Another Major Rockstar Games Series Could Join GTA and RDR. Agent Was Expected to „Push Boundaries and Define the Genre”
There was a time when Rockstar Games didn't base its business on one or two brands. The culmination of this approach was to be Agent, a title designed to set the bar high for the entire industry.
Thanks to series like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead, Rockstar Games enjoys immense trust from players. In the first decade of the 21st century, another brand, and with quite an imaginative name, Agent, was to join the portfolio of its largest brands. Let's check what it had to offer, and also trace its history, which was even more complex than many of us might think.
Exclusive Agent
First reports that Rockstar Games was working on a new major IP for PlayStation 3 appeared in July 2007. Nonetheless, fans had to wait until June 2009 for the official announcement of Agent, specifically - until the E3 trade fair. It was also revealed at the time that the new project from Rockstar North, which delivered, among others, the best-selling Grand Theft Auto IV, would be an exclusive title for Sony's third stationary console.
Jack Tretton, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America (later renamed Sony Interactive Entertainment America) from 2006 to 2014, argued at the time that Agent could have the same impact on the industry as the GTA series. Ben Feder, the former president of Take-Two Interactive, seconded him, saying:
"The game, like everything from Rockstar North, will be very, very cool. It will push boundaries, it will redefine the genre, and it will be a completely new way of experiencing video games that we haven't seen yet."
In addition, Sam Houser, one of the founders of Rockstar Games, presented the players the vision of Agent as a project his team has wanted to create for a long time.
Mysterious Agent
Unfortunately, unlike many other cancelled works, Agent has not received any official materials. Rockstar Games has only revealed scraps of information about it, and the screenshots and concept arts attached to this article come from various leaks.
Nevertheless, after putting the available data together, we get an image of an action game with stealth elements that was supposed to take us back to the Cold War era, or more precisely – to the 1970s the 20th century. During the gameplay, we would take on the role of the titular secret agent, who would find himself right in the middle of the "world of counterintelligence, espionage, and political assassinations."
Although it is not officially known where the adventure would take us, the aforementioned leaks resulted in the publication of screenshots (you can see one of them above) probably depicting a Middle Eastern city and concept arts (one of them is waiting for you below), showing a snow-covered location evoking associations with the Alps.
Agent's Timeline
We have already remind the official announcement date of Agent. But what happened next? Well, things never really picked up pace. In fact, back in 2009, Rockstar Games argued on its blog that Agent could be released in 2010, but this did not happen. In May 2011, it was confirmed that the project is in the development phase. In June, however, Jack Tretton was no longer sure about Agent's exclusivity for PlayStation 3.
Months and then years passed without either Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive making any comments about Agent. In August 2012, Strauss Zelnick (who was already at the helm of the latter of the two companies) stated that there was nothing new to announce regarding this title.
After the announcement of PlayStation 4 in 2013, there were speculations that Agent could be ported to Sony's new console. Indeed, the same year, the game's trademark was renewed by Take-Two Interactive, which the company also repeated three years later, but that was the end of the new "information" about this title.
Finally, in November 2018, news broke that the Agent trademark was abandoned by the publisher. In October 2021, the game's official website began redirecting players to Rockstar Games' website. The project itself disappeared from the developer's portfolio. Everything indicates that Agent was quietly disposed of before he could get into action.
Not the first Agent
It may come as a surprise to some (many?) players to discover that Agent for PlayStation 3 was not the first Agent , which was ultimately canceled by Rockstar Games. In 2002, Angel Studios was bought by this company and desperately needed a project that would prove that it is a full-fledged member of this "family".
As you can read in an article about this title on Polygon, Agent (because that was to become the new game's title) was intended to be a test of the studio's skills. The production was heading for PlayStation 2 and the first Xbox. In it, players were supposed to play the role of a secret agent (obviously!), and the creators wanted to provide them with a wide range of weapons and gadgets, led by a briefcase capable of transforming into a go-kart or a drone with a camera, which was supposed to help us take pictures.
Although the idea for such a briefcase may be impressive, it is worth noting that only the second incarnation of Agent managed to squeeze the full potential out of the idea for original gadgets. As one of the developers responsible for the first, "prehistoric" Agent said:
"Rockstar North came up with a few ideas (...) They had a car that turned into a submarine or something like that."
The creators quickly set to work on their ambitious project and just as quickly prepared a demo full of chases, explosions, and other scenes straight out of action movies. Our command center in Agent was to be Washington, D.C., which would be depicted as a vast area with an open structure. Other cities that we were supposed to visit during the game, like Cairo for example, would be smaller, more linear levels.
Unfortunately, behind the scenes of the work on Agent, not everything went smoothly. As it turns out, Red Dead Redemption was not the first game on which Rockstar San Diego (as Angel Studios started calling itself after coming under the wing of Rockstar Games) was forced to crunch. Agent it was being created "around the clock", as one of the developers claimed years later, and yet its creators were unable to satisfy the "brass", who demanded changes without giving the devs enough time to implement them properly.
Over time, this led not only to a decline in the morale of the studio members but also to layoffs. These latest also included key members of the team. Although the latter were replaced by other leaders, the entire project ultimately found ended up on a slippery slope. As a result, the decision was made to cancel Agent and entrust Rockstar San Diego with another great work, the already mentioned Wild West game. The rest is history.
I will not die completely
As you can read in Polygon's article, the would-be Agent from Rockstar North has apparently received an afterlife of sorts. Sources say that some of its elements, especially locations and missions, made it to Grand Theft Auto V. Technology created for the needs of Agent by Rockstar San Diego was used in both Red Dead Redemption and the GTA series.
