Whether it occupies a foundational space in a casual gamer’s limited library, a sizeable chunk of a hardcore gamer’s playtime, or is the focus of someone else’s favored content creators, Rockstar’s influence has pervaded the industry. Without the runaway success of Grand Theft Auto (and Red Dead Redemption, to a lesser degree), the landscape of gaming would be in a very different place today. Rockstar pushed the envelope on open world games, environmental detail, and what sort of storytelling could be done in video games.
With all that said, Rockstar has worked on plenty of other titles in its long tenure in the games industry. Twenty-two years are under Rockstar Games’ belt, and in that time it has published a surprising number of different games. From Manhunt to Max Payne, the company used to have its hands in a lot of pies. It still has ten active developer and publisher subsidiaries today, and while it seems like it's been assigned to work on GTA and Red Dead, there was another project in the works for a while. Almost everyone who's familiar with Rockstar Games will remember a certain title that could never quite get off the ground: the stealth-action game Agent.
Exploring the World of Rockstar’s Agent
Agent is, or was, a stealth-action title set in a 1970s Cold War setting. The game appeared to be going for a hard-boiled spy-thriller theme, featuring a protagonist who would not look too out of place in L.A. Noir or Grand Theft Auto. Via leaked artwork, a number of locations fitting for such secret agent action could be seen, including the traditional snowbound setting, a bar, and some urban environments. According to developer Rockstar North, Agent would "take players on a paranoid journey into the world of counter-intelligence, espionage, and political assassinations."
Agent was set to be developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games, exclusively for PlayStation 3. Due to a few leaks, it is confirmed that at least pre-production had started. Rockstar North is probably the most prestigious studio under Rockstar’s banner, given that it is the primary developer of the entire Grand Theft Auto franchise. It has also performed development support on Red Dead Redemption 1, 2, Online, and Undead Nightmare, as well as L.A. Noir and Max Payne 3. A few titles were lost during the changes in management back in the day, but after that dust settled, it seemed like Rockstar North were some of the publisher's best teams.
Agent’s Sordid History In Rockstar Games
Agent proved to be a wrinkle in that narrative, unfortunately. It began its public life as an intriguing mystery game, being teased during July 2007, at that year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (better known as E3). Sony Computer Entertainment announced that Rockstar Games was working on a new franchise for its recently-released PlayStation 3, a move that turned some much-needed heads due to the PS3’s weak launch.
Details on Agent were not revealed until June 2009, when an announcement was made during the Sony E3 press conference. Sam Houser, one of the founders of Rockstar Games, described Agent as a game the company had been wanting to make for some time, and had set out to create a unique experience for the player. This news came in between Rockstar North’s releases of Grand Theft Auto 4’s two episodic expansion packs, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony.
Over the course of the next two years, Take-Two confirmed again and again that Agent was still in active development, even though it hadn’t been seen publicly yet. At E3 2011, rumors of development trouble started when Sony America's CEO, Jack Tretton, said that he was unsure over Agent's PlayStation 3 exclusivity and that it was a decision for Rockstar Games to make. Aside from an art leak in late 2011, Agent had gone fully undercover. Take-Two’s August 2012 financial report neglected to mention the stealth game, and Agent was not brought up again until Shuhei Yoshida was asked about its status shortly after the PlayStation 4 reveal in February 2013.
What Went Wrong With Agent
By this point, Rockstar North was gearing up to release its best-selling game Grand Theft Auto 5, and begin its shift over to working on GTA Online and providing development support. While it technically had more time than ever before to work on Agent, there didn’t seem to be much of an internal push to do so. In December 2015, a few new screenshots from between 2009 and 2010 were leaked by former Rockstar North artist Darren Charles Hatton.
He said that the art team had been taken off the Agent project and reassigned to Grand Theft Auto V, adding that he wasn’t sure if the project would ever finish. Take-Two renewed the Agent trademark twice, once in July 2013, and again in December 2016. On November 19, 2018, the United States Patent and Trademark Office finally declared the Agent trademark as abandoned.
While no further statements have been made about the game since then, the timeline of Rockstar North’s big releases and statements on Agent does paint a likely picture. The studio had been constantly busy with Grand Theft Auto 4, Grand Theft Auto 5, and its support work on Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3. All of what was leaked about Agent was artwork and assets, suggesting that the bulk of the studio’s actual design and programming teams were busy with other projects.
The success and workload of Rockstar North, as well as pressure from Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive to perform, killed any chance of a new intellectual property emerging from the busy company. As Rockstar Games' presumably shifts focus back to Grand Theft Auto, Agent will continue to be the new AAA IP that Rockstar Games project that never was.
Agent was announced as a PS3 exclusive in 2009.