If you could pick any location for the setting of Grand Theft Auto 6, which city you pick? Real Estate firm Movoto posed that exact same question on the company blog, making a fairly solid case for Portland, Oregon.
"It’s hard to argue with numbers, and the numbers show that not only is Portland a great choice for the next GTA, but also that Portland probably would have actually been a better choice than that lame-sauce city Los Whateveros," Movoto blogger Willie Clark suggested.
Personally, I don't know much about Portland, but Clark backed up his claim with some fairly entertaining stats that actually make Portland seem like an attractive city for the next game to take place.
For starters, there are 9 gun stores within the city of Portland. Comparatively, Los Santos only had 11. Strip clubs? 81 in Portland (damn!).
When it comes to the fuzz (aka the police), "Portland beat out Los Santos in almost every single category we compared," Clark said. He didn't get into specfics with this one, but reasons that you probably care least about this category anyways. He's right. On a side note, crime should be easier to commit in Portland seeing as how the city only has 6 police stations versus the 12 in Grand Theft Auto 5.
Let's be honest, though. What makes a great setting is the "local flavor." New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami — all real world cities that have inspired locations in GTA games — have their own unique style.
"For Portland, we felt it was oh-so appropriate to include bike shops and coffee shops (we almost included sweater shops, but that seemed a step too far)," Clark said.
"Of course, on the hipster scale, we expected Portland to beat GTA 5, but we didn’t expect it to take Los Santos to school. There are 10 coffee shops in Los Santos. Not bad. But… how many does Portland have within city limits?"
637.
"You could go to a different coffee shop every day for almost two years. And all those coffee shops are just waiting for some local drug kingpin to come take them over and use them as a front for a blue-colored meth operation," Clark reasoned.
He's got a point. Look, I was skeptical at first too. But as you can see, thanks to Movoto, Portland makes a fine case as an inspiration to Rockstar Games' next Grand Theft Auto — whenever that may be.
That could be a while though. Seeing as how Grand Theft Auto 5 isn't even out on PC yet (January 27!), and we still don't have heists for GTA Online (early 2015!), I doubt Rockstar Games is actually working on a new Grand Theft Auto just yet. If anything, I'd expect a new Red Dead Redemption first. But you know gaming enthusiasts, always looking ahead and never enjoying the present.
So, Movoto made their case. Now it's you're turn. If you could pick the city inspiration for Grand Theft Auto 6's next setting, which would it be?
[Image: Wikipedia]
