You’ve heard of the hit TV series Breaking Bad, right? Of course, you have. What about Grand Theft Auto? That’s an even sillier question. Now imagine what the two would offer if they ever fused into one concept. A GTA-style Breaking Bad was once pitched by the show’s creator Vince Gilligan, before the whole idea was eventually pulled and never spoken about ever again.
This idea has been brought to public attention now though, as it was mentioned in the latest episode of Inside the Gilliverse, a podcast that discusses all things Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. In the episode, Gilligan spoke about how several ideas for Breaking Bad video games have come and gone over the years, even one that would have been a PlayStation VR experience – that would have been something.
Gilligan said, “I’m not much of a video game player but how can you not know Grand Theft Auto? I remember saying to the two gentlemen who said yes originally to Breaking Bad, I said ‘who owns Grand Theft Auto, can’t you have like a module, can there be like a Breaking Bad adaptation?” Just think about that for a second, how cool of a concept could we have potentially had? Imagine fluttering between Walt and Jesse in their individual roles as they progress further up the ladder of Albuquerque’s drug empire.
The fact that the idea never came to fruition is likely to have left a sour taste in Gilligan’s mouth to this day due to the potential it could have had. Gilligan did mention that they tried to orchestrate a VR experience for the PlayStation at one point, an idea that fell off a cliff. “There have been quite a few attempts at video games. Some of them kinda sort of made it to market. We tried a VR experience with the Sony PlayStation VR headset. We did a mobile game that last for a little while,” explained Gilligan in the latest podcast episode.
Did he mention a mobile game? That he did. Do you remember a little title called Breaking Bad: Criminal Elements? If so, you’re one of a select few. This was a story-driven base builder that let players control a new character in the BB universe. Hired by Walt to work for him and Jesse, the player was asked to complete certain tasks by the meth kingpins, and they could also interact with other characters and complete missions given to them by Mike Ehrmantraut, as you slowly rose through the ranks of the criminal underworld. The game was shut down just a year after it was released in September 2020 and was considered to be a huge flop – but hey, at least they tried something.
The reason why GTA-style Breaking Bad game was because Vince and his team didn’t want to release a bad game that people only wanted to play because it was related to the series, which is very understandable. What we could have had though, the mind can only wonder.
