Nearly 15 years ago, Rockstar Games announced a brand-new game: Agent, which ultimately never saw the light of day. And according to a former Rockstar employee, the would-be title had to be dumped in favor of Grand Theft Auto V. 

In a blog covering his time at Rockstar North, technical director Obbe Vermeij revealed that development on the supposed spy thriller faced roadblocks. And as the larger Rockstar entity was also working on Grand Theft Auto V during this time, it was “inevitable” that the latter would take focus over the former. 

“We tried to cut the game down in an attempt the get the bulk of it done before the inevitable call from NY would come,” Vermeij recalled. “We cut out an entire level (I think Cairo) and maybe even the space section.”

Ultimately, it was “too much of a distraction,” and never got completed. 

Originally codenamed Jimmy (a play on James Bond, its driving influence), Agent was meant to be a PlayStation 3 exclusive. Had it released, it would’ve been one of several non-GTA projects from Rockstar during the PS3/Xbox 360 era alongside the original Red Dead Redemption and LA Noire. 

A real, wild story from Agent’s development

Rockstar quietly Agent years ago, but even before then, working on it was eventful. In 2020, Luis Gigliotti (project leader for Rockstar San Diego team) told Game Informer about his efforts to get members of the art team back to the States after they’d been put under house arrest by authorities in Cairo. 

Those artists were location scouting and taking pictures to use as reference for an Cairo-based level. When they went there in the early 2000s, it was (and remains) illegal to take pictures of certain buildings, individuals, and vehicles in Egypt. Eventually, the police went from questioning them demanding pictures taken were deleted.

Joe Sanabria, one of those who went on the trip, recalled how the police would take cab drivers and demand answers in the hopes of learning about any suspicious activity. “After a few days, that’s essentially what happened [to us],” he said. “They didn’t torture our driver, but they grabbed him in the middle of the night.” 

“After that questioning, soon thereafter, that’s when they told us, like, ‘You guys aren’t allowed to leave your rooms anymore.'”

Gigliotti was in San Diego at the time, but he was afraid for his team regardless. “I remember thinking, ‘Oh shit, what did we get ourselves into?'”

The Cairo police held the art team in their home on suspicions of filming pornography (which they didn’t have), prompting Gigliotti to go to the country’s US Embassy for help. Sanabria sent the San Diego team DVDs of the photos taken, making sure to delete any shots that would be deemed federally illegal. 

The art team eventually made it back home safe and sound, but understandably, a future trip to St. Petersburg, Russia was canceled. The full story can be read here in all its odd, eventful glory.