Featured Image Credit: Rockstar Games
Topics: Grand Theft Auto, Rockstar Games, GTA 5
Grand Theft Auto V boasts an impressive number of secrets, references and Easter eggs, some of which can even be associated with Grand Theft Auto VI.
One of the latest discoveries though points towards an entirely different Rockstar game, one that was cancelled before it ever saw the light of day.
It’s funny because Rockstar Games for the longest time has been the Grand Theft Auto studio, with Red Dead Redemption being an equally lucrative franchise for the developer.
While these games are exceptional it’s easy to forget that Rockstar is famous for other great games too like Bully, Manhunt and more.
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Given the company’s stature in the game industry it’s hard to imagine that the studio would ever need to cancel a project, but it has done so in the past.
Back in 2023 GTA V’s source code leaked online and fans have spent years sifting through it for interesting information.
One interesting discovery was a character model not found in GTA V, which was simply named “player” in the files.
At first glance the model somewhat resembles Niko from Grand Theft Auto IV, but it’s obviously meant to be someone different.
After some investigation the model is believed to be from Rockstar’s cancelled Agent game.
Announced for the PlayStation 3 in 2009, Agent was a stealth-action game being developed by Rockstar North.
It’s hard to pin down exactly what kind of game it was going to be as Rockstar devs who have spoken about the project said it took on many different forms during development. One iteration had the game set in the Cold War.
Eventually it was decided that the project just wasn’t going to work out, leading to its cancellation.
The mysterious player model found in GTA V’s source code closely resembles the protagonist of Agent, based on leaked artist screenshots of the game from 2011.
There could be any number of reasons as to why this is in the game but we have a few theories.
One idea is this model could have been utilised in a mission of some kind, perhaps a bit of side-content where a crazy Los Santos resident believes he’s some sort of super spy before roping one of the main characters into his next “mission.”
Another idea is their image was to be placed on an in-game film or DVD poster as a subtle Easter egg.
The obvious answer though is it’s simply the result of a bored dev wanting to have a bit of fun, as is often the case.
Either way it’s a fun discovery and a great reminder that Agent did exist and will unfortunately never see a full release.
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