Rockstar Games is responsible for crime sandbox series Grand Theft Auto, Western franchise Red Dead, and gritty shooter Max Payne. The company has sold millions of copies and made billions of dollars, and someone who has been there for all of this is vice president of developer Jeronimo Barrera. But after all this time, Barrera is leaving the company.

According to LinkedIn, Barrera had served as Rockstar's VP of development since 1997, but in December 2018 the executive made the decision to leave. In a new interview, Barrera said that he "pretty much left" the company once development on Red Dead Redemption 2 was complete. Barrera was part of Rockstar when it was just five people and up to now, as more than 2,000 people are employed by the company. The executive's job included "steering" these people in the right direction.

As previously implied, Barrera has been part of Rockstar during its biggest successes, and he said that he is "very proud" of that. Red Dead Redemption 2 sold 17 million copies in a short space of time, GTA Online has made over half a billion dollars, and many Rockstar titles are critically acclaimed.

However, the executive is leaving to join the "people who want to make this artistry progressive," with Barrera pointing to augmented and virtual reality technology as "amazing" things happening in the games industry. Rockstar has gotten involved in these other technologies, having released VR content for L.A. Noire, but it doesn't sound as though the developer has big plans in that department.

"If I had stayed at Rockstar it would have been more GTAs, more RDRs and less of this other stuff going on out there right now," recognized Barrera. Few could blame Rockstar Games for focusing on those series when looking at how successful they've been. Even if GTA and RDR sequels are unsurprising and everyone expects Rockstar to make sequels, they are major cash cows for the company.

Some fans have hoped that Rockstar would look at its other franchises and do something unexpected. Fans have asked Rockstar to make Bully 2, and even a new Manhunt. The developer may well be working on those in secret, and Barrera tried not to give much away during the interview. But even so, fans probably shouldn't expect Rockstar Games to reinvent the wheel any time soon.

Source: Variety