Keep in mind Agent? After first mentioning it in 2007, Rockstar formally introduced it in 2009—an espionage sport in an open world, GTA meets James Bond, with all of the cars-turning-into-submarines gadgetry that means. After bouncing between totally different Rockstar studios for some time, Agent vanished off the radar, with its dying lastly being confirmed in 2021.
In a uncommon interview, Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser appeared on the Lex Fridman podcast just lately to debate all issues GTA and Purple Useless Redemption, although Agent additionally got here up. “It had about 5 totally different iterations,” Houser defined. “I do not suppose it really works, I concluded. I hold occupied with it typically, I typically lie in mattress occupied with it and I’ve concluded what makes them actually good as movie tales makes them not work as videogames—or I must suppose by way of tips on how to do it a special approach as a videogame.”
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When you consider spy films, from The Ipcress File to the newest Mission Unimaginable, whereas they could contain automotive chases and shootouts they’re all about brokers with a extra singular mission than GTA’s free-roaming unfastened cannons. “These movies, they’re very very frenetic they usually’re beat to beat to beat,” Houser mentioned. “You have to go right here and save the world, you have to go there and cease that individual being killed after which save the world. And an open world sport does have moments like that, when the story comes collectively, however for big parts it is quite a bit looser and also you’re simply hanging out, and also you’re simply doing what you need.”
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Which is why, he suggests, Agent by no means got here collectively. The open world method Rockstar had created, whereas well-suited to the lifetime of a gangster or a cowboy, could not simulate being a spy in the identical approach. “That is why it really works properly being a legal,” Houser mentioned. “Since you essentially haven’t got anybody telling you what to do. And we attempt to create exterior company by way of these folks forcing you into the story at instances, however as a spy, that does not actually work as a result of it’s important to be in opposition to the clock. For me, I query for those who may even make open world spy sport.”
The missions within the GTA London video games the place you fake to be the Austin Powers-esque Endeavour Chambers often is the closest we ever get to a Rockstar open world spy sport. In the meantime, IO Interactive’s 007 First Gentle looks as if it is perhaps extra mission-based, as you’d anticipate from the Hitman studio. It is due out on March 27, 2026.
