Summary
Besides a little (or a lot) of outrage from the media, most gamers would be hard-pressed to find a bad game or project produced by the legendary Scottish game company Rockstar or their many international branches. Given that their games fly off digital shelves faster than a GTA protagonist flies off the handle of their motorcycle, gamers might assume that the studio has enough funding and clout to pursue any project they want.
Unfortunately, even for developers as big as Rockstar, this isn’t the case. And while fans were undoubtedly disappointed to find out that theGrand Theft Auto 4andRed Dead Redemptionremake (as well as the 9th-gen update forRed Dead 2) were put on hold for the development of GTA VI, it’s hardly the first time that Rockstar has canned a promising project. In fact, by the sounds of some of these projects, Rockstar has had to holstera fully loaded sidearm of video game actionmore than once.
6Grand Theft Auto 5 Single Player DLC
It’s no wonder thatGTAfans froth at the mouth for any morsel of news about the next entry in the series. Released all the way back in 2013, Rockstar’s cutting satirical series has missed out on satirizing some rather silly events (crypto, pantomime politics, TikTok, the MCU) and has been sorely missed. GTA Online gave players a reason to visit Los Santos and theGTAuniverse, but consideringGTA 4got several expansions with extra characters, some players felt the absence of more single-player content.
According to head honchos at Rockstar in late 2014, a sizable single-player DLC pack was in the works. The story allegedly involved Franklin fighting off a zombie hoard in an apocalyptic Los Santos, not unlikeRed Dead Redemption:Undead Nightmare.An alien invasion (with entities that manyGTA 5players will have caught Michael falling in with every once in a while), and Trevor joining the IAA and presumably committing somenext-level crimes of the “war” or “against humanity” variety. However cool these sound, it’s likely that Rockstar strayed from producing those episodes simply because GTA Onlinenetted them around $500 million a year.
5Agent
The Studio’s Ambitious 70s Spy Thriller
Of all their failed ventures, Rockstar’s highest-profile cancelation sounds like some of its most promising work. Supposedly taking place in a tropical country during the Cold War,Agentwould have been Rockstar’s take on old spy movies like James Bond. Very little is known aboutAgentbesides a few location screenshots, but Rockstar mouthpieces were touting it as being “genre-defining,” and presumably having gameplay capable of turning the gaming world upside down asGrand Theft Auto 3had done with its open-world approach.
Since Rockstar is famous for making games that are heavily inspired by cinema, it would have been fascinating to see what they would have come upwith for a 70s espionage scenario. The gameplay was reportedly built around stealth, spy work, counter-intelligence, and assassination of high-profile political entities.Agentwas teased as early as 2007, but as of 2021, Rockstar’s copyright onAgenthas expired, meaning that this agent’s mission was over before it even began.
4Buggy Boogie
The “Rockstar X Nintendo” Kart Racer
A Nintendo and Rockstar mashup seems like the most unlikely pairing, but it technically did happen in the late 90s. Rockstar San Diego, then going by their pre-acquisition name, Angel Studios, developed a kart racer concept with Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto for the N64 calledBuggy Boogie.The idea behind the game was that each sentient vehicle had a set of unique abilities, and after each race, the karts would violently “eat” the other karts and consume their DNA, stealing the kart’s powers in the process.
While “stealing,” “violent” and “vehicle” arecommonly associated with many of Rockstar’s properties,Buggy Boogiestill sounds like a far cry from the rest of their future cannon of work. Ultimately, Nintendo and Miyamoto lost interest in the project, but some of its DNA could be seen in the power-ups of other cartoony kart racers such asDiddy Kong Racing.
3Spec Ops
Take2 and Rockstar’s Take On The Classic Military Sim
Before the series reboot,Spec Ops: The Line, put the series on the cultural map by challenging gamers' ideas about violence (its normalization and desensitization in video games),Spec Opstitles were coming out year by year from the 90s to the early 2000s. After 2002’sSpec Ops: Airborne Commando,Rockstar was brought on board to help revitalize the series and take it in a new direction.
At the time, Rockstar had announced plans to work on several other projects, includingMax PayneandSmuggler’s Run, and their work onSpec Opswas shelved. Little is known about their take on theSpec Opsfranchise besides the fact that the legendary desert rock group Queens of the Stone Age’s frontman, Josh Holmes, had been asked to score the game’s soundtrack, which could have resulted inone of the greatest video game soundtracks of all time. Holmes said that the job was a “dream come true,” which makes it all the more sad.
2The Warriors 2
Also Known As “We Are The Mods”
Since the company tends to devote itself to stories about LA, the American frontier, and mafioso crime families, it can be easy to forget that Rockstar began across the pond. After their PS2 beat ‘em up,The Warriors, Rockstar wanted to create a spiritual sequel with the same type of premise and gameplay but with a British twist.
This game would have been called “We Are The Mods,” and it would have taken place in 1960s England, where a fight between the “Mods” and “Rockers” was the moral panic-inducing clash of its day. Rockers weremotorcycle enthusiasts modeled after artifacts of Biker culture, such as Brando’s performance inThe Wild One, while Mods were more about sharp suits, scooters, jazz, Motown, and ska. Ultimately, Rockstar turned their people and resources to completingManhunt 2, leaving the Mods to their fate.
1Bully 2
School’s Out (And It Won’t Be Coming Back)
Rumors about a sequel to the belovedBully(orCanis Canem Editin Europe) have been circulating for years. Rockstar revealed that a script forBully 2was penned sometime in the late 2000s. The plot saw the return of Jimmy, the first game’s protagonist, and would have begun at his stepfather’s house at the end of the school year.
A second attempt to resurrect the series was made around 2013, this time after 18 months of work from the developers with a playable vertical slice ready to go. Unfortunately, due to internal debates about the direction of the game and the fact that the current political climate after several school shootings had been heating up, Rockstar felt that they probably weren’t in the best position to makea game in a school setting, no matter how nuanced, andBully 2was canned.
