Rockstar Games Almost Made an Open-World Zombie Game

Rockstar Games nearly made an open-world zombie game a number of years ago. Rockstar Games is one of the finest video game developers out there. They have been afforded the luxury of absurd amounts of time, seemingly a blank check for budgets, and have a ton of resources that allows them the ability to create industry defining games. Red Dead Redemption 2 is five years old and yet, there aren’t really any games that come close to what it did. Even Grand Theft Auto V manages to still feel a step above its more recent competitors despite being a decade old. The studio has made a name for itself off those two franchises, but has proven it is capable even when expanding into other franchises like Max Payne, LA Noire, Bully, and Midnight Club.

There are lots of whispers of canceled Rockstar titles such as Bully 2, Agent, and more, but now we’re hearing about something pretty new. A former Rockstar Games developer named Obbe Vermeij has started a blog where he’s recounting the development of some of the games that he worked on between 1995 and 2009. Namely, we get a lot of info on the GTA trilogy and Grand Theft Auto IV, but Vermeji also recounted stories on some other titles as well. According to the ex-developer (via RockstarIntel), Rockstar North was eager to do something besides GTA after Vice City. The team started dreaming up a game that was internally referred to as Codename Z and would use the bones of Vice City‘s code. Players would play on a Scottish island and use vehicles to navigate their way through hordes of zombies that would be constantly attacking them. There would also be an emphasis on maintaining and finding fuel for your vehicle, seemingly making it feel like more of a survival horror game. However, the game didn’t last long and after a month, team members moved on to work on Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Interestingly enough, a lot of this sounds very similar to Days Gone, a game where you play as a biker in the zombie apocalypse. Of course, there’s no direct connection between these projects, but it is something that Rockstar would’ve probably been ahead of the curve on as that game was received well by fans despite some mediocre review scores. 

Rockstar Games would eventually make Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, something that’s widely regarded as one of the best video game expansions ever made. Since then, fans have hoped to see the developer do other similar DLCs like aliens, more zombies, or something of the sorts. Whether that day ever comes remains a mystery, Rockstar Games has changed a lot since Undead Nightmare. Rumors suggest Grand Theft Auto VI will get single player DLC, but those are just rumors. It’s also possible they won’t be quite as zany or supernatural, but we can always hold out hope that for such a thing.