Just yesterday, new screens leaked of Agent, a game first teased in 2007 and last confirmed still in development in 2011. Set in the Mediterranean in the 1970s, the game was supposedly Rockstar’s response to Metal Gear Solid. By now, many think Rockstar has given up. But have they?
Taking a long time to make a game is absolutely nothing new for Rockstar; in fact, Agent isn’t unusual for the company. Grand Theft Auto V started development in 2009 and it took until this year for all of the game’s promised features to finally be released. Max Payne 3 was announced for 2009 and delayed so long and so often, many gamers thought we’d never see it before it arrived in 2012. Red Dead Redemption took five years to come out, making it a speedy game by Rockstar standards, but if you believe the rumors, the sequel started development almost immediately and we still don’t know when anything Red Dead might be arriving.
That said, there are roadblocks. First of all, originally Agent was a PS3 exclusive; that’s by the boards, obviously, and all the work Rockstar did on that console has to be transitioned over to the PS4, and possibly the Xbox One. Secondly, the company has made, and is still making, an obscene amount of money off Grand Theft Auto V, moving 52 million copies and just shipping a major update for its online component, Executives and Other Criminals. Another factor is their publisher’s crowded schedule; Take-Two has games like Mafia III and XCOM 2 on the way, not to mention possible entries from their other massive franchise, Borderlands.
It seems likely somebody is still working on Agent; as you can see above, Rockstar doesn’t abandon projects. But it may be a long, long time before it sneaks into view.