Rockstar Games is known for its open-world titles like the GTA and RDR franchises. Moreover, since the studio is quite old, many of its former devs are industry veterans who have worked on Rockstar’s iconic titles. Obbe Vermeij is one such former employee who has worked on past titles before leaving Rockstar North in 2009.
Obbe had been working at Rockstar North for a long time and was present to witness the development of GTA III. Moreover, he claimed the last project he worked on for the major studio was the critically acclaimed GTA IV. Nevertheless, after leaving the company, Obbe mostly talked about how video games work and shared insights on what it was like to work on some of the most popular titles.
Rockstar North informed former Rockstar North developer Obbe Vermeij to stop sharing info about his projects which includes features that never saw the light of day
He worked on GTA III, Vice City, San Andreas, GTA IV and various spin-off titles
> https://t.co/omgv6KPPZD pic.twitter.com/0s4yU95ON6
— Roberto Serrano’ 🇵🇸🇮🇱🇺🇦☮️🙏🏻 | 📊🎮🍿 (@geronimo_73_) November 23, 2023
Although Obbe took to blogging in order to showcase the hard work put into such popular games, Rockstar North didn’t feel comfortable with it. Thus on November 22, 2023, the developer was forced to take down his blog as it was upsetting to some. He mentioned the following in a letter which he posted on his blog:
Apparently some of the OG’s there [Rockstar North] are upset by my blog. I genuinely didn’t think anyone would mind me talking about 20 year old games but I was wrong. Something about ruining the Rockstar mystique or something.
He shared his disappointment on the matter and stated that his blog isn’t important enough to mess up his relationships with former colleagues. Moreover, even though his was a personal project, he still hoped that Rockstar would make a similar documentary on how the original GTA Trilogy was created.
However, this doesn’t mean that Obbe wants to stop talking about games completely, as he is willing to try again after a decade or two. Still, this statement has angered many readers as they have been curious to know more about their favorite titles.
Rockstar planned to create a zombie survival game as revealed by Obbe Vermeij
Obbe Vermeij has worked on many projects including hits like GTA Vice City, San Andreas, and more. During his time at Rockstar North, there were talks about creating a zombie survival game using Vice City’s source code. This game was apparently set on a remote Scottish island, and the idea was circulated in late 2002.
Unfortunately, the original post about the Zombie title has since been deleted by Obbe after his clash with Rockstar North. Nonetheless, reports suggest that idea came up because artists in 2002 loved the idea of zombies and wanted to make it a reality.
The idea was quite interesting as players would have been able to use vehicles to traverse the island and fuel would have been a valuable resource. Thus, players would have to continuously look for fuel to survive in the tough times. However, the idea was scratched out as the setting of the game was too depressing according to the higher-ups at Rockstar North.
As a result, the task force was shifted to the next GTA title, which later came to be known as San Andreas. Interestingly, if the project was allowed to survive, maybe the world wouldn’t have seen one of the best open-world games of all time. Nonetheless, later in the line, Rockstar did take their chances with a zombie survival game by making an expansion for RDR.
