GTA 6 Developer's Canned Zombie Game Was “Depressing”

Undead Nightmare

The developer of GTA 6 was working on a “depressing” zombie game but it was cancelled as the team lost faith in the idea.

That’s according to a former employee of Rockstar North, who revealed the project began after the release of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and would have placed players on a remote Scottish island.

“After Vice City there was a sense within [Rockstar] North that it would be nice to do something else. Something that wasn't gta,” wrote former staff member Obbe Vermeij. “Some of the artists wanted to do a zombie survival game. Programmers like fantasy. Artists like zombies. Not sure why that is.”

Related: All GTA Games Ranked From Worst To Best

The game had the working title of Z (pronounced "Zed") and was underway for around a month - it was based on the code from GTA: Vice City.

The idea was to use the Vice code as is,” Vermeij detailed. “The game was to take place on a windswept foggy Scottish island. The player would be under constant attack from zombies. The player would need to use vehicles to get around but vehicles would need fuel. Acquiring the fuel would be a big part of the game.”

“I can't quite remember how long we worked on Z. Maybe a month or so,” he added. “The idea seemed depressing and quickly ran out of steam. Even the people who originally coined the idea lost faith. We dropped the idea and got on with San Andreas.”

Since Vermeij posted the insight, his former employee has sent him a letter and the blog has been pulled, although the internet never forgets.

Rockstar did eventually produce a zombie spin-off in 2010 to Red Dead Redemption 2. Undead Nightmare was praised on release, and placed players in a wild west plagued by zombies.

Now of course Rockstar is working hard on Grand Theft Auto 6, the wildly anticipated game which we're due to catch a glimpse of in December.