Rockstar has not said a single word about the next Grand Theft Auto, but the paper trail pointing to it keeps getting longer. The latest pieces center on casting calls for an “interactive project” codenamed Rush, which an internet sleuth tracked down and which many fans now believe is GTA V in disguise.
The casting is being handled by Telsey + Company, a firm that has worked on previous Rockstar projects, according to a detailed rundown of the Rush casting published this week. One actress, Shandar Robinson, lists a role called Female City Street in Rush on her profile, and the production company named there is Rockstar’s parent publisher. That is about as close to a fingerprint as casting paperwork gets.
The Rush Characters Look Like A Grand Theft Auto Cast
The character breakdowns read like a Grand Theft Auto cast list. As MCV noted in its report on the casting, the roles include a wisecracking FBI agent named Mitch Hayes, a hillbilly named Clyde and a Welsh monk who doubles as a cult leader and yoga teacher, going by Brother Adam. Other descriptions mention Nervous Jerry, who is terrified of someone named Simon, and Kevin de Silva, the overweight son of a character called Albert who spends his time playing first person shooters. Simon and Albert de Silva only appear inside other role descriptions, which has fans guessing that one of them could be a lead character.
There is precedent for reading this much into a one word codename. GTA IV went through casting under the name Frozen, and the series has a long habit of hiding big projects behind innocuous labels. Rockstar’s parent company has also registered a batch of oddball web addresses in recent weeks, including CashForDeadDreams.com, StopPayingYourMortgage.net and LifeInvader.com. Grand Theft Auto games traditionally fill their radio ads and billboards with fake websites that turn out to exist on the real internet, so the registrations have been read as more groundwork for a new game. Earlier reports have pointed to a return to a Los Angeles style setting, and the Rush characters fit that picture well enough.
Analysts Point To A Reveal Within The Next Year
Timing is the other piece of the puzzle. Analysts expect GTA V to be announced during the publisher’s 2012 fiscal year, which begins next month, and contracts between the publisher and key staff at Rockstar North are reported to run until January 2012. None of that is confirmation, but it lines up neatly with a reveal sometime in the next twelve months.
As for platforms, GTA IV arrived on PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2008, and a follow up would be widely expected on the same consoles, though Rockstar has confirmed nothing about any new GTA, let alone where it will appear.
It is worth keeping some caution in the mix. MCV points out that Rush could just as easily be a different unannounced project, and casting calls rarely tell the whole story. Until Rockstar steps forward, GTA V remains the worst kept secret in gaming rather than an official game.