Rockstar Games has definitely been a leaky ship in recent times, but the studio is now allegedly telling off an ex-GTA developer for revealing confidential details on long-dead projects. Obbe Vermeij, a former technical director for Rockstar North is the ex-developer in question, and spent 14 years with the company before departing in 2009.
Vermeij revealed a bunch of details in his now taken down blog post about Agent — a now defunct project that was meant to be a Cold War take on spy extraordinaire James Bond. However, after this info blew up online, he received an email from his former employers who were upset by his bombshells.
Vermeij took to his blog again to announce that he thought no one “would mind me talking about 20-year-old games” but was sadly mistaken. He also suggested that there was an implication that he was “ruining the Rockstar mystique” by talking about older projects such as Agent, even if they have been lost to the test of time.
In fact, it looks like the power of the Rockstar OGs has been enough for Vermeij to scale back his blogging efforts dramatically and will only “leave a few articles with anecdotes that don’t affect anyone but me”.
It’s a little unfortunate that it appears Vermeij has been hounded somewhat by his ex colleagues and removed some real insights into game development, especially from inside one of the largest gaming publishers.
If it were new details about GTA VI for example, or even one of the newer projects that development was ongoing for, that would be a different story. But, we’re talking about a game that was not only over ten years old but also one that will never see the light of day.
While Vermeij has been deterred for now, we could see some more exclusive details “in a decade or two” once even more dust has settled. We may actually have our hands on GTA VI by then also. Fingers crossed.
Ex-GTA dev silenced by Rockstar Games for revealing developer secrets
