Former Rockstar Games technical director Obbe Vermeij has shed light on the developer's long lost spy thriller Agent, which was announced as a PlayStation 3 exclusive in 2009 but has since disappeared.
In a blog post detailing his 1995 to 2009 tenure at Rockstar North, the studio where Agent originated, Vermeij said pressure from Grand Theft Auto 5's development contributed to the game eventually switching studios before seemingly being scrapped altogether.
"We really got going on this one and worked on it for over a year. I remember working on a downhill skiing chase scene with guns for instance," Vermeij said of Agent.
"The game wasn't progressing as well as we'd hoped. It was inevitable that eventually the whole company would have to get behind the next Grand Theft Auto. We tried to cut the game down in an attempt the get the bulk of it done before the inevitable call from New York would come. We cut out an entire level (I think Cairo) and maybe even the space section.
"It became clear that [Agent] was going to be too much of a distraction for us and we ditched it. I think it was handed over to another company within Rockstar but never got completed." Half of the Rockstar North team was working on Grand Theft Auto 4 DLC and Grand Theft Auto 5, while half was set to work on Agent before the importance of its premiere franchise took over.
The game is presumed to be a dead project at Rockstar but has never been officially cancelled. Little else suggests it's still being worked on though. Images leaked in 2015 that showed some of its levels, and while some hope remained due to renewed trademarks, this was eventually scrapped in 2018 and its website shut down in 2021.
Agent was developed as a spy thriller akin to James Bond, earning it the codename "Jimmy" within the Scotland-based Rockstar North studio, with Jimmy being a Scottish nickname for James.
"The game was to be set in the 70s, be more linear than Grand Theft Auto with a number of locations," Vermeij said. "There was a French Mediterranean city, a Swiss ski resort, Cairo, and at the end there would be a big shootout with lasers in space. Classic James Bond. The vibe was very cool."
Rockstar was kept busy otherwise with smash hits GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, releasing in 2013 and 2018 respectively. The entire video game industry is currently waiting with bated breath too, as the developer has announced the reveal trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6 will arrive in early December 2023.
Those lamenting the James Bond game that never aren't completely out of luck though, as Hitman developer IO Interactive is currently working on a video game set in the 007 universe.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
