Internal Rockstar conflict killed off Midnight Club, says former dev

With Rockstar Games being busy with Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead, its Midnight Club series of racing games hasn't seen a new entry for almost 20 years. While the widely-well-received series was seemingly dropped after the fourth game, it's now claimed by a former Rockstar Games designer that another entry was in development at one point.

The next entry had already been in the city prototype stage, and London may have been one setting it would have featured. "There was effort, and they were starting, and they were starting Midnight Club 5, or whatever they were going to call it, but it didn’t last, and it was canceled," says Former Rockstar senior designer Kris Roberts, revealing new information in an interview with Insider Gaming.

He had worked on Midnight Club and Red Dead Redemption at Rockstar San Diego previously, and seemingly a "non-trivial conflict" between studios had been what killed the racing series for good.

According to Roberts, the Rockstar New York team, who was in charge of Grand Theft Auto, didn't view Midnight Club in a good light.

"The perception was we never got the accolades or the reception," says Roberts. “The New York perspective was, ‘You’re not GTA.' When you’re the red-headed stepchild project — you know, we’re doing a good job, we’re world-class, but we’re still treated less than. It was challenging.”

Despite issues like falling behind release schedules, the Rockstar San Diego's racing games reportedly had better player retention than rival franchises like Need for Speed or Burnout as well.

“When they cancelled it, it was pretty clear that there would be no more Midnight Club and everything was going to be GTA and stuff moving forward, and that’s just the way it was going to be,” he said.

Following the fifth Midnight Club's cancelation, the development team had been spread across the RAGE game engine, Red Dead Redemption, or let go from the company, essentially killing the series for good in Roberts' eyes.

The game release cadence of Rockstar has slowed down heavily since those times. Its latest game, Grand Theft Auto VI, is slated to come out later this year, landing eight years after its last major project, Red Dead Redemption 2. Considering the long-term success the studio is seeing with its games though, racing shouldn't hold out hope for a return of Midnight Club anytime soon.