Dan Houser Reveals Why GTA Stays in America — London Was a One-Off in 26 Years
Guns weren’t optional; they were the blueprint — and the era ran on larger-than-life characters.
If you have ever wondered why Grand Theft Auto never truly left the United States, Dan Houser just spelled it out. The series flirted with London once in the PS1 era and then never looked back. There is a reason, and yes, it has a lot to do with America being the perfect playground for Rockstar's particular brand of crime, satire, and cartoonishly big personalities.
Why GTA never packed up for London again
In a chat with Lex Fridman, Rockstar co-founder and former lead writer Dan Houser looked back at the one time the series crossed the Atlantic: a London mission pack for the top-down PS1 era. He called that little experiment fun, but it also made the team realize the franchise lives and dies on American excess.
"We made a little thing in London 26 years ago, GTA London, for the top-down one for the PS1. That was pretty cute and fun."
When asked why Rockstar never went back to London or tried another non-US setting, Houser said the team kept coming back to the same conclusion: GTA is soaked in Americana to its core. Moving it overseas would mess with the DNA. In his words, the IP needed guns, needed big, larger-than-life characters, and it was simply easier to find those in heightened versions of places like New York and Miami. Also, the satire point-of-view helps: even when the games exaggerate everything, they are very much peering at America, often like outsiders who cannot look away.
- GTA dipped into London once on PS1 — a small, top-down mission pack Houser remembers as "cute and fun."
- Rockstar kept the series in the U.S. because the IP is heavily tied to Americana — the culture, the guns, and the outsized characters.
- Cities modeled on New York and Miami deliver the tone they want more easily than an overseas setting would.
- The games have always been about satirizing American politics, media, corruption, and consumer culture — and that lens is the point.
Houser even framed it this way: the games were so much about America — maybe even from an outsider perspective — that trying to replicate the formula elsewhere just would not hit the same. Honestly, that tracks. GTA's voice is loudest when it is taking a bite out of the U.S., and the series has been doing that for generations. If what we have seen from GTA 6 is any indication — especially the barbs aimed at social media — that streak is not slowing down.
Meanwhile, some messy real-world context
Separate but worth noting: Rockstar is dealing with heat of a different kind ahead of GTA 6. The company has been accused of "ruthless" firings tied to a developer union effort, with over 30 employees reportedly cut. Parent company Take-Two says it was "gross misconduct." A labor group pushing back on the situation says "we won't back down." That fight is ongoing, and it is getting louder.