By Dexerto | Created at 2026-08-03 16:58:12 | Updated at 2026-08-04 17:51:53
1 day ago
Rockstar built a fifth Midnight Club, complete with an early pass at London, then quietly buried the whole project.
That silence tracks, given how selectively Rockstar backs its own franchises. GTA hogs every scrap of attention, and lately the studio has stayed just as ruthless about it, recently confirming it won’t touch GTA 6 with anything new. Now, a few months away from GTA 6’s launch, a former designer finally said why Midnight Club never got the same grace.
Why Rockstar killed Midnight Club 5
Kris Roberts, who worked on the Midnight Club series and later helped build Red Dead Redemption’s multiplayer, told Insider Gaming that a fifth entry was already in motion before it fell apart.
The team had built prototype cities, including an early pass at London, but the project stalled under conflict between Rockstar New York and the Midnight Club team in San Diego. Some of that friction was earned, since Midnight Club: Los Angeles missed several deadlines along the way, but Roberts said the deeper issue ran closer to resentment.
Despite strong player retention against Need for Speed and Burnout, New York’s verdict never changed: “You’re not GTA.”
Once the cancellation landed, Rockstar dismantled the team behind it. Some staff moved onto the RAGE engine or joined Red Dead Redemption, while the rest were let go. Roberts said the message afterward was no more Midnight Club, and everything going forward would be GTA.
Rockstar’s silence on Midnight Club fits a pattern the studio still uses with GTA 6, since it only reveals what it wants fans to know, whether that’s Japan’s oddly short digital code window or a former dev’s hint that scrapped GTA 5 content could resurface in the new game.
