Way back in 2009, Microsoft had offered millions of dollars to Rockstar Games in order to bring Grand Theft Auto 4 to the Xbox 360 as well as PS3. Without the effort and $75 million (alleged) offer from Microsoft, Grand Theft Auto 4 was going to be one of Sony’s big PS3 exclusives. Grand Theft Auto 4 would eventually release multiplatform, but not without Sony making some form of agreement with Rockstar Games to develop a PS3-exclusive hit. As it turned out, that hit was supposed to be Agent, the long lost spy thriller being developed by Rockstar Games over a decade ago which has since been presumably cancelled.
Recently, Agent came into the spotlight because of a strange story from development, but the notoriety of the cancelled Rockstar title has been around for a lot longer. Rockstar Games made quite the splash when this game was first announced, even though none of the game was ever shown. Coming off the success of Grand Theft Auto 4, it seemed as though Rockstar Games intended to make another splash with Agent, but the game was never heard from again after that. At least, from a public-facing perspective, anyway. Stories of Agent‘s development have come out in the years since, but as of late 2018, it’s very possible Rockstar Games quietly cancelled the project.
First announced at E3 2009 during Sony’s press conference, Sony America president and CEO Jack Tretton came on stage to announce the existence of Agent. Announced among other heavy hitters like Assassin’s Creed 2, Rockstar Games’ Agent was supposed to be a Cold War-themed espionage action game exclusive to PS3. Developed by Rockstar North, the game was supposed to be a globe-trotting adventure through the late 1970s that was described by Rockstar CEO Ben Feder as “genre-defining.” While the hype was starting to build in 2009, news and updates started to fade very quickly by 2010-2011, with Rockstar Games only confirming that Agent was still in development.
Several years of total silence would go by, with little to no comment on the existence of Agent or its development status. Five huge Rockstar Games titles would release before Agent: Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire, Max Payne 3, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Red Dead Redemption 2. Considering the PlayStation 3 had ended production and began sunsetting support in 2017, many figured the game was either in development hell or cancelled altogether. Eight years later, Rockstar Games’ Agent trademark had officially lapsed, which to many was an indication that the project was indeed cancelled. And yet, the Agent game description still exists on Rockstar’s website.
Interestingly enough, Agent has had more history surrounding the development of the game than details regarding the actual game’s features. Back in February of 2019, Polygon had published a report on the working culture at Rockstar San Diego, which was originally tasked with working on a prototype and eventually the early stages of development. After reports of a terrible work culture spurred on by Rockstar Games, the project was eventually shelved as Rockstar San Diego worked on the first Red Dead Redemption. That was around the mid-2000s, meaning at some point between then and 2009, development was supposedly shifted back to Rockstar North.
More recently came a report on the “Cairo incident” that previous Rockstar Games developers had mentioned before, but never in-depth. According to the story, a group of artists from the Agent development team in San Diego had booked a trip to Egypt to map out Cairo. Since the Egyptian capital city was going to be one of Agent‘s core locations for a mission, artists went to Cairo to take photos for reference material. Several of the Rockstar San Diego developers were detained in Egypt after being accused of filming pornography, though in truth they were caught photographing government buildings. Eventually, they made it back safely to the United States.
Those are the two biggest stories known about Agent‘s development. There were some supposed leaked screenshots and art assets of Agent discovered on a former artist’s page, but none of it was ever confirmed. From there, Agent‘s existence has largely remained a mystery. Many of the developers from Rockstar San Diego and Rockstar North have stated that there’s a possibility mission and gameplay concepts were borrowed and placed into Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2. However, neither of those facts have been confirmed either. The gameplay demos that Rockstar San Diego and Rockstar North created have still yet to be released to the public eye.
While it hasn’t been confirmed in any capacity, it’s very likely that Agent was quietly cancelled by Rockstar Games. Likely because Rockstar Games wanted additional development support on Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, it’s very possible that concepts and designs from Agent were implemented into those games. Rockstar San Diego did build the original Red Dead Redemption based on some early Agent gameplay designs, so it wouldn’t be unusual. As for Agent itself, there’s a very slim chance the project still exists in any capacity other than unfinished work, but since Rockstar Games still hasn’t officially cancelled Agent, the project is still a mystery.
Agent was announced as a PS3 exclusive in 2009.
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