Every scrap of information on Rockstar Games’s Agent provides us with a look under the curtain of what might have been. As a general recap, this project was originally announced at E3 2007 during Sony’s conference as a PlayStation 3 exclusive. The title was only shared two years later, though, when Rockstar founder Sam Houser revealed:
We have always enjoyed making action games, and with Agent, we are making what we believe will be the ultimate action game. Agent is a game we have wanted to make for a long time. The team in Edinburgh is doing an amazing job combining intense action, atmosphere, and story in a great period setting to create something that feels quite unique. We cannot wait for people to experience this game.
The setting was the end of the 1970s, at the height of the Cold War, and the game would have put players at the very center of the world of counterintelligence, espionage, and political assassinations.
However, development time went on without any showcase. Rockstar confirmed Agent was still in development in May 2011; later that year, fans were finally able to lay eyes on the first couple of screenshots, but only in a roundabout way. The developer didn’t officially release them; a former Rockstar North environmental artist had posted them on his online portfolio.
As time went on and the PlayStation 4 was released, no further information was shared. Rockstar regularly renewed the Agent trademark for a while, but media and fans alike had basically lost hope of ever seeing the game, and that instinct was confirmed as the trademark was eventually abandoned in November 2018.
Things unexpectedly heated up again last month when Obbe Vermeij, an ex Rockstar North Technical Director, shared some background information on Agent from his time at the studio. According to Vermeij, Agent would have been more linear compared to the studio’s open world, owing to its different locales, such as a French Mediterranean city, a Swiss ski resort, Cairo, and a ‘big shootout with lasers in space’ at the very end. At some point, players would have encountered a chase scene while skiing downhill. Unfortunately, the development team was split between Grand Theft Auto V and Agent, and the bigger franchise eventually took priority until the latter project was abandoned.
Today, new leaked screenshots of an underwater level have been shared following a Grand Theft Auto here. At this point, all we can do is let our imagination run wild, as it is extremely unlikely that Rockstar will ever opt to revive Agent instead of continuing with its own massive franchises (GTA, Red Dead Redemption).
As a reminder, Rockstar unveiled GTA VI earlier this month, announcing a 2025 target launch window and breaking YouTube records for views and engagement.
