The past couple of Grand Theft Autos have all boasted a contemporary setting, but - according to TechRadar - rumours surrounding the next GTA being situated in the 1970s have popped up sporadically over the last couple of years.
A seventies setting would certainly make a lot of sense. It's the one decade Rockstar are yet to really tackle, and with everything from disco to Dirty Harry to take inspiration from, it's easy to see why they'd look to incorporate it in a future release.
If the title is set in Vice City, then a seventies setting would make only more sense. The US' ill-fated War on Drugs was first coming into focus (which would provide an explanation for why players end up switching locales between Vice City and areas in Latin America), Richard Nixon was coming undone with Watergate, and cinema was experiencing what may have been its greatest ever decade with works like Taxi Driver, The Godfather and Jaws all altering the landscape of the medium as it then existed.
It's just too great an opportunity to pass up, and with the period being such a formative one for America, there's a chance for Rockstar to implement some actual satire this time too.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
