Former Rockstar North director says canceled Agent, Project Z, and Bully 2 “would’ve been a distraction” versus GTA

Former technical director at Rockstar North, Obbe Vermeij, who helped create Grand Theft Auto’s 3D Universe with hits like GTA III, GTA: Vice City, San Andreas, and the first HD Universe title GTA IV, recently stated that he has no regrets about the studio scrapping projects like Agent, Project Z, or a Bully sequel.

In a new interview, he rejected ideas such as a zombie-survival game set on a Scottish island, the espionage thriller Agent. He dubbed them distractions that could never have lived up to GTA’s legacy.

Rockstar North was apparently working on a zombie game, internally dubbed Project Z. The game reused code and assets from San Andreas and was intended to create a bleak, isolated world, which seemed a bit too depressing for Rockstar’s taste and DNA.

Shifting gears to Agent, a more linear James Bond-esque adventure was supposed to feature locations like Southern France and Morocco. However, the project slowly lost steam after ditching the open-world freedom that defined GTA. In an interview with GamesHub, he explained, “In retrospect, I don’t think there’s a missed opportunity at all, either with that zombie game or with other experiments like Agent. They wouldn’t have been as good as GTA. They would have been a waste of time and a distraction.”

Further into the interview, Vermeij doubled down on Rockstar’s cash-cow franchise. He stated that after the franchise exploded, “it just doesn’t make sense to do any wild changes.” He further explained, “Whatever weird ideas you have, we really should put them into GTA rather than just launching an entirely new game.”

While fans yearn for more variety in Rockstar’s catalogue, like a sequel to Bully, the return of Midnight Club, or Max Payne rising from the ashes, Vermeij believes that the studio should and will stick to what works, channeling the studio's unconventional concepts into spin-offs like Chinatown Wars, Liberty City Stories, or the GTA IV expansions.

With that said, he did tip his hat to Larian Studios for stepping out of its comfort zone by announcing Divinity at the Game Awards 2025, fresh off the success of Baldur’s Gate 3. Speaking about Larian Studios, Vermeij said, “It’s quite cool to see, like Larian Studios, who just did Baldur’s Gate 3, and they’ve said, ‘We don’t feel like Baldur’s Gate 4. We’re just gonna do another game. Good for them. But it’s a bold move. It’s not obvious. It’s very risky. It’s easier to keep on doing what you’re doing.”

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