Grand Theft Auto VI: How Rockstar North hid Edinburgh inside world’s biggest video game series
We dive head first into the many Edinburgh easter eggs hidden throughout the Grand Theft Auto series
With roots in Dundee and based right here in Edinburgh, Grand Theft Auto’s developers have never missed a chance to let the gaming world know where the magic happens.
Despite each of the mainline titles being set in the US and being rinsed in American pop culture, Rockstar North’s GTA franchise is positively littered with scores of witty Scots references and tongue-in-cheek nods to the Capital.
Operating from their headquarters in Holyrood Road, the team have made a consistent effort over the years to stuff loads of often subtle local easter eggs into each new game.
Ahead of the eagerly anticipated launch of Grand Theft Auto VI on November 19, let’s take a look at a selection of the best Edinburgh references in the GTA universe, starting from the franchise's leap into 3D in the early noughties.
GTA III (2001) & Vice City (2002)
While the early Grand Theft Auto games on the original Sony PlayStation featured a smattering of subtle Scottish easter eggs, the series’ ground-breaking leap into three dimensions in 2001 with GTA III allowed the developers to make them more visible than ever before.
On the third game's official website, “Leith International” was included alongside the likes of Toronto as one of the available destinations from Francis International Airport. Obviously Leith doesn’t actually have an airport, but that’s what makes it funny.
Rockstar devs also snuck in some unmistakable Scots vernacular. There’s apparently an NPC who will declare, "You smell ay pish", if lead character Claude walks too close to them. Not very nice!
Following up with the neon-soaked Vice City in 2002, the developers snuck in a golf course named Leaf Links, which anyone from Auld Reekie would recognise straight away as paying homage to the real-life Leith Links.
GTA: San Andreas (2004)
By the time San Andreas hit shelves back in 2004, Rockstar North had moved to new headquarters in Greenside at the foot of Calton Hill. A wealthy district in the game named Calton Heights reflected this move perfectly. Maybe that was what staff nicknamed their offices?
There’s even supposedly an Edinburgh football element. The game's bitter rival street gangs, the Ballas and the Grove Street Families, who dressed in purple and green respectively, were assumed to be a loose Hearts and Hibs reference.
Meanwhile, players travelling between the game's cities could take a train across Kincaid Bridge which was a near-replica of the iconic Forth Bridge and sported the exact same colour and cantilever design. Likewise the design of San Andreas’ Garver Bridge was a take on the Forth Road Bridge.
GTA IV (2008)
GTA IV’s Liberty City might be based on New York, but eagle-eyed Edinburgh gamers were quick to notice that you can take protagonist Niko Bellic to an area called Juniper Yellow, a distinctive whiff of the Edinburgh suburb Juniper Green.
Even more amusing was a storyline that detailed a bit of beef between two of the game’s main characters, Vlad and Roman. This is understood to have been a reference to a bizarre real-life incident that occurred between former Heart of Midlothian owner Vladimir Romanov and Jambos striker Roman Bednar. The plotline echoed a surreal moment from Hearts’ 2007 pre-season tour in Austria, where a sceptical Bednar challenged the eccentric owner's claims of being a boxer. Footage of the pair sparring can still be watched on YouTube.
GTA V (2013)
Set primarily in the fictional city of Los Santos, which was based on Los Angeles, the fifth instalment in the GTA series included loads more references to the old country, such as a random Saltire flags flying from a beachfront property and graffiti that aped the “RIP Benny Harvey” sketch by Glasgow comedian and streamer Limmy.
The Edinburgh references hadn’t dried up either.
A national park called ‘Arthur’s Pass’ is a likely salute to Arthur’s Seat, located close to Rockstar North’s Holyrood headquarters. In a possible nod to the Edinburgh Trams fiasco, which was still boiling over while GTA V was in development, an in-game news bulletin also mentioned an extension to Los Santos’ tram system running millions of dollars over budget and several years late.
And if you visited the Los Santos cemetery, you would spot a wee Skye Terrier loyally sat in front of a gravestone. Almost certainly a tribute to Greyfriars Bobby and his master John Gray.
Broader Scottish nods
Of course, the rest of Scotland gets plenty love too. Going right back to the original Grand Theft Auto (1997) game booklet, when the game was made in DMA Design’s small studio above a former chippy on Dundee’s Nethergate, there was a brilliant nod to local publisher DC Thomson's most iconic comic strip characters. The sleeve notes listed a gangster's "known associates" as Wullie, Boab, Soapy, Hen, Horace, and the Bairn - names that were instantly recognisable to fans of Oor Wullie and The Broons.
That first dev team clearly boasted a number of keen Scottish football fans too. The clues were embedded in the cheat codes for the game. NINEINAROW (all levels) was likely a reference to Rangers FC’s historic ninth successive league title which was being secured by the then all-conquering Glasgow club the same year the game was released. Motherwell fans may have also appreciated the code SUPER WELL, which gave the player access to all levels and cities.
A modified version of Glasgow's famous traffic-cone-adorned Duke of Wellington statue makes an appearance outside the airport in GTA III, while Vice City gave us the unforgettable fictional Scots heavy metal band, Love Fist. The band's lead singer, Jezz Torrent, was even voiced by Trainspotting actor Kevin McKidd.
The name of Vice City’s pop station Wave 103 was a reference to Dundee’s real-life radio station Wave 102, while another Tayside hat-tip was a huge billboard poster of the ship Discovery at Escobar International Airport urging people to “Come to Dundee”.
GTA San Andreas was known for its multitude of minigames. One of those allowed your character to place bets on horses with such names as ‘Henrik’s Jaw’, recalling the time legendary Celtic striker Henrik Larsson suffered a double fracture of his jaw during an aerial duel with Livingston’s Gustave Bahoken in 2003, and ‘Scotland Nil’ - which requires scant explanation if you’ve been following the fortunes of the Scotland national team to any degree. Other horse names included: Falkirk Boy, Neigh Bother, Salt ‘n’ Sauce, Dundee Ned and Ochayethenoo.
Later titles kept the laughs coming, with GTA IV introducing players to the brilliantly named BAWSAQ stock exchange. The devs even threw in a ship named Dignity (an obvious nod to the classic tune by Dundee/Glasgow group Deacon Blue).
We can’t wait to see what Scottish subtleties and Edinburgh easter eggs Rockstar North have in store for us when GTA VI is released on Thursday.