Rockstar once seriously considered making Grand Theft Auto: Tokyo, and held discussions with a Japanese studio about having a local team attempt development. However, it remains unclear how far this plan actually progressed.
Obbe Vermeij, former Technical Director at Rockstar North, recalled that the negotiations were beyond his scope of authority. He knew the name of the Japanese studio involved in the talks but was unwilling to disclose it, and he was unsure how close the project was to actual production.
According to Vermeij's memory, the game might have been set in contemporary times or the near future, featuring katanas, rather than being set in medieval Japan. Take-Two had applied for the "GTA Tokyo" trademark in 2003, but eventually abandoned it in 2008.
Vermeij also stated that Rockstar frequently discussed cities outside the United States back then, with Moscow, London, Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, and Tokyo repeatedly appearing on the candidate list. He believed that having a Japanese studio develop the game from a local cultural perspective was also related to the series' performance in the Japanese market at the time.
Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser previously explained that the team later felt the series was deeply rooted in American culture, and moving a full installment to another country would be difficult to execute in the same way. This revelation consists of former employees' recollections of early plans, not an announcement of a project revival or a new title.