingdom’s conservative gun laws and have plenty available to criminals, but this would be more like shoehorning a concept into the franchise that doesn’t belong. What worked on the top-down Grand Theft Auto so many years ago wouldn’t necessarily be as well received by modern players, many of whom are happy to return to Rockstar’s version of U.S. cities to wreak havoc and run afoul of the law, which isn’t likely to change anytime soon.
GTA 6 releases on May 26, 2026, and you can expect GTA 7 sometime in the 2040s? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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