Gabriel Stanford-ReisingerThe PS3-exclusive spy game, Agent, simply wasn’t meant to be as Rockstar couldn’t see how an open world spy game could work. Spy thrillers and open worlds just don’t mesh.
Speaking to Lex Fridman, Dan Houser and his team tried to cobble together multiple versions, counting five iterations before finally giving in. The truth is that the two genres just couldn’t work together, as a spy thriller has a sense of urgency to its story line while open world games don’t.
“We try and create external agency through these people kind of forcing you into the story at times. But as a spy, that doesn’t really work because you have to be against the clock. So I think for me, I question if you can even make a good open-world spy game.”
Agent was a 2009 project revealed at E3, but ultimately, Rockstar remained quiet about its status, silently removing it from their games page, and going as far as abandoning the Agent patent.
Do you think Agent would’ve been a smash hit or was it the right call to pivot away from such a conflicting concept? Let us know below!