A former tech director is spilling the beans on GTA San Andreas myths. Turns out, Bigfoot was just another feature they didn't have time for.
Many famous Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas myths and mysteries, such as the ghost cars, have been proven true over the years. The advent of the internet and sites like yours truly have made it easy to look up proof that those playground talks were more than just hearsay — however, some unproven myths have persisted. That is, until former devs step in to shoot them down; like the bigfoot most recently.
Like Piggsy, the myth surrounding Bigfoot in GTA San Andreas persisted for years, with many uploading photos of the mythical creature on the internet. Between mods and photo editing, it was impossible to truly verify any of these pieces of "evidence", and there were plenty proven to be hoaxes. Nevertheless, the myth persisted.
It probably didn't help that one of the people who fueled the myths was none other than Terry Donovan, one of Rockstar Games' co-founders who left in 2006. In an interview in 2005, Donovan would outright state that there is no bigfoot, but messed with the fans by implying that there is "something" in the woods.
Of course, we know better by now that the existing proof online is nothing more than doctored or fake photographs or added to the game using mods, created by the internet's earlier versions of clout-chasers seeking their five minutes of fame.
However, according to Obbe Vermeij, Rockstar North's technical director for over 10 years from 1995 to 2009, Bigfoot was one of the things that the development team didn't have time for. In a recent string of threads on X, Vermeij shared trivial but interesting knowledge about the games he worked on during his time at Rockstar, including Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
When asked by fans why GTA San Andreas doesn't have climbable ladders, he enumerated features that made it into the game, and asked whether fans would've preferred to have none of those in-game if it meant they could have climbable ladders. A player then joked about how Vermeij forgot to talk about Bigfoot, which he cheekily replied to by saying, "Bigfoot is in the same category as climbable ladders."
GTA San Andreas, which many consider one of the franchise's best games, had a bigger budget and longer development time compared to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Following the success of the 2002 title, Rockstar North went to work on San Andreas, spending the next two years crafting a fictional counterpart based on the Los Angeles of the 1990s.
The end result was a feature-rich game that was a major step up compared to its predecessors in terms of features and content, but it's clear that the developers still had to leave many on the table, probably because they just didn't have time for them.
It appears then that Bigfoot, which is right up there among video game myths like the "Mew Under the Truck" rumors from Pokémon Red and Blue, will remain as it has been for years—a myth. For what it's worth, Bigfoot, or the Sasquatch, did eventually appear in Los Santos, albeit in the HD era version, Grand Theft Auto V.
Speaking of the Sasquatch, the Sasquatch Outfit would fit perfectly with the ongoing Halloween event. Can you imagine fighting hordes of zombies or hunting ghosts dressed like Bigfoot? Be sure to head on over to our guide to find out more about the ghost locations in GTA Online.
