Rockstar Devs Were Arrested in Cairo During Agent Development

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While the development of spy game Agent was ultimately unproductive, with Agent's trademark having been abandoned in November 2018, a story has emerged from its early development that saw the developers from Rockstar San Diego get caught up in an international incident of their own. Before the game was moved to Rockstar North, San Diego worked on an early version of it during the early 2000s.

As per Game Informer's Blake Hester, part of Agent was to take place in Cairo. Rockstar San Diego encountered a lack of reference imagery regarding the Egyptian capital, resulting in the studio sending out a team to Egypt to take reference photos. The team consisted of environmental artists Joseph Sanabria and William Kidwell, art director Charles Morrow, and lead artist Darrell Gallagher. While the team had researched the legal issues of taking photos in Cairo and hired drivers who could also serve as translators, they were not prepared for what happened to them.

Sanabria was confronted with a fairly harmless situation in which he was forced to delete a photo at the behest of the police. But these encounters continued to escalate as the team went around Cairo, including getting held at gunpoint, culminating in Gallagher getting arrested at the airport and interrogated while the rest of the team was held under house arrest at the hotel they were staying at.

The team was accused of filming pornography, which illegal in Egypt. Rockstar San Diego project leader Luis Gigliotti made a call to the US Embassy in Cairo, stating to Hester in an interview: "And I'll never forget, whoever it was on the call from the Embassy just literally said, 'Are you guys stupid? Whatever possessed you to think this was a good idea?'" The team ran into another potential problem with the contents of Morrow's laptop, borrowed from his gynecological oncologist father. They were ultimately able to fly back home, but Rockstar San Diego canceled a St. Petersburg, Russia trip following this incident.

While the incident is perhaps not quite comparable to 2012's Argo or the James Bond films, it is certainly ironic that the developers of an espionage game got caught up in an minor international incident. Announced back in June 2009, Agent was set to be a PlayStation 3 exclusive set during the Cold War in the late 1970s. Though the trademark for the game was renewed in July 2013 and December 2016, it was abandoned in November 2018. Agent concept art was leaked in August 2017, depicting a snowy setting.

Ultimately, it appears that Rockstar North's focus is not on Agent at all. The Edinburgh, Scotland-based studio last worked on Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online, as well as providing support for the development of Red Dead Redemption II. The Cayo Perico Heist recently released for Online, bringing a new island and new music with DJs and radio stations.