Rockstar VP Dan Houser claims that the idea of setting Grand Theft Auto in the future is very tempting, however currently the team has no good reason to do it.

Speaking with French site Ecrans, Houser claims that the team is lacking the essential elements required to push Grand Theft Auto into the future. “We will do it the very second we have an idea,” he replied when asked if GTA would ever make the future jump. “One of our strengths is the consistency of the game world. We’re not necessarily the best writers in the world, but we [know] how to write a video game.”

“When we decided to make a Western, it was because we knew we had something to say,” he added. “We have no interest in going into science fiction for the sake of flying cars and laser guns. The best science fiction stories are those that speak about the human condition.”

“So while this idea is very tempting and, by definition, anything’s possible in a video game, we lack the essential thing for the moment: a good reason.”

A future jump could also bring a fresh boost to the series, but Houser doesn’t feel that it’s necessary at the moment. “I’m not worrying about this for a good while yet,” he said. “In the past some of our titles have been successful, others less so, but as long as we have the ambition of making the kinds of games that nobody’s ever made before, we’re not going to get bored.”

“To offer an analogy with cinema, some films can be told in one page of text. Once the basic situation is there, you know exactly how it will evolve. But if you’re careful to change the narrative structure, it can change everything. Chris Nolan’s Memento is a good example. That’s the kind of approach we’ve achieved.”

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